Saturday 2-23 National Butterfly Center

Having Fun

We started the day out by go to the J-Five get together. There were a few less folks today because some people were participating in the Comfort House walk raising money for the local hospice.
 

After the get together we went to Mission to visit the National Butterfly Center. It's a 100-acre preserve for free-flying butterflies of all varieties. It has a museum with photos and signage that explains the different butterflies. Did you know there are over 300 species of butterflies?  There's a walking trail through the facility with different types of plants to attract a certain specie of butterfly. The center has its own nursery and observatory that teaches children about the different butterflies. At the beginning of our walk it was overcast so we didn't see many butterflies. By the time we finished the sun was trying to come out so more butterflies were coming out. We walked around for 45 minutes.

Before leaving the center we drove down to the Rio Grande River, it separates the US from Mexico. The last time we drove to the river it was very muddy but today it was clearer. We didn't see any hordes of people trying to get across the river but we did see a Border Patrol truck patrolling the dike and a Border Patrol boat on the bank.

National Butterfly Center

The butterfly observatory

A Monarch Butterfly

A couple of butterflies hanging out on a log

Holly Blue Butterfly

Border Patrol boat on the bank of the Rio Grande River

Before going back to the Minnie we stopped by Earth Born Market and bought a couple of oranges. The fruit and juice in the market are from local orchards and are all organic. The market also sells jellies, jams, nuts and a pecan pie filling. It was a nice little store and it is just down the street from J-5.

Standing in front of an orange orchard next store to Earth Born Market

In the afternoon I did laundry. 

Doing laundry

In the evening we went to Fiesta Village RV Park to see Shake Rattle & Roll perform. It is a four female group performing tribute to songs in the 50's and 60's. The group members are Tavie Spivey, LeAnn Bemis, Debi Comis and Brenda Spencer. Tavie is the leader of the group and performs by herself at many of the shows. During a few songs they had audience participation, a few ladies got up and did the twist while one of the performers did the hula hoop, later they got a gentleman on the stage to sing "why you always picking on me" to the song Charlie Brown. The performers did a great job of singing and joking around. The park offered ice cream one scoop for $1 and two scoops for $1.50. I got chocolate cherry and Larry got butter pecan. We had a great evening. 

Tavie Spivey

The outfits the group wore the second half

A gentleman from the audience playing Charlie Brown

The outfits the group wore the first half