OCTOBER 2019 31
EXPLOREEAT & DRINKSTAYSHOPFr iday
6 P.M.
Mission: Relaxation
Just up the road from the National
Butterfl y Center, The Bryan House
bed-and-breakfast makes a ter-
rifi c landing place. Owner Ariel
King is a Texas master naturalist,
and the grounds are a butterfl y
hot spot featured on eco-tours of
the region.
The house itself was home
to former Secretary of State
William Jennings Bryan, a
Nebraskan who began wintering
in the Valley in 1909 because the
warmer climate was benefi cial
to his wife’s arthritis. King has
painstakingly restored the
farmhouse to its former glory,
complete with nods to both
Bryan and butterfl ies in the formstopping over to rest and refuel at the
halfway point of their transcontinental
journey. If you time your trip just right,
you might even glimpse the once-
in-a-lifetime sight of hundreds of
monarchs clinging to the branches of
a single tree. But whether you catch
the monarchs or not, you’ll soon
find yourself strolling through sun-
drenched gardens as hundreds of
butterflies of every possible hue alight
all around you. If you’re lucky—as I
was during my own recent butterfly
trail expedition—one might even land
right on you.
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