While in line to acquire our tickets, we decided to add on the Cockerell Butterfly Exhibit tickets - we both love butterflies - and also walked out with a membership to the museum. I love museums and a membership not only supports the museum, but gives us inside tips, free entry year-round to the normal exhibit halls, and discounts to the special exhibits. It's a win-win deal.
We went first into the Civil War exhibit, and we came out with the same opinion: Although it was interesting, we didn't particularly care for the layout. The focus on the exhibit was documentation acquired by the National Archives, from letters to slave records, from political affidavits to picture. The first part (about 80%) was facsimiles of documents mixed in with the occasional original. We both would have like to see more originals than merely pictures of them. The second part (the 20%) was filled with relics, which were quite fascinating: clothing, weapons, buttons, tintypes, mess kits, etc. Perhaps my favorite things to look at were the sketches made by soldiers during the war. Some were extremely talented with pen/ink and pencils, and were filled with raw honesty. That, and learning that Jefferson Davis' wife was about 25 years younger than he was and at 58, he had a one year-old, a three year-old, and a six year-old. I just assumed his wife was older and their kids were older. Somehow a bit of humanity was added into him (not that he was a monster, but he was a farmer-turned-politician).
Afterwards, we went to the Butterfly Hall, which is always a delight. While the hissing cockroaches and spiders creep me out a bit, entering the glass-enclosed butterfly habitat is like wandering into a child's idea of a fantasy. Beautiful butterflies dart everywhere, splashing their color across the sky. They delicately flutter to and fro, landing on plants, landing on people, constantly moving around. As a budding nature photographer, I was in heaven and took several good photos. One cannot help but clasp one's hands in delight as a butterfly flits by, followed by one, two, three, four more.
Before leaving the museum area, we stopped to eat a picnic lunch at Hermann Park. I filled our basket with simple goodies: bread, cheese, apples, and sausage (how European of us). As we walked around the park, I thought about writing a code of conduct for a park. An example would be: Rule 1 - No Smoking. Enjoy the clean air instead. Rule 2 - Don't play loud music, for not everyone shares your taste. Rule 3 - If you let your children run around, please make sure they have the decency to keep their volumes at an appropriate level so as not to disturb others. I think people forget about common decency when at a "public" park, believing that they are free to do what they wish. That is true, but don't forget that you're not alone.
Enough rambling. We ended the day in the Nassau Bay/Clear Lake area. I was ready to go home, but PIC loves to pick wild blackberries, and he wanted to go to his patch. So we did. This place shall remain a secret so that it won't get picked through every year. I wanted to just take photographs, but the picking of blackberries is addictive. I had to find more! :-) Tonight, we shall have blackberry shortcake.
I don't have to wait until next week - tomorrow I shall wander again. My family and I are going to partake in the Texas tradition of taking family photographs amidst the bluebonnet fields near Brenham/Austin. I'm a native Texan, yet have actually never done that, so I'm looking forward to it.
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