Rolled out of bed for a dentist appointment this morning. After, worked to get Jen and the kids (sans Betty) into the car. Why?
During a midnight feeding, I discovered that our local Titan Arum was in bloom.
We went to see a flower.
What?
The Titan Arum is the world's largest flower, and it's also fairly endangered. Our local college (WSU Vancouver) has one. Actually, it has 4. Due to a "watering mishap" many years ago, the poor thing exploded from overwatering and grew into 4 clones in the same pot.
This flower is called the "corpse flower". When it blooms, it supposedly emits an unmistakable and strong odor of rotting flesh (thus summoning flies, its main pollinator).
This 4-way one is fun because you can see all 4 stages of its lifecycle--
1) all the way under the ground.
2) A single leaf (yes, that big 15-foot palmy thing is ONE leaf)
3) A gigantic flower
4) Seeds
So, we dropped everything to see the flower because it started blooming at 4 PM yesterday and only blooms for about 24 hours. Full disclosure, the thing wasn't VERY open anymore, and didn't stink anymore. Apparently that's only when it begins blooming. Too bad.
Nevertheless, when you get a chance to see a Corpse Flower, drop everything and go.
We grabbed some Grimace Shakes afterwards (meh), and then it was time for me to spend all day in the car.
I drove to Wilsonville to swap back nephew Garrett's 4Runner for our Flex.
Then out to Pacific City to pick up Betty who has been having the time of her life at her cousins' house.
...I got a call from Garrett about a half hour after leaving his house-- I left my wallet in his 4Runner. Yikes, now my plans for picking up lunch and maybe some car snacks were ruined.
Without something to drink or munch on, I got pretty sleepy on the way to the coast. I ended up taking a half hour nap off the side of the road somewhere in the coast range.
By the time I got to Pacific City, I think the cousins were pretty done with Betty, but she sure had a great time. Betty's stuff was all packed and ready by the door. Glenn and Megan are so sweet to take Betty in for the week. That was super awesome. Betty lost a tooth today, then LOST it in the yard. Betty was super upset and a bit traumatized that we were driving away from the house without that tooth. How would the tooth fairy EVER get it?
Leaving the house, I asked Betty if she had gone to the beach this week. She said they had never even offered, but she wished they had. [leaving our house 4 days ago, Betty was whining, "I don't wanna go to the beach". hmm.] So, 30 seconds later, Betty and I were at the beach.
It was sunny and warm, but super windy. We still had fun. I got to splash my feet in the water. We made a sand-mountain. Ran around a bit. Then took off for home.
Betty whinily asked me questions all the way home as my patience slowly wore away.... but I love her and she's cute.
We rendezvoused with Garrett on the way home and, with cash in hand, got Jersey Mike's subs.
Then home at 8 PM to bottle and snuggle Ida. That was a long day on the road.
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