Thursday December 29th - Garden Tour

We've had a few days in a row of blustery overcast mornings.  The forecast looks clearer for our second half of the trip, but so far the mornings have been nice and low key, just coffee on the lenai and watching a few birds wander around the lawn as I update the blog and wait for everyone else to wake up... or in this case, come back from the gym.  Our resort has a small gym by the pool which quite a few people like to use right when it opens in the morning... G loves to go with D and hop on the elliptical for a bit, then they do a quick dip in the pool before they shower up and get ready for breakfast.  With the frequent passing rain showers this morning, I opted for my yoga inside before having my coffee.

My view in the mornings from the lenai.

We had a 9:00 arrival time scheduled for a garden tour, so I ate breakfast in the room and D found a bakery to stop at on the way for himself and G.  This is a small bakery we'd never noticed before because it is a block off the main highway through Kapa'a, but D had an extensive conversation with the owner and bakers... they said they could make a special batch of crosants for me without egg wash if we call the night before.  We plan to do so at some point on this trip.

Our self guided tour of McBryde Gardens began with a bus ride from the visitor's center to the center of the garden.  Along the way we stopped for a view of Allerton Gardens.

The paths of the McBryde gardens run roughly 15 minutes from the center drop off point.  It had been raining quite a lot the last few days so the paths were quite muddy.  Being on the first bus up meant there were very few people, which gave us the opportunity to stay around various spots without much interruption.  The spot I found most interesting was this stick house sculpture.


                                       
I set up my tripod and shot several shots with both my pinhole cameras, as well as walking around and capturing some different angles with the DSLR.

This is from inside the stick house, looking straight up.  Fingers are crossed that my pinhole exposures yield something interesting.

The lower valley field had several massive trees around the edge.

I love the root structure of the banyan trees.

These trees send out "air" roots, which reach down towards the ground.

While walking around the grounds we spotted 3 Alae 'ulas from a distance.  They are an endangered waterfowl species, and according to our bus driver there are only about 800 left.  Last year I spotted one in the Smith Family Gardens and spent a long time photographing him, so I didn't feel any urgency to stop, put my gear in the mud, and pull out my 300mm in bad lighting.  (I also spotted 6 more from the window of the bus on the way back to the visitor's center, as well as a chukar - which I  enthusiastically pointed out and probably confused the poor guys sitting on the bus behind me with my sudden outburst)

We spent about 2 hours just in the north half of the gardens, and after a few passing rain showers the trail conditions were only looking worse, so we decided to head back to the tram pickup and catch a ride back to the visitor's center.  

As we gathered ourselves together at the visitor's center, we were approached by a Moa, one of the many chickens you can find roaming around the island.  Their feathers are just amazing.

Thankfully we had the forethought to bring a change of shoes, so we were able to get out of our muddy stuff and head straight to lunch from the gardens.  We decided to eat at Gaylords, which is located in the Kilohana Plantation near Lihue.  Their restaurant tables are set around a central courtyard area.

They have some of the best mai tais.

G and I split a caprese salad... theirs has a vanilla infused balsamic drizzled over the top along with the traditional olive oil and sprinkle of course salt.

My lunch was the grilled fish of the day, which in this case was grilled monchong, with a topping that included pickled diakon and carrot and a blend of sauces. Their food has always been terrific.

All the walking today and the lovely lunch we were all a little tired so we headed back to the condo.  I took a short nap and G wanted to head out to the pool.  After my nap I went out to check on her, and shortly after that a larger rain cloud moved in.  This was more than just a passing rain shower, so we cut pool time short and headed in to clean up and relax in the room.

Lunch was so late and filling that none of us really felt like heading out to dinner, so we just snacked on the fruits and stuff that we had in the room and kicked back with a couple of movies while listening to the heavy rain showers pass outside.