Audubon Insectarium

We arrived in New Orleans before lunch this morning to go to the wedding of Paul's cousin, Sarah.

With lots of time to spare before the rehearsal dinner, we decided to take the street car down St. Charles Avenue to find some lunch.

The boys had never ridden a street car before.

After lunch, we headed to the Audubon Insectarium.  

 There were many different insects and other creatures to observe.

 Jacob and Paul enjoyed the ladybugs.  There were far too many to count!

There was a really interesting exhibit that shows what it is like living underground from a bug's perspective.  Andrew and Matthew decided to relax on a giant earthworm.

I found the Insectarium to be very interesting, but there were far too many cockroaches for my taste.  Jacob got up close and personal with some American Cockroaches.

 Obviously that wasn't enough because then he decided to touch a Hissing Cockroach.  Ewww!

This termite is more my speed.  

 We all enjoyed the Louisiana Swamp exhibit, but Jacob was a little nervous about this alligator before he realized it was just a statue.

 Matthew got a close up view of the the diving beetles doing their thing.

 This little guy is real.

 We finished off our trip to the museum in the Butterflies in Flight Gallery.  We observed butterflies feeding and flying around in an asian inspired garden setting.

There was even a large koi pond.  Did you know that koi can live to be around 70 years old?  The oldest koi there was "Hoover" and he is between 36 and 40 years old.

 The docent took a lot of time with us and showed the boys exactly how a butterfly's wings are constructed.   It was a fun and informative family outing.