Hannah’s and my trip to Pennsylvania is ending – just one more day before we return to Maine on Saturday. Our only agenda item for this trip was a visit to Hershey Gardens. After days of rain, the weather finally cooperated today. The trip’s highlight was the Butterfly Atrium, which features butterflies worldwide. A mini tropical paradise, the butterfly enclosure was magical. Hundreds of butterflies – not a single one familiar to me – fluttering about. We could have spent the entire day in this one room.

A Paper Kite butterfly.

The ventral or underside of a Common Morphos.

The dorsal side of a Common Morphos.

An Owl Butterfly (top).

Photo credit: Hannah

Photo credit: Hannah

Photo credit: Hannah

hannah and susan

After the butterfly atrium, we wandered the gardens. My other botanical garden experiences were so different from this one. While beautiful, Hershy Garden was formal without the variety of flowers and scope of gardens found at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. The Butterfly Atrium made the trip more than worthwhile.