Sunday, September 21, 2008
A northwest surfer dude
While we were on our RV trip back in August I discovered this statue near the beach in Ocean City, Washington State. The northwest isn't as well known for surfing as Southern California or Hawaii, mainly because our water is very cold in comparison, but these guys don't exist all over the place either and are best known as living here in the NW. I couldn't resist taking a few photos of this Surfer Dude as we were leaving town.
He is cut out of a tree trunk with the surf board added, and stands beside the reader board sign of a beach side motel. Chain saw carving of trees into decorative sculptures is pretty popular up here and Grays Harbor County, where this motel is located, is well known for lumbering and chain saw carvers. Does anyone want a three foot tall bear that holds your Charmin (or whatever brand you like) toilet paper roll? They sell them around here.
Here is a little different angle view of the Dude. That is a pretty good nightly rate listed on the motel's reader board behind him. I can't speak to how good the place is as we have not stayed there, but from what I saw it isn't one of the newest nor fanciest places on the beach, but for $45 a night, I think I would be willing to stay there. It does appear to be clean.
A closer view of the Dude. Notice he is showing the traditional Hawaiian hand sign. Also notice the fog in the trees behind him and the motel. The ocean is out there and the morning fog hadn't yet burned off as we were leaving to drive home. And some people doubt that there really are Sasquatches living in the wild!
He is cut out of a tree trunk with the surf board added, and stands beside the reader board sign of a beach side motel. Chain saw carving of trees into decorative sculptures is pretty popular up here and Grays Harbor County, where this motel is located, is well known for lumbering and chain saw carvers. Does anyone want a three foot tall bear that holds your Charmin (or whatever brand you like) toilet paper roll? They sell them around here.
Here is a little different angle view of the Dude. That is a pretty good nightly rate listed on the motel's reader board behind him. I can't speak to how good the place is as we have not stayed there, but from what I saw it isn't one of the newest nor fanciest places on the beach, but for $45 a night, I think I would be willing to stay there. It does appear to be clean.
A closer view of the Dude. Notice he is showing the traditional Hawaiian hand sign. Also notice the fog in the trees behind him and the motel. The ocean is out there and the morning fog hadn't yet burned off as we were leaving to drive home. And some people doubt that there really are Sasquatches living in the wild!
Labels: Hawaii, Humor, Photos, RVing, Small towns, Trips to see things
Monday, August 25, 2008
Another sunset over the Pacific
I have been playing in Photoshop and came up with this sunset photo from last October. It is the same Pacific Ocean as the previous ones have been but about 2600 or so miles away, to the south and west. This was taken on the Hawaiian island of Maui, a few miles south of the town of Lahaina while Pat & I were visiting there last October. I think sunsets are nice regardless of where they are from. And Hawaii is a pretty nice place to visit.
Maui sunset.
Maui sunset.
Labels: Hawaii, Photos, Sunrises and Sunsets
Friday, March 14, 2008
Last day in Hawaii
I'll go ahead and post the last of our Hawaii trip. Getting these posts finished has drug out quite awhile, since the trip was the last week of October but there have been other things going on and I did have a lot of photos I wanted to post. Both Pat and I were taking them and I've mixed them up here in the posts about the trip. Between us we took well over a thousand photos on the trip. These photos cover a bit about our last full day on Maui and a couple from the trip home to Seatac Airport in Seattle, WA. We didn't get "home" until the next day as our plane arrived too late to take the last shuttle bus trip home so we stayed overnight in a hotel near the airport, coming home the next morning.
While there we ate out for almost all of our meals and always at a different place. This restaurant was related to another where we ate dinner early in our trip. Both were good. We ate breakfast at this one which was near the post office in Kehei. There are a lot of interesting signs posted here and one that caught my interest was this one-
I tried to talk Pat into taking these lessons but she said "No."
Here is another of the Koi fish in the pool at the garden near our Bad Ass Coffee shop and the open air shopping beside it. This was a nice, shady place to sit and drink a mocha while people watching or fish watching. Or both.
We did a lot of looking around that day but have already covered part of it in photos. In the late afternoon, just before sunset, we got into our swim suits and walked across the street to Kamaoli Park 3. Pat's grand daughter is quite a good volley ball player and there were some boys there playing a version of volley ball with a ball that was about 2 feet in diameter, so she took some photos of them. I took a photo of her taking photos of them. I like to look at her better than I'd like to look at them.
Then we went down to the actual beach where there already were quite a few people gathering to wait to watch the sunset. While there, Pat took a photo of me taking photos of the sunset-
It did seem a little darker than these photos make it look but that is because the camera exposure system is trying to make it look like a normally lighted photo. The one of Pat did still have some of the late day very warm toned sunshine on her.
This is looking down the beach to the north. The clouds above the West Maui Mountain Range are catching the rays of the setting sun so are contrasting nicely with the deeper blue of the sky.
Here is a closer shot of Pat & I with the sunset in the background. I set the camera and asked a passerby who was taking photos with his own camera to take a few with mine. The camera's flash unit was set to provide a bit of fill light so that we wouldn't just appear as black silhouettes against the brighter sky, but to keep a good exposure of the sky. He did a good job.
Here's another of Pat's where she exposed for the sunset, letting the foreground go darker. Photoshop has brought back a bit of detail in the foreground but you can see how dramatic the sky was. The light on the beach was actually somewhat in between what is seen here and the lighter beach scenes.
We were getting ready to leave the condo the next morning. Pat had been out on the deck taking photos and came walking back inside as I was taking some last photos of the inside of the condo. This one shows a good example of that mirror wall that we finally got used to but it sure seemed odd at first. It made the place look larger than it really was but in a kind of confusing way. Notice the post office mailing box on the chair, ready to mail home. We bought two more bags to check on the airline to carry things we bought home and still ended up mailing two of those post office boxes with things we couldn't get in anywhere else. A lesson for our next trip - take at least one extra empty suitcase over with us.
Pat had the window seat on our flight back and took some photos at the airport, including this one of another plane like the one we flew on. Hawaiian Airlines uses very colorful tail paint on their aircraft!
This is someplace mid-Pacific Ocean as the sun set. There is not much to see from 37,000 feet up, especially when the ocean is covered by low level clouds, but she did catch a pretty dramatic sunset and with the left wing of our plane included.
I still think Mount Haleakala is the most dramatic sight to see on Maui so am going to close out our trip photos with this panorama of the crater on Mt. Haleakala. I have posted it in an earlier post I think but it is interesting. I made it up by combining three separate photos into one, letting Photoshop Elements version 6 stitch them together into this one photo. Click on this image and go look at it in a larger size on my Flickr site where these photos are all hosted.
I love Maui as a place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. I would like to go back sometime in the future but it really is a long way to go and, until that genie builds the bridge, I can't drive our RV over so have to fly and then sleep in someone else's bed. We may go back but I think we are both glad that we did go there together at least once. It is a magical place.
While there we ate out for almost all of our meals and always at a different place. This restaurant was related to another where we ate dinner early in our trip. Both were good. We ate breakfast at this one which was near the post office in Kehei. There are a lot of interesting signs posted here and one that caught my interest was this one-
I tried to talk Pat into taking these lessons but she said "No."
Here is another of the Koi fish in the pool at the garden near our Bad Ass Coffee shop and the open air shopping beside it. This was a nice, shady place to sit and drink a mocha while people watching or fish watching. Or both.
We did a lot of looking around that day but have already covered part of it in photos. In the late afternoon, just before sunset, we got into our swim suits and walked across the street to Kamaoli Park 3. Pat's grand daughter is quite a good volley ball player and there were some boys there playing a version of volley ball with a ball that was about 2 feet in diameter, so she took some photos of them. I took a photo of her taking photos of them. I like to look at her better than I'd like to look at them.
Then we went down to the actual beach where there already were quite a few people gathering to wait to watch the sunset. While there, Pat took a photo of me taking photos of the sunset-
It did seem a little darker than these photos make it look but that is because the camera exposure system is trying to make it look like a normally lighted photo. The one of Pat did still have some of the late day very warm toned sunshine on her.
This is looking down the beach to the north. The clouds above the West Maui Mountain Range are catching the rays of the setting sun so are contrasting nicely with the deeper blue of the sky.
Here is a closer shot of Pat & I with the sunset in the background. I set the camera and asked a passerby who was taking photos with his own camera to take a few with mine. The camera's flash unit was set to provide a bit of fill light so that we wouldn't just appear as black silhouettes against the brighter sky, but to keep a good exposure of the sky. He did a good job.
Here's another of Pat's where she exposed for the sunset, letting the foreground go darker. Photoshop has brought back a bit of detail in the foreground but you can see how dramatic the sky was. The light on the beach was actually somewhat in between what is seen here and the lighter beach scenes.
We were getting ready to leave the condo the next morning. Pat had been out on the deck taking photos and came walking back inside as I was taking some last photos of the inside of the condo. This one shows a good example of that mirror wall that we finally got used to but it sure seemed odd at first. It made the place look larger than it really was but in a kind of confusing way. Notice the post office mailing box on the chair, ready to mail home. We bought two more bags to check on the airline to carry things we bought home and still ended up mailing two of those post office boxes with things we couldn't get in anywhere else. A lesson for our next trip - take at least one extra empty suitcase over with us.
Pat had the window seat on our flight back and took some photos at the airport, including this one of another plane like the one we flew on. Hawaiian Airlines uses very colorful tail paint on their aircraft!
This is someplace mid-Pacific Ocean as the sun set. There is not much to see from 37,000 feet up, especially when the ocean is covered by low level clouds, but she did catch a pretty dramatic sunset and with the left wing of our plane included.
I still think Mount Haleakala is the most dramatic sight to see on Maui so am going to close out our trip photos with this panorama of the crater on Mt. Haleakala. I have posted it in an earlier post I think but it is interesting. I made it up by combining three separate photos into one, letting Photoshop Elements version 6 stitch them together into this one photo. Click on this image and go look at it in a larger size on my Flickr site where these photos are all hosted.
I love Maui as a place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. I would like to go back sometime in the future but it really is a long way to go and, until that genie builds the bridge, I can't drive our RV over so have to fly and then sleep in someone else's bed. We may go back but I think we are both glad that we did go there together at least once. It is a magical place.
Labels: Hawaii, Pat and I, Photos, Sunrises and Sunsets, Trips to see things
Sunday, February 24, 2008
More Maui photos
I finally had the chance to go back to our photos from our trip to Maui last October and work on the rest of them. I'll split them into two posts and put up the other one in a couple of days. Here we go:
On our last full day on Maui we visited and toured the Maui Tropical Plantation. I told you earlier that there would be a lot of flower photos to come later and I've picked a few of those we took to include here. This photo was taken from the tram ride we took that toured the gardens of the plantation. I think the plants behind the sign are bananas but they might be pineapple. I am not a good plant person.
A scene from the gardens. Everywhere you look here was beautiful.
I don't know the name of this one so I just call it a yellow and white flower. There is a look that tropical flowers have that just can't be duplicated here on the mainland with our native plants.
Here is another that I don't know the name of. It looks sort of like a Bird of Paradise but I don't think it is one of those. Let's just call it a red flower.
I am pretty sure this one is a Hibiscus and as I recall it was listed as being a version of the largest of those in the world. It is big.
Another general scene in the gardens. Those are the West Maui Mountains in the background and they were enclosed in mist, like they often are. This is the "Old" mountain range on Maui.
These are coffee beans! You know that I'd know coffee beans. The Maui Tropical Plantation grows and roasts their own coffee and we brought a bag of it home. It is good and very flavorful.
Another general scene taken from the tram and this one shows the mountains more clearly. There were not a lot of ponds on this part of the Island but this one was pretty good sized and had the nice fountain.
After our tour we took a break and enjoyed a tropical smoothie. While there I took Pat's photo and she took mine as I was taking hers. We brought those plastic glasses home with us on the plane.
Here is my photo of Pat, taken at the same time as the last one posted of me.
This one is a Bird of Paradise. I don't know if they come in different colors or not- I think most of them I saw were this color. But maybe that is only the ones that I recognized as a Bird of Paradise- they may come in all different colors. Anyway, they are kind of unique and pretty.
This is my last photo from the Maui Tropical Plantation. It is just a general scene but it does show the tall windmill that seemed to be a working one.
When you next go to Maui I would recommend this place as one to put on your list of places and things to see over there. The food plants are pretty well identified and I am sure most of the employees there could have identified those flowers that I don't know, if I had asked them and written it down. But, even if I don't know what they are, they are still nice to look at. I will have one more post of photos from Maui and have already done the work on them so they are ready to post here. If you want to get a sneak preview, click on one of these photos and go to my Flickr site where they have been uploaded so they are ready to post here. I have also made a set of Hawaii photos there and will soon get them all in the right order.
On our last full day on Maui we visited and toured the Maui Tropical Plantation. I told you earlier that there would be a lot of flower photos to come later and I've picked a few of those we took to include here. This photo was taken from the tram ride we took that toured the gardens of the plantation. I think the plants behind the sign are bananas but they might be pineapple. I am not a good plant person.
A scene from the gardens. Everywhere you look here was beautiful.
I don't know the name of this one so I just call it a yellow and white flower. There is a look that tropical flowers have that just can't be duplicated here on the mainland with our native plants.
Here is another that I don't know the name of. It looks sort of like a Bird of Paradise but I don't think it is one of those. Let's just call it a red flower.
I am pretty sure this one is a Hibiscus and as I recall it was listed as being a version of the largest of those in the world. It is big.
Another general scene in the gardens. Those are the West Maui Mountains in the background and they were enclosed in mist, like they often are. This is the "Old" mountain range on Maui.
These are coffee beans! You know that I'd know coffee beans. The Maui Tropical Plantation grows and roasts their own coffee and we brought a bag of it home. It is good and very flavorful.
Another general scene taken from the tram and this one shows the mountains more clearly. There were not a lot of ponds on this part of the Island but this one was pretty good sized and had the nice fountain.
After our tour we took a break and enjoyed a tropical smoothie. While there I took Pat's photo and she took mine as I was taking hers. We brought those plastic glasses home with us on the plane.
Here is my photo of Pat, taken at the same time as the last one posted of me.
This one is a Bird of Paradise. I don't know if they come in different colors or not- I think most of them I saw were this color. But maybe that is only the ones that I recognized as a Bird of Paradise- they may come in all different colors. Anyway, they are kind of unique and pretty.
This is my last photo from the Maui Tropical Plantation. It is just a general scene but it does show the tall windmill that seemed to be a working one.
When you next go to Maui I would recommend this place as one to put on your list of places and things to see over there. The food plants are pretty well identified and I am sure most of the employees there could have identified those flowers that I don't know, if I had asked them and written it down. But, even if I don't know what they are, they are still nice to look at. I will have one more post of photos from Maui and have already done the work on them so they are ready to post here. If you want to get a sneak preview, click on one of these photos and go to my Flickr site where they have been uploaded so they are ready to post here. I have also made a set of Hawaii photos there and will soon get them all in the right order.
Labels: Flowers, Hawaii, Pat and I, Photos, Trips to see things
Saturday, January 05, 2008
This and That
I have been having fun playing with the new Photoshop Elements version 6 program and have worked a bit on one of the other photos that I took of Pat's Christmas basket of Hawaiian Protea flowers. These things are sure dramatic looking. The bouquet is now over two weeks old and the colors are definitely fading but it still looks good. I think she is starting the drying process now and it will be fun to see how they end up when that process is finished. Anyway, here is another photo of the basket that was taken when they were just a few days old:
As always you can click on the photo and be taken to my site on Flickr. Most of the photos that I've posted on that site since starting my blog at the end of December, 2005 have also been posted on the blog but there are some earlier ones and a few extras that have not been used here.
I got a surprise a few weeks ago when I got an email from the Flickr site from a publishing group that does city guides asking if they could use one of my photos in an upcoming guide for the city of Sacramento, California. It was a photo of the sign on the side of the California State Railroad Museum and they wanted it in that section of their Sac guide. I wrote back that it would be okay and just got confirmation that they will be using it. They are Schmap Guides and this link should take you to their Sac guide. There is no pay for the use of this photo but it is kind of fun to be asked if I'd let them use it. It was taken with the little Sony camera while I was there with my cousins who live in Sac in April, 2006, while I was on my trip to pickup the Miata I had bought on eBay. Here is that photo:
I subscribe to a weekly RV newsletter (it is free,) Chuck Woodbury's RVTravel.com that today had a pretty cute joke that I will post here. Click on the link to see his site and if interested sign up for the newsletter. He also has a large selection of RV related books available for sale:
RV Joke
Joe and Jenny drove for miles in silence in their new motorhome after a terrible argument in which neither would budge. After many miles had passed, a frustrated Joe pointed to a mule in a nearby pasture. "A relative of yours?" he asked Jenny. "Yes," she replied. "By marriage."
Sometimes we guys are better off just keeping our mouths shut!
As always you can click on the photo and be taken to my site on Flickr. Most of the photos that I've posted on that site since starting my blog at the end of December, 2005 have also been posted on the blog but there are some earlier ones and a few extras that have not been used here.
I got a surprise a few weeks ago when I got an email from the Flickr site from a publishing group that does city guides asking if they could use one of my photos in an upcoming guide for the city of Sacramento, California. It was a photo of the sign on the side of the California State Railroad Museum and they wanted it in that section of their Sac guide. I wrote back that it would be okay and just got confirmation that they will be using it. They are Schmap Guides and this link should take you to their Sac guide. There is no pay for the use of this photo but it is kind of fun to be asked if I'd let them use it. It was taken with the little Sony camera while I was there with my cousins who live in Sac in April, 2006, while I was on my trip to pickup the Miata I had bought on eBay. Here is that photo:
I subscribe to a weekly RV newsletter (it is free,) Chuck Woodbury's RVTravel.com that today had a pretty cute joke that I will post here. Click on the link to see his site and if interested sign up for the newsletter. He also has a large selection of RV related books available for sale:
RV Joke
Joe and Jenny drove for miles in silence in their new motorhome after a terrible argument in which neither would budge. After many miles had passed, a frustrated Joe pointed to a mule in a nearby pasture. "A relative of yours?" he asked Jenny. "Yes," she replied. "By marriage."
Sometimes we guys are better off just keeping our mouths shut!
Labels: Flowers, Hawaii, Photos, RVing
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Maui Ocean Center
The aquarium on Maui is called the Maui Ocean Center and it is a very good exhibit. It is located in the flat area that is between the two mountain ranges that make the Island and of course is right on the water. We visited it on October 29, 2007 and really enjoyed our time there. I have some photos that are a combination of Pat's and mine.
This is one of the signs that greet you as you enter the facility. It shows the layout of the exhibits.
We followed the normal travel route around the exhibit which starts with the reefs, first the shallow reefs. This tank starts outside the building but then has a viewing window inside the building where this photo was taken. You can see the water line and all above the surface is badly overexposed, but I was shooting for what was under water. Some of the various colorful fish in the tank show up here as does a part of the reef itself.
A closer view of one of the many types of fish. The Hawaiian Islands are far enough from other land masses that their own type of fish have evolved. These guys are too small to cross the open oceans so had to evolve here and they try very hard to keep invaders away. Some of these fish exist only here in these islands.
Another of the colorful fish. When I was here last ten years ago I rented snorkel gear and swam with some of these fish on the reef known as Kamaole Reef #3 but we didn't do that this trip. You can get right down among most of them without scaring them away and it is fun to take a disposable underwater 35mm camera to take photos with.
Here is one of Pat's photos taken inside at one of the deeper reef exhibits. I do not know if there is "black light" involved here to give these brilliant colors or not but they sure are colorful.
A moray eel is coming out of his hidey hole.
I don't remember the name of this guy but he is a master at blending into whatever surrounding he is in. You can see that his color has changed to match that of the nearby coral almost perfectly. I don't know if he is good to eat or not but he doesn't look very appetizing to me!
I had to take a photo of the sea horse. He is small, probably smaller than he will show up on your screen in this photo. There was not much else other than sea horses in this fairly small tank so they may be at risk of being eaten by something bigger and almost everything is bigger than they are. I wish the photo were sharper but I think you can get a pretty good idea of what he looks like anyway.
Pat is a fan of turtles and they have a very nice exhibit of sea turtles that are in their own display. This shot is taking advantage of my 200mm lens to reach across to the other side and catch one of them at the edge of the water. They didn't climb out on the shore but this one did come up to the surface so we could see him. These in the display are young, only about two years old but they are already over two feet long.
This view is of one of them swimming in the tank taken through the viewing window. Of course they are very good swimmers and can stay under water for quite awhile but they do have to surface to breathe.
The biggest "tank" is very large holding 750,000 gallons of water, and has almost 2000 fish in it. There are different varieties of shark including some Tiger Sharks that are 8 or 9 feet long. Also lots of manta rays. One of the most interesting parts of this exhibit is the 54 foot long acrylic tunnel that runs through it and you can walk through, with water and fish all around you.
Here is Pat at the beginning of that tunnel. The boys a bit farther down it are standing at the windows in the floor that give a good view of the bottom area of this tank.
This is another view of the tunnel taken looking back from the other end. There is a slight bend in it, probably to strengthen it. The fish here are brought in from the open ocean, spend some time here, then are returned to the ocean and are replaced by others.
Here is a shark, I think it is a reef shark, that looks to be about 6 feet long.
And a manta ray swims by the tube where these photos were taken from.
Near the gift shop is a fairly shallow display with some very colorful fish. I do not know what this one is but it has an almost transparent look to it.
I now want to go visit the aquarium in Seattle and also the one at Monterey, California. I understand they are both outstanding exhibits. If you visit Maui, be sure to plan a stop at the Maui Ocean Center. It is well worth your time.
This is one of the signs that greet you as you enter the facility. It shows the layout of the exhibits.
We followed the normal travel route around the exhibit which starts with the reefs, first the shallow reefs. This tank starts outside the building but then has a viewing window inside the building where this photo was taken. You can see the water line and all above the surface is badly overexposed, but I was shooting for what was under water. Some of the various colorful fish in the tank show up here as does a part of the reef itself.
A closer view of one of the many types of fish. The Hawaiian Islands are far enough from other land masses that their own type of fish have evolved. These guys are too small to cross the open oceans so had to evolve here and they try very hard to keep invaders away. Some of these fish exist only here in these islands.
Another of the colorful fish. When I was here last ten years ago I rented snorkel gear and swam with some of these fish on the reef known as Kamaole Reef #3 but we didn't do that this trip. You can get right down among most of them without scaring them away and it is fun to take a disposable underwater 35mm camera to take photos with.
Here is one of Pat's photos taken inside at one of the deeper reef exhibits. I do not know if there is "black light" involved here to give these brilliant colors or not but they sure are colorful.
A moray eel is coming out of his hidey hole.
I don't remember the name of this guy but he is a master at blending into whatever surrounding he is in. You can see that his color has changed to match that of the nearby coral almost perfectly. I don't know if he is good to eat or not but he doesn't look very appetizing to me!
I had to take a photo of the sea horse. He is small, probably smaller than he will show up on your screen in this photo. There was not much else other than sea horses in this fairly small tank so they may be at risk of being eaten by something bigger and almost everything is bigger than they are. I wish the photo were sharper but I think you can get a pretty good idea of what he looks like anyway.
Pat is a fan of turtles and they have a very nice exhibit of sea turtles that are in their own display. This shot is taking advantage of my 200mm lens to reach across to the other side and catch one of them at the edge of the water. They didn't climb out on the shore but this one did come up to the surface so we could see him. These in the display are young, only about two years old but they are already over two feet long.
This view is of one of them swimming in the tank taken through the viewing window. Of course they are very good swimmers and can stay under water for quite awhile but they do have to surface to breathe.
The biggest "tank" is very large holding 750,000 gallons of water, and has almost 2000 fish in it. There are different varieties of shark including some Tiger Sharks that are 8 or 9 feet long. Also lots of manta rays. One of the most interesting parts of this exhibit is the 54 foot long acrylic tunnel that runs through it and you can walk through, with water and fish all around you.
Here is Pat at the beginning of that tunnel. The boys a bit farther down it are standing at the windows in the floor that give a good view of the bottom area of this tank.
This is another view of the tunnel taken looking back from the other end. There is a slight bend in it, probably to strengthen it. The fish here are brought in from the open ocean, spend some time here, then are returned to the ocean and are replaced by others.
Here is a shark, I think it is a reef shark, that looks to be about 6 feet long.
And a manta ray swims by the tube where these photos were taken from.
Near the gift shop is a fairly shallow display with some very colorful fish. I do not know what this one is but it has an almost transparent look to it.
I now want to go visit the aquarium in Seattle and also the one at Monterey, California. I understand they are both outstanding exhibits. If you visit Maui, be sure to plan a stop at the Maui Ocean Center. It is well worth your time.
Labels: Hawaii, Photos, Trips to see things
Sunday, December 23, 2007
A Christmas present for Pat
In an earlier post I told you all that I'd have more about those flowers known as Protea that grow at about the 2500 foot level on Mt. Haleakala. Maui Protea can be ordered to most places in the world that have overnight delivery by FedEx from Sunrise Protea Farm. We visited this farm on the same day that we went to the top of Mt. Haleakala and I decided then that I wanted to order some for Pat for Christmas. Ordering them went fine- the only problem was me deciding which one I wanted to get. These flowers come looking beautiful, then they dry to become a neat dried flower display. Due to that I thought it might be best to get one of their baskets rather than a bouquet that would need a vase, which is not provided. The basket I ordered comes in one made of bamboo wood so it should look good when the flowers have dried.
The FedEx truck arrived a bit after 13:00 Thursday, just after we had finished eating lunch. Pat's two grandkids were over for the day as their school ended for the holidays the day before. N was helping Pat bake cookies, B and I played billiards and some other games. Anyway, the kids got to see the flowers about as soon as Pat did. She recognized what they were as soon as she saw the label on the package. They should last about two weeks in very good condition, then we stop watering them and they begin the drying process. I'll let you all know later how that goes. Anyway, here are some photos I took today of the Maui Protea flowers:
This first photo shows the basket sitting on our dining room table, with the Christmas wrapping paper that I used for a background. There is one very large bloom that is known as a King Protea in the center and it has many others of various varieties grouped around it. We placed it on a small plate as the basket is not water tight, so it leaks.
Here is a closer view that still displays the King Protea pretty well but also gives a glimpse of some of the others.
A different angle showing a better view of some of the other blooms. We bought seeds while we were there that should grow some similar to the purple and black one at the center left side of the photo. However, we have learned that it is two years after planting before you should expect to see your first flower. And that is assuming that we will eventually get our sunroom built!
I've turned it a bit to get a different view of some of the other blooms.
And here is a still slightly different view.
A closeup shot of the King Protea. It measures about 4 1/2 inches across so is pretty large.
I had fun taking these photos but they really don't do justice to these amazing plants. Follow the link I included above to go check their web site and you will see other photos and what they offer to order. I don't know how well those we want to grow will do but it will be fun to try. In the meantime, we will have these to enjoy and, hopefully, continue enjoying after they dry.
The FedEx truck arrived a bit after 13:00 Thursday, just after we had finished eating lunch. Pat's two grandkids were over for the day as their school ended for the holidays the day before. N was helping Pat bake cookies, B and I played billiards and some other games. Anyway, the kids got to see the flowers about as soon as Pat did. She recognized what they were as soon as she saw the label on the package. They should last about two weeks in very good condition, then we stop watering them and they begin the drying process. I'll let you all know later how that goes. Anyway, here are some photos I took today of the Maui Protea flowers:
This first photo shows the basket sitting on our dining room table, with the Christmas wrapping paper that I used for a background. There is one very large bloom that is known as a King Protea in the center and it has many others of various varieties grouped around it. We placed it on a small plate as the basket is not water tight, so it leaks.
Here is a closer view that still displays the King Protea pretty well but also gives a glimpse of some of the others.
A different angle showing a better view of some of the other blooms. We bought seeds while we were there that should grow some similar to the purple and black one at the center left side of the photo. However, we have learned that it is two years after planting before you should expect to see your first flower. And that is assuming that we will eventually get our sunroom built!
I've turned it a bit to get a different view of some of the other blooms.
And here is a still slightly different view.
A closeup shot of the King Protea. It measures about 4 1/2 inches across so is pretty large.
I had fun taking these photos but they really don't do justice to these amazing plants. Follow the link I included above to go check their web site and you will see other photos and what they offer to order. I don't know how well those we want to grow will do but it will be fun to try. In the meantime, we will have these to enjoy and, hopefully, continue enjoying after they dry.
Labels: Flowers, Hawaii, Photos
