A Flower called Perry

As mentioned elsewhere by Monsieur GZ, we took a nostalgia-filled trip down to St. Peter and Mankato yesterday. Our trip goals were three-fold...

1) In 2007, the biology department at Gustavus announced that their corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum) aka Perry was going to bloom for the first time after growing/germinating from seeds given to one of the chemistry professors in 1993. I missed it the first time it bloomed, and the 2nd in 2010. Everything came together this year and as they say, 3rd time's the charm:

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Perry did not disappoint. Although he was slightly past his peak bloom, there was definitely a strong eau de dead fish present in that room. I am actually glad we weren't there for the peak bloom a day or two earlier.

Also on the list at GAC - the purchase of some new Gustie gear as my sweatshirt/t-shirts are at least a decade old:

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Thanks, Dad!

2) EMSA (the architect/idea man behind this trip) wanted to stop at a craft brewer in North Mankato, the Mankato Brewery. We had plenty of time before the 3rd leg of our trip, so we stopped and had a sample at their tap room:

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Yes, that is a giant version of the game Jenga there in the foreground.

3) Finally, the main event - a women's hockey game between our very own University of Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Minnesota State Mankato Mavericks. In possibly the smallest hockey venue I have ever been in:

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There were approximately 250 fans in attendance, more than half of which were cheering for the Gophers. Monsieur GZ knew quite a few people in the stands. Our Gophers increased their winning streak to 59, winning 7-0, although the game was much more exciting than that score would suggest.

I can confirm that GZ was correct - a good time was had by all. Today we had plans to have some friends over and watch the Vikings play some football. My former coworker Katie and her husband Johan showed up around lunch time for tacos and sports. They brought along their 10-month old Makayla. She was even more adorable than the cats.

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Although it's close:

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Comments

Santini said…
For a minute there I thought you'd done a whole post without a photo of a cat. Silly me.

Nice story -- it's fun to hear about the same event that GZ blogged about, but from a slightly different perspective.
Mom said…
Nice GAC jacket. It reminds me of my favorite Gopher women's hockey jacket--not too heavy, slimming and full zip. Excellent recounting of yesterday's adventure (nice planning by EMSA and cute pictures from today.
PS I found a really nice black hooded GAC sweatshirt in your former closet (no zip so annoying to put on but warm and great if you don't have to take it off until you get back home.