Plants and Ice Cream

Today's outing was to the Arboretum out west on 5. I didn't know it was a U of M thing. It's a pretty neat place, and big. Lots to see, if you're into looking at plants. Take a compass though. We got a bit lost trying to get from one area to another because the paths don't really look like they do on the map, and they wind around like crazy. But I'm happy to report that we never circled around and went over the same path twice. We spent maybe 2.5 hours looking around, then headed to the main building for a Nestlé Crunch ice cream bar from the cafeteria upstairs.

Man, my Grandpa on my Mom's side would've loved that place. He was such a plant guy, and took care of a good size garden at the jr. high school in Washington, IA, featuring banana trees and huge philodendrons with delicious fruit. In 6th grade we had to make a leaf book. You know, go around and collect a bunch of leaves from different trees and write about them. I had pretty much the same leaves as everyone else, but I was the only kid with a 3' banana leaf and a giant leaf and fruit from a South American philodendron. Everybody got a bite. I got an A.

His large yard was also full of all kinds of plants. I'd help him water things when I was a kid, or carry the snippers and things if he needed to prune something. We'd always finish the job with a nice cool drink of water from their well, pumped into an aluminum cup he kept hanging on it. That was good water.