Week of April 18th 2011: Conversatory of Flowers & the Wicked Plants Exhibit

I have literally had this post half written for a few weeks now. Normally when I procrastinate a post it's because the experience wasn't particularly memorable but that wasn't the case at all this time. I've had so many changes in my life the last 2 months and it's been really nice to just live in the present, get used to my new job, and have fun with new and old friends. It's nice to be in a place where I can worry a little less and work on making the things I enjoy doing a priority. However, I don't want to lose site of my blog and now that I've given myself the leeway to not write about things that aren't as interesting, I'm really excited to share all of my other new adventures with you.

The Conservatory of Flowers is a beautifully frosted greenhouse in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. I’d driven or walked past the building so many times (it’s near Stanyan, where Fell enters the park), but I never knew what was in it until a friend told me about the Wicked Plants exhibit that was going on. We decided to get a small group together and check it out.

As the name suggests, the Wicked Plants exhibit focuses on deadly or harmful plants, some of which are quite common. There are some plants you encounter every day such as tobacco, some that you’ve read about in history such as the Hemlock that was used to execute Socrates. The exhibit had big signs with stories about all of the deadly plants they were featuring.

There were also some interactive exhibits like one where you had to guess which seed wasn't poisonous (and they had caju so I got to tell them all about how the fruit tastes since it's so common in Brazil) as well as a stand to get temporary tattoos which my friends and I had too much fun with.

After checking out the Wicked Plants exhibit, we decided to walk around the rest of the Conservatory. We really enjoyed one of the rooms that had a pond in the middle and several Venus fly traps. At one point, I was trying to look into a Venus fly trap when a drop of water from the ceiling (it was raining outside) landed on my shoulder which caused me to scream and jump, much to the enjoyment of my friends.

We ended the night by grabbing a glass of wine and going back towards the exhibit to listen to some live music. It was a really fun and knowledgeable exhibit to check out - I'm just sad it took me so long to write this post since it just ended October 30th and maybe I could have encouraged some of my readers to go see it.

So - I guess this means I'm back. I don't make any promises but I do want to get back in the saddle and share my adventures with everyone!