The Plantation

This is our last blog about our trip to Hawaii! On one of our vacation days we went to a place called "The Plantation." We saw so many more things than just these pictures, like how to open a coconut, Macadamia Trees, and a myriad other plants growing in the islands. We had one of the best lunches EVER (no joke, Jesse even took a picture of my Mahi Mahi dish when it arrived!):
and then we took a cool little train around the Plantation to see all sorts of plants native to the islands:
My favorite parts were the orchids (my favorite flowers), which grew at the Plantation with no soil simply on top of the ground (totally cool). Here are some of the gardeners working on giving the plants support to grow without soil:
Then there were the coffee trees, which had all ages of coffee beans growing. The Plantation harvests the beans from these trees and makes some delicious coffee varieties which they sell in their gift store. I have never seen coffee trees before and thought they were really cool:
There were also beautiful bougainvillea bushes covering the outskirts of the Plantation. They were so bright and beautiful and truly "riotous with color" just like in the classic novels. What a treat to see all of the flowers with the rainforest mountains behind them and the bright sky!
Finally, here is a picture of me with my oldest nephew, Tyler as we were just walking around and having fun :-)

Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company

In the town of Lahaina is the restaurant Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company. The entire family stopped in and had a fantastic dinner overlooking the water. Here is a picture of the family:
And here are some pictures of the sunset from our table:

World's Largest Banyon Tree

In the little town of Lahaina, Maui grows the world's largest Banyon tree. These trees grow huge branches that reach the ground and then those branches grow roots and become a part of a huge tree system that is all one tree. This tree was just amazing. We took some pictures of Austin before we realized we weren't allowed to climb on the tree. Oops! At any rate, here are the pictures of the world's largest Banyon tree - and yes, every piece of plant that you see in these pictures is all the same tree.

Luau in Maui

Yes, I'm still blogging about our trip to Hawaii. We did so many fun things! For example, the entire family attended a beautiful luau, in which we saw some fantastic dancers and enjoyed island cuisine while the sun set over the ocean behind us. It was so much fun! Here are some pictures of the dancers in their native costumes, and of course the fabulous sunset:
And my dad and our nephew Jordan sitting at the table during the "fire dancer" part of the show (which was the coolest and of course we didn't get any pictures of him):

Maui Zipline Tour

On our third day in Hawaii, Jesse and I went on a zipline tour. It was really fun and the scenery was beautiful. It was not nearly as scary as we expected, either! Here we are getting all our gear ready:















And here I am on some of the ziplines:















And here is Jesse:

























































This was just so much fun~ We highly recommend you try it if you have the chance! Here are some views from the tops of the ziplines:

The Road to Hana

So, finally, here are the pictures along the coastline from our drive to Hana. The road extends 52 miles along the backside of the island of Maui, and contains dozens of one-way bridges (the road was too narrow to allow more than one car at a time in most places), innumerable switchbacks, and some of the most beautiful coastline views we have ever seen. The road was narrow and winding, and many times we were bare feet from falling down the almost vertical cliffs into the water below. Here are some pictures we took as we drove through the jungle: