Hana Highway Maui Hawaii

May 9th.  I really like looking at colorful peacocks, although the birds are actually quite obnoxious at times.  So when we had the chance to photograph some, I took quite a few shots.

I spotted this gardenia.  The ones in my garden at home never look this good!  It helped that it had been raining earlier, so you can see some raindrops on the petals.

                  Gardenia

Often leis are made from the white and yellow plumeria or frangipani flower.  There are also many other colors, but I've mostly seen white and dark pink ones in Hawaii.  The flower has many other names, depending on their location in the world and they smell heavenly.  

For more information, I enjoyed looking at this website, even though it is a commercial site: http://www.allthingsfrangipani.com/frangipanis.html  I even brought back some perfume made from the blooms.

            Plumeria

The Hana highway has some gorgeous waterfalls.  These were photographed with a slow shutter and a tripod to create a dreamy look.

                   Puohokamoa Falls

Shenandoah in autumn

We managed to find a hotel room at the last minute in Luray, VA for a weekend, before all the colored leaves disappeared. The peak colors are about 2 weeks earlier than in Southern MD. I searched google maps for a spot just off a back road along the Shenadoah River with mountains in view. We drove there for the sunrise and found swirling mist on the water. Lovely.

The next morning we drove to the lower entrance of Whiteoak Canyon trail. Along the way we passed an old red barn in nice warm light.

We met some photography friends and hiked to the lower falls. After hiking 1.5 miles, we learned that you need to hop over rocks to get to the falls. I managed to get over the rocks with assistance. It was worth it.