A walk through the Palm House of the Lincoln Park Conservatory is like going to the grocery store, except that that section of the building is a lot hotter than Trader Joe’s and I’m relatively sure you’re not supposed to sample any of the plants, even though they’re named things like sausage tree, red shrimp plant, lobster claw, flowering banana, and purple waffle plant (though I couldn’t find a maple syrup tree, or a butter plant for the lobster).

There was a Chinese money plant, but one Yuan currently is only worth 16 cents, so I didn’t bother looking for any that might have dropped off into the soil, besides which a sign said that a small dinosaur would feel at home in the Fern Room, so I felt that it was more important to keep an eye out for those little critters.

The Orchid House had a sign pointing to one of the flowers that said “Smell”, which seemed problematic given that, upon entry, I had been told to keep my mask on at all times, but I tried anyway, and thus can report, after a deep inhalation, that an orchid smells a lot like the inside of a mask.