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Sunday, January 1, 2012

101 Places to See Before You're 12 - An Insectarium

An Insectarium

Here is another example of a 101 Place that I was not sure we would ever get to.
Many zoos have Insectariums but we had not visited one since we started our 101 Places adventures.
And then we found that, actually quite near our hotel in New Orleans, was the Audubon Insectarium.

We were pretty sure Dad was pulling our leg because he took us to the U.S. Custom House.

In fact, the Insectarium is inside the building.

Look at the ginormous cock roaches.


We got to touch the millipedes.

Look at this huge! millipede!
Brennan's not afraid of insects at all, but man, this thing was big.



Example of bad camouflage.

A Roach's History of New Orleans

While not insects, the baby alligators were really cool.
I wasn't sure they were real because they didn't move a muscle for several minutes.

There was a really good "immersion" movie that we attended as well.



Finally we walked through the Butterfly House and watched the beautiful butterflies flying all around us.  We had to check our backs when we left to make sure none latched on for the ride.


From the Book:
#29 - An Insectarium
An insectarium can be a very noisy place.  It's not the buzzing of the bees or the clicking of the beetles that makes it loud - it's the squeals and screams and shrieks of your fellow insectarium-goers as they watch hairy-legged tarantulas crawling nearby or cockroaches scuttling around a pretend kitchen looking for food.  Explore the world of ants, flies, spider, bees, "walking sticks", and butterflies without having to worry about bites, stings, or weird icky secretions getting on you.  It's cool and creepy all at the same time.  Some insectariums even host bug-tasting events - sweet or spicy bugs prepared by famous chefs.  Can't you just hear the shrieking already?

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