four years ago in April, we arrived on Maui to celebrate my birthday…
I had always wanted to go to Hawaii, but never made it happen until then…
I have been enjoying the memories that have come up in my social media…
on our way into our first hotel, we spotted orchids in the lobby…
we went to the beach to watch the sun set, got our toes in the ocean, found a great spot to watch, settled in to wait, and then had this group of people walk right in front of us to get their pictures, lol…
I have the amethyst heart that I purchased on my bedside table and enjoy seeing it all the time…
one of my favourite memories is of our time at the orchid farm… a huge space bursting with the most beautiful plants, most of which were in full bloom…
it was delightful…
there were fish and sea turtles…
saw cacao trees with cacao pods on them, jacaranda trees in bloom (purple), and the most amazing banyan tree which took up an entire block…
it was an amazing time and we enjoyed every minute… it lived up to all of my expectations and then some… so lucky this happened before covid…
on Thursday we walked instead of going to aquasize…
we had breakfast at the Park Cafe where we waited a few moments before getting our table…
I had falafel eggs Benedict without the English muffin and it was very tasty…
after that, we drove over and walked around the outside of the Diversity Gardens on the road which was clear of snow and ice… we went through the Gardens as well where most of the paths were snow free… it was cold, but basically the only frozen things were our fingers, lol… particularly when I was glove-free taking photos…
we enjoyed our half hour walk and are looking forward to more such walks as the weather improves;-)…
we arrived about 10:45 am and it felt like we walked into a wall of moisture… clearly the humidity level has gone up considerably since we were last here…
there were a good number of people in the space, but it didn’t feel crowded…
the waterfall is still spilling into the walkways, but it seemed at a lesser degree…
the plants are visibly growing and are lush and bright, even on a partially overcast day…
they seemed so much happier than on my last visit, when many of them looked like they might not survive…
lots of different flowers blooming throughout both the tropical and Mediterranean biomes…
every walk through the biomes brings something different and interesting… can’t wait to see what future visits will produce…
they are making improvements all the time… it looks like they may soon have machines so you can purchase your ticket without standing in line…
we had a lovely time walking through the biomes… it was quite warm and humid in the tropical biome and there weren’t too many people when we arrived around ten am… by the time we left, just before noon, the place was starting to fill up…
the gardeners were working in the space cleaning up fallen leaves and checking the temperatures around the various areas… had a lovely chat with one of them…
I seemed to focus on orange flowers this time;-)… and I was happy to see the coffee beans even though I don’t drink coffee, lol…
love the banyan tree and got shots of a few others… can’t wait to watch them as they grow… and I found a couple of banana trees…
the waterfall is adding a lot of humidity to the space…
got a nice shot of the other direction from just under the waterfall…
and a view from the catwalk…
looking forward to more visits and to watching the areas change and grow…
the trees have been stunningly beautiful over the last while…
quite a bit of that time the sky was gray so even though it was lovely, it didn’t make for any great photos…
the last few days the sun has been shining brightly…
this frost appears to be rime frost…
from Weather Lab:
“With rime, the moisture comes from freezing fog water droplets that turn directly from a liquid state to a solid state, or through direct freezing. On the other hand, hoar frost occurs on a clear, cold night where water vapor sublimates: transitioning immediately from a gaseous state to a solid state.” Jan 5, 2021
herbiggirlpants 