Stinkventure!

Seattle was all abuzz last week about a very (VERY) stinky flower.

It started on Monday when the Times ran an article about the giant Amorphophallus titanum that was about to flower. The aptly named "corpse flower", the largest flower in the world, hails originally from Indonesia and is difficult to coax into blooming, taking 8 years to grow into maturity.

Anyway, ours, "Waldo", bloomed Wednesday evening. A busy Thursday prevented us from visiting; however, we cleared our schedule for a Friday after work viewing and convinced our friends Fenny, Julie Ann, and Lisa to come along, too!

After a long and stressful minivan journey (four words: Seattle, Friday, holiday weekend) we made it to the conservatory and found Waldo in all of his stinky glory, albeit a little wilted. We also found our friend Claudia and her husband Buck visiting as well.

So, as stated above, Waldo stinks. But the funniest part is that everyone is eager to get a whiff. I myself was guilty of leaning in for a nose full, only to back up in disgust and then go right back in for more. Why? I'm not sure. Maybe we're trying to identify the smell (what DOES a rotting corpse smell like?). Maybe we're trying to show we can handle it. Suffice to say that while Waldo is not a treat for the olfaction, it was really more like bad baby diapers as opposed to rotting flesh. Anyway, the flower itself was very impressive and the gardeners were nice enough to cut out a square section of Waldo's flower so visitors could see the interior.

Adler and Sophie capped off the event with Spongebob popsicles.

The rest of us didn't really feel like eating!