The boys and I headed to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham today for their Bubble Blitz event. As you'd expect, there were all kinds of bubble opportunities. The boys got to decorate a card with bubble wrap stamps, make bubbling bath fizzers for the tub (we'll try it tomorrow), make all kinds of big bubbles, and even learn a short science lesson about Cartesian Divers. There were lots of delighted children throughout the museum grounds blowing touchable bubbles that were given away to members. I enjoyed finding them on grasses and flowers and trying to take pictures of that too. Really great to see the joy in the kids' eyes as they blew the bubbles and watched them take flight.
I always take butterfly, flower, and bear pictures when we're at the museum, and today was no exception. I was thrilled to take a picture of the butterfly in the upper right of the collage. It was on the flowers in the garden outside the Butterfly House. Ranger Greg was kind enough to identify it for me as a Great Spangled Fritillary. That's my first sighting ever. Cool!
It was also fun to watch one of the bears swimming...back and forth, relaxing, staying cool. We must have watched for 10 minutes. We also enjoyed watching Max the Jersey Steer get brushed by the trainers (not pictured here).
I do not remember the lily pads in the Explore the Wild swamp area blooming like I saw them in bloom today. What a delightful mix of pink and whites standing so proud in one corner of the swamp. Super sun lighting up the petals. I was mesmerized taking pictures of them for a few minutes. After a quick search, I see that they are Lotus Lilies. Both the flower and large seed pod are super interesting. Apparently distinctive to this type of lily is the fact that the lily pads rise above the water's surface instead of floating on top. The flowers are in peek bloom right now, so if you want to see them, hurry out for a visit!
We saw that Dino Days are July 17 and 18th and Engineers Day is August 14th. I suspect we'll be back for more fun then.
All of the photos from today are posted here.
Note: Post modified to update the butterfly identification from Checkerspot to Great Spangled Fritillary.
