Butterflies and sea creatures, a day of wonderment

Susan and Michael treated me to a trip to Butterfly World and OdySea Aquarium on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. It was really a fun experience.

Susan and Michael sit on the butterfly bench with Patty Ann in the artificial rainforest. Patty Ann stuck around to watch the colorful butterflies flitter from flower to flower.

We started the day early with a trip to Butterfly World, which was great because Patty Ann loved butterflies and humming birds.

Butterfly Word was filled with educational exhibitions before you even enter the artificial rainforest. It was amazing seeing thousands of butterflies fluttering around from one colorful flower to the next.

It was fun watching all the little kids trying to get a butterfly to land on their fingers, flitting, like the butterflies, from one flower to next. This activity really put a smile in Patty Ann’s heart.

After exiting the rainforest we walked around the reptile exhibition looking in all the tiny glass environments for the elusive little animal displayed on the attached placards. Damn, those little critters are great at camouflage.

We then headed to the insect displays to learn about how big cockroaches can get. Of course, coming from Florida I know all about giant cockroaches.

It was off the the next building where the aquarium was located. It has to be one of the best aquarium I’ve ever visited. Really amazing.

The exhibits were laid out by the different environments, such as rivers, reefs, and the deep seas. It was on two floors and when you went to view the deep sea creatures you descended down on an escalator through a large transparent tube where the fish swam all around you give a total emergence experience.

Patty Ann and I sat a while to watch the fish.

Patty Ann stuck around for a little longer.

Then there were the large tank displays at the bottom of the escalator with fish and other sea creatures from different parts of the world. They even had a theatre where the whole audience seated in a rotating auditorium moved past three large tanks to learn about all the different fish and turtles in that tank.

After four hours we ended our science lesson and exited the building to head to the White Castle hamburger place across the expressway. You can’t beat those sliders.

We got back home and got ready for company. Our cousin, Betty’s daughter Cathy and her husband David moved from Pittsburgh to the Phoenix area about a year ago. They came over for some convo, pizza, and salad. It was a very pleasant evening.

After they left it was off to bed to get some rest for my plane ride to LA to see Andrew. Can’t wait.