Dahlonega Butterfly Farm

This morning we snuck off to the Dahlonega Butterfly Farm, a small tropical butterfly conservatory not far from here.  It was a quick trip up past Dawsonville and down a back road I haven't been on in a while.  We saw some of the ancient buildings of Auraria - I have no idea how old that general store really is there, but it looks like something from the 1800's.  Anyway, right around that area is a small butterfly farm.  We parked the car and walked into the main building entrance, where there was a small gift shop and a side room that we were escorted into.  There, the lady who runs this location gave us a brief lecture about butterflies and pollination, and showed us some cocoons and several chrysalises hanging up inside a box, each one ready to open to reveal a new butterfly.

Once she was done sharing with us, it was time to head out to the greenhouse.  It was a nicely arranged glass structure with a cement walkway inside that went in a circle in and around tropical greenery.  Chairs were positioned amidst the small area, and of course fluttering around that structure were all kinds of butterflies.  You can see a few of the pictures we took here below.

This is the view of the building from the outside.  It was pretty warm inside the butterfly conservatory, but it was also pretty hot outside too.  Nevertheless, we explored the grounds somewhat, walking a path lined with plants designed to attract butterflies, which you could see a few of here and there.

It was a pleasant stop.  We had seen it all fairly quickly, and soon enough we were on our way back to Dawsonville for some chores.  But we were glad to have made the trip.  We remembered one Butterfly Rainforest in Florida that we stopped at some time ago, with memories of the butterflies landing on Maddie's face - that was a pretty amazing stop.  And there was a more recent trip to the butterfly conservatory inside the Tennessee Aquarium, which was also really awesome.  This location wasn't as big as those, and didn't have quite as many butterflies, but it is about twenty minutes away or so, and made for a nice little getaway.

 In Dawsonville, we picked up a few items, one of which you'll see later on here on the blog, and right after that we were on the way home.  It was a quiet day after that - we had lunch, and then I sat down to watch "Encanto" once more, this time with the hope of finding a good sermon to go with the movie, as we're doing an "At the Movies" theme for KidPak soon in July.  Maddie was playing on the Nintendo Switch some, and I was on the treadmill.  We had dinner later on, and after that watched a few more episodes from "The Book of Boba Fett."  Episode II of that show is so good!

It was a quiet day.  But we had a nice little adventure in the morning before coming back home, and we closed the day out with our usual reading from "The Mysterious Benedict Society," and of course prayers. We've got an earlier day tomorrow, so it's off to sleep now.  Instead of counting sheep, we're counting small butterflies, fluttering overhead...