The weather in Michigan this past weekend was absolutely beautiful! It was the first warm weekend we have had this year with temperatures in the 70’s! The weekend before, we had a snow storm. Completely typical Michigan weather! Because of the snow, we rescheduled our road trip to this weekend so we could take full advantage of the beautiful weather!
On Saturday, we spent the day at Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, MI. They have a “Butterflies are Blooming” exhibit going on right now in their Tropical Conservatory. It is the largest temporary butterfly exhibition in the nation with over 7,000 tropical butterflies! It felt pretty magical with that many butterflies flying all around you! The conservatory was also pretty amazing and was filled with tropical plants and flowers. It was 85° F and 70% humidity, so it was hot! This exhibit only runs until April 30th, so if you are in the area you should check it out before it’s gone!
Butterflies are Blooming in the Tropical Conservatory
There was also a Caterpillar Room on your way into the Butterfly House!
It is so much fun to see E excited and interested in things now-a-days. I would point to something and she would look right over and try to find what I was looking at. She loved all of the butterflies flying around and all the pretty flowers. I also couldn’t get her to stop grabbing the plants!
Evelyn’s face while looking at the butterfly that landed on Grammy’s hand. She was so excited and wanted to grab that butterfly so bad!
One of her favorite things to do was look over the bridges at the streams of water below.
After the butterfly house, we explored some of the trails and different gardens in the park. Took a trip down a boardwalk path through a marsh and saw a family of turtles and some swans. Passed through the Michigan’s Farm Garden and took a quick peek at the Japanese Garden. There wasn’t much to see in the way of vegetation, because it is still so early in the spring. But, it was just so nice to walk around in the warmth of the sun!
A flower in the Tropical Conservatory.
I can’t wait to go back when it is green and all the flowers are blooming. There was something called the “Cherry Blossom Promenade” in the Japanese Garden that I would just love to see in full bloom!
They also have a children’s garden with lots of educational things to explore. They had a little fountain that E let me dip her feet into. There is a “Rock Quarry” where kids can dig for “fossils”, a Butterfly Maze, a Treehouse Village for them to climb through, and a really cool Great Lakes water feature. This was closed when we were there, looks like they were painting it, so we will have to go back to see it in action!
We didn’t even make it to the Sculpture Park, but there were many sculpture’s throughout the rest of the trails and gardens that were cool to see. Our favorite was The American Horse. A 24 foot, bronze horse, that was inspired by a work of Leonardo da Vinci. Also, this Mama Bear and Baby Bear, because, you know.
We ended our trip at The Gallery Brewery in Portland, MI on our way home. I had a nice citrus summery beer. The perfect addition to our summer-like day!
It was a great day and Evelyn is such a trooper. I am so happy that she shares our sense of adventure and just goes with the flow. It was a long day and she was as happy as could be the whole time. We can’t wait to go back and this weather has got me all excited for this summer!
I love how active you are with little Evelyn! I made your banana muffins and they’re awesome! I know it was supposed to be a healthy snack, but it was awesome slightly warm with ice cream!
I hope spring is here for good so we can do more outside! I’m glad you liked the muffins! That is totally the best way to eat them. Mmmm!