I would have liked this story better if you said "a scattered layer of
puffy clouds developed at around 4000 MSL, so I called approach for a pop-up
IFR clearance so we could go cloud dancing..."

A pop-up IFR clearance to go cloud dancing? We're talking about
dipping a wing in a puffy cloud the size of a semi-truck, separated by
1/2 mile from the next nearest similar-sized cloud.

Get the rating!

Although there are many valid reasons to obtain an IR, IMHO your
example isn't one of them.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"