You know you’re a dad when can’t wait to get up in the morning to head down to your local mall and check out their new butterfly exhibit. Who can blame me? Butterflies are like catnip for toddlers. “Flutter” opened at Pearlridge Mall this weekend and will be around til July 17th or whenever they run out of butterflies. I say this because before we went into the butterfly tent, one of the exhibit workers started her welcome spiel with the fact that they have 100 butterflies in their exhibit. Then someone opened the door behind her and two butterflies flew out and made their way towards freedom (aka the food court). My wife then said “I guess it’s 98 butterflies now.” She’s a smartass. I love her.
Lemme start off with the positives. There is no way you’re gonna miss out on a butterfly encounter in the exhibit. The tent has about a 15′ radius… 20′, tops. The ceiling is also very low. I’m only 5’11″ and I could touch the top of this thing. In other words, there’s nowhere for these butterflies to go but to interact with you and your screaming kids.
As part of the initial briefing, we were warned that it was very possible for a butterfly to land on us while inside. That was very true and while it was something my daughter wished for earlier… it soon became her worst nightmare. My 3-yr old daughter is in love with the cartoon butterflies she sees on TV but apparently not real ones flying towards her face. They might as well been bats from the way she dug her nails into my shoulder. I’m not one to talk though. When one of these suckers came my way, I dodged it the way the late Crocodile Hunter jumped away from a spitting cobra. I’m not dumb… I know these privileged moths don’t cause any harm. However their size is a little too familiar to that of the B-52 bomber roaches we have in Hawaii. I had to fight every urge to kick off my slipper (flip-flop, for you haoles) and swat these bastards into the next dimension.
Now for the negative. You would think that a butterfly exhibit would consist of just cleverly bunched netting. However this exhibit was netting incased of a large plexiglass cube. The only time we got fresh air was when one of the doors opened, allowing more butterflies seeking comfort in the cool, dark shrouds fronting the Abercrombie & Fitch-wannabe store nearby. Before I knew it, I was sweating buckets which made me nervous in case the butterflies became wise to my sweet fat boy sweat. We didn’t wait for our 10 minute time limit to run out. We had already got our $6 worth, opened the door, let a few more butterflies escape and went on our merry way.
Overall it was as exciting as a butterfly exhibit could be. At the very least, you’ll get some killer shots to post on Instagram.
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