May 14th Molokai sunset

This was a lazier day.  We didn't do much, and the sunset was just beautiful.

      Royal Poinciana tree.  This one was

       Fairly small.  There is also a Dwarf

       Poinciana, but it looked more like the

        Royal in my picture books.

       Molokai Sunset

May 12: Hana Highway Continued

We drove back along the Hana Highway on May 12th and stopped to view Honomanu Beach and an overlook, Ke'anae Peninsula with it's black lava shoreline and powerful waves, and an Arboretum with Eucalyptus trees and flowers.

     Honomanu Overlook

     Keanae

     Keanae

     Eucylptus trees

     Torch Ginger

     Taro Fields

Hana Maui beaches May 11th

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   Koki beach sunrise, Alua island in the background

 

          Koki beach

          Koki beach red wall

        Hamoa beach

           Hamoa beach

       Hamoa beach

          Hamoa beach

       Black sand beach by Bamboo Inn

       Black sand beach

       Black sand beach closeup

    Paul Fagan cross in Hana, weo  hiked there on a previous trip.

    Something to do while it was raining.

     Plumeria

       

Wailua Falls on the Hana Highway

Along the highway toward the Kipahulu district of Haleakala National Park, we stopped to view Wailua Falls along with lots of tour buses and cars.  I also spotted this unique torch ginger near the bridge by the falls.  Just beautiful.

             Wailua Falls

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

Gardens in Kula Maui

We took some lovely, sometimes unusual, flower pictures in Kula, part way up the volcano.  This area is where the King protea come from, that are seen in dried flower arrangements.  There were lots of gazebos to look pretty. At the Enchanting Floral Gardens we even saw some chickens.  ( see the chick underneath)

        King protea

         Hibiscus

       Silk tree

Maui Hawaii

We went to Maui and Molokai Hawaii May 4-19.  It was a little cooler than usual this trip.  Cooler than Maryland.  We haven't had a major vacation for 5 years, so it was nice to see some place beautiful.  I will be posting some of my favorites on the blog as I go through the thousands of pictures from beginning to end.

We started in Kula, Maui, halfway up the Haleakala Volcano, which hasn't erupted since 1790.

The gardens on the property were beautiful, with a huge purple Jacaranda tree, this curved garden and a terraced garden sloping down the back of the property.

The Kula Lodge also had a huge purple Jacaranda tree out front, similar to this one. 

The view from the Kula restaurant or a nearby property shows the west end of Maui and the island of Lanai in the background at sunset.

We spent much of the day starting at sunrise at the volcano, where it was quite cool and windy.  This panorama is actually made from eight photos, since the area is so vast.

There are quite a few silversword plants, that are unique to the area, up at the top few overlooks.