A Violet's Adventures

Violet's best side. It's hard to look good after traveling that far!

This lovely African violet has gone some pretty incredible places lately. She started out in the Cleveland Science Center - no no, that's wrong, she probably started out where all little violets do, on a little nursery shelf with 100 of her siblings - and then she made her way to the Great Lakes Science Center. That's where we met. She was waiting for me.

Violet hung out with me in Cleveland for one day before making her way to the airport for her first flight. She was a trouper, traveling the whole way enclosed in a plastic bag for her safety. She even went through the ritual TSA pat-down. Violet went on to Nashville for a quick minute, then to Panama City, then to - finally! - Mexico Beach, Florida, where she could climb out of her plastic bag at last.

After a wonderful few days at the beach (Violet stayed indoors), we journeyed onward to Lake Seminole, Georgia. On the way, Violet dined at the Fish House restaurant, grocery shopped at Piggly Wiggly, and read the newspaper with Grandaddy in his Prius while the womenfolk shopped. Before her adventures were through, Violet also saw airports in Tallahassee, Chicago, and Boston. Now she's home - battered but happy, with a few glittery white flowers hanging on - on my desk in Cambridge.

Stories to follow.