Earlier this year, after dropping dad off and picking him up at the airport several times I asked mom the following: When do I get to go to the airport & leave on a plane? I'm tired of just dropping people off."
My answer was soon. I got to visit Gainesville Florida during the race weekend. I got to miss a couple days of school (Friday & Monday) but was able to get the absences excused because mom was going to take me to visit a couple educational places: The Florida Museum of Natural History & The Butterfly Rain forest. We didn't get to make it to the St. Fe Community College teaching zoo but maybe next year.
I finally got to fly to Gainesville on Friday morning. It was a great weather week so that was nice. We went to the races Friday and watched dad & hung out. We went over to see Kurt Bush (Nascar driver who was racing Pro Stock) several times during the weekend but every time we went by he wasn't there. Guess we had bad timing. Anyway, we headed to the museum on Saturday morning & were there when it opened at 10am. Once in the museum we headed straight to the butterflies & it was still cool, in the 60's, so the butterflies weren't as active as they would be later in the day when warmed up. It was going to be in the mid 70's. But we still got to see tons of butterflies and birds flying around and even Koi fish & little turtles that were swimming around the little pond. After the rain forest we headed out to the rest of the museum. They had a butterflies, moths, & bugs hanging all over the walls & even had a laboratory where they were making new butterflies. There were caterpillars, chrysalis and new butterflies.
While the museum wasn't huge it did have lots of neat stuff. We got to see fossils from the ancient animals that have been found around the Florida area plus they had a wall of shark teeth that you could see from both sides! They had big microscopes with slides around the museum so we could see different tiny things in the area you were exploring. They had a Native American area and a cavern with stalagmites & stalactites & a column (when both finally meet in the middle). We went into the dark cave & mom got startled because there was this big security guy sitting on the railing & she wasn't expecting him. That was pretty funny. They even had a temporary Florida Cowboy section on display with a stuffed cow.
After a couple hours at the museum we headed for lunch and then on to the races. Our friends Mr. Ralph & Mrs. Sharon were there & I love seeing them. Mrs. Sharon brought me a game called Don't Wake Daddy. It is the best game ever. Thank you Mrs. Sharon & hope to play with you again soon.Well that is what I have been up to this current month of March 2011. Mom decided we would pick up with the current stuff & add past highlights as we go. Hope she can keep it up...
Love Jake
Me standing by a fossilized cypress tree.
Info on the tree.
Huge fossil of a mammoth when you walk in the foyer.
Inside the Butterfly Rain forest.
They had benches to sit on while you wait for a butterfly to land on you.
Cool Butterfly!
Koi in the pond
Blue Morpho Butterfly (or maybe more than one I can't remember)
Feeding time
Careful where you sit.
They can hang just about anywhere.
At least they are getting their fruits.
Checking out the laboratory where more butterflies are being born.
Nice Bug display
Checking out some specimens under the microscope
Shark teeth
The back side of the shark teeth.
Fossils, fossils & more fossils
Me & some fossils
Having fun!
Mom & I & a Giant Ground Sloth
Huge sloth
Hanging Alligator
A Jaguar type animal chasing a pig like animal Don't remember the exact names.
Mastodon Fossil
The Cow in the Cowboy Display
The Column in the cavern
A hands on display of the creatures that live in the Florida area
Checking out all the creatures that live under the log.
Back to the Mammoth
Listening to Cowboy Speak.
Cowboy Work Supplies The Branding Irons
More Cowboy tools Medicinal
Back the the Butterfly Rain forest before we left to see if they were more active & they were.
Very cool to see them this close up.
I got a monarch butterfly magnet for the fridge that looks like this one.
Me & the Monarch
Also watch where you step.
Checking out the beautiful butterfly
Feeding time again
Very cool to watch them eat.
Waiting for a butterfly to land on me. Didn't happen this time, maybe next.
Waiting for the Blue Morpho Butterfly to open it's wings.
Still waiting
Got it!
And it closed up again.
Walls & Walls of butterflies, moths & bugs.
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