Corpse Flower Lois: July 22, 11:15 PM

Lois waited until we got back from vacation to start blooming, so we decided to pay her a late night visit tonight. Hundreds of other folks had the same idea.

She's really lovely, and quite impressive. To me, she smelled like cooked cabbage - very strong smelling cabbage. To another person in our group she smelled like garbage. They had the Stink-O-Meter at 4 out of 10.

A couple of tips. Buy your tickets online. You'll pick them up at the Museum. Even better - become a member. The member line was much shorter at ticket pickup, and the member ticket price is half of the regular price of admission.

Buy your ticket for early in the day. A little secret is that you can enter the Butterfly Center, where Corpse Flower Lois is,  any time after your ticket time, and if you have an earlier ticket, you go straight to the head of the line. Our example - we had 10:30 PM tickets, but a friend with us had a ticket for 8:30 PM. He met us for dinner and when he showed his ticket to the HMNS staffer at 10:15, he was told to go to the head of the line. He graciously stayed in line with us.

Be prepared to wait in line for at least hour, once you pick your ticket up at the ticket counter. You'll wait and wait and wait (with very nice, patient people in line with you) and then enter the Butterfly Center and snake through a line up the stairs through an arthropod exhibit and around to Lois. They let about 20 people at a time into the room where Lois is. They'll make noises about you moving on, but the reality is you can stay awhile and take photos.

It's very warm once you get into the Butterfly Center. That smell you smell is likely your neighbor - until you get to Lois. She definitely has a distinctive smell that apparently is getting stronger by the hour.

Everyone in my group had a great time and we all agreed we'd try to go again, even with the long lines.

If you aren't following @CorpzFlowrLois on Twitter, why not? I have to admit, I was slightly disappointed that real Lois did not talk to me and give me some sass. I was sorry we did not see Zac or Red Shirt Guy. Maybe next time! When she fully blooms, she is expected to be that way - and with her strongest smell - for maybe 12 hours. The museum is open 24 hours a day, so keep an eye on the HMNS blog and follow Lois on Twitter, and plan your visit.

Oh, one last tip - parking is a problem. Try the Rose Garden parking. It's free, and there were spaces there. It was probably 3/4 full at 10 PM.