I'm Baaack...

After being away from writing a blog post for so long is it possible that my brain has atrophied? I've stood here a while just staring at the screen and didn't know how to start.

Ah well... here goes.

We've just returned from a five week stay in Chicago, Hershey and Maryland visiting our children and their families.

After a LONG flight with a stopover in Phoenix we finally touched down at Chicago's O'Hare Airport.

Our daughter, Tiffany was waiting for us and it was more than wonderful to see her again.

She told us that our granddaughter, KC had been counting the days until our arrival.

We arrived at KC's school within minutes of the dismissal bell. It was a wonderful reunion.

Tiffany asked if we were game to see the corpse flower (titan arum) at the Chicago Botanic Garden which was about to bloom. It's supposed to give off a rather noxious odor during it's 24-48 hour blooming time, in order to attract pollinators. They bloom only every 7-10 years so despite the jet lag, it behooved us to go and see it.

The line was long, but not as long as it would get in the evening that we read there was a one and a half hour wait to see the flower.

Another corpse flower at the Chicago Botanic Garden had fizzled out a month or so earlier. That corpse flower was named Spike. This corpse flower was named Alice. They were even selling t-shirts with a picture of "Alice." I hate to think how much money must have been lost on "Spike" t-shirts.

Art loved seeing the bonsai plants with KC.

And then there it was! It was fun to see, but we really couldn't smell anything at all. I learned later that it starts to smell in the evening. I wonder if it did.

After visiting Alice for a while and taking a lot of photos, we headed home where this happy sign was waiting for us.

It was good to be back.