Re: I'm Back!

Sounds like a wonderful trip!  Did you get pictures?

On 1/13/07, Cathy Carpenter <cathy.c@insightbb.com> wrote:
>
> Got back from Hawai'i last night. Drove up from St Louis in the
> middle of the ice storm - talk about a change of venue! Of course,
> the entire time we were away the weather here was mild, so I really
> didn't escape winter at all. Can't complain, though. It was a
> wonderful trip, even though it was showery. The only thing we wanted
> to do that we didn't do was the helicopter tour (weather). Spent the
> whole week on Kauai in a one bedroom condo on the ocean in Kapa'a.
> Visited three botanic gardens: Allerton and McBryde Gardens on the
> South Shore of the island, both part of the National Tropical
> Botanical Garden; and Na 'Aina Kai Botanical Gardens on the North
> Shore. The Allerton Garden was more formal, reflecting the tastes of
> its creator, Robert Allerton, a child of the 19th Century, who bought
> the property in 1938. He was the son of a wealthy Chicago
> businessman, who studied art in Europe and later, despairing of
> creating anything worthy of those masters, destroyed everything he
> had done, returned home, and told his father he wanted to farm. His
> father owned property between Decatur and Champaign, and put him in
> charge of it. He never lost his love for art, and was a collector and
> patron for the rest of his life. His Illinois property "The Farms" is
> now the University of IL Conference Center. His Hawai'i property and
> gardens are very much in the European style, and while impressive,
> and making excellent use of plants that thrive in the tropics, was
> not truly to my taste (would visit again in a heart beat, though!).
> His engineering of the water features was inspired. No pumps are
> used... just gravity - and this is on the "dry" side of the island.
> The McBryde Garden is contiguous with Allerton - just inland, or
> mauka (toward the mountain) as they say in Hawai'i. While a you must
> have a guided tour of Allerton, you are dropped off with a map and a
> written guide for McBryde. It was divided into four areas: native
> Hawaiian plants, plants brought to the islands by the Polynesians,
> exotic plants of the cut flower, timber, and food/spice markets, and
> finally, the palm family. We spent almost 3 hours wandering around
> (and I contributed to the sustenance of the local mosquitos). The
> last garden was almost the opposite side of the island, and is owned
> now by a non profit foundation. It was designed by wealthy retirees
> Joyce and Ed Doty and has 3 areas: a hardwood plantation, which will
> eventually help to support the gardens, a "wild" area, and a "formal"
> area which includes a recreation about 1/3 lifesize of a Hawaiian
> family settlement, an ingenious children's garden, a bog garden, a
> cactus garden, a "lagoon" with waterfalls and a tea house, and a
> maze. Throughout, they had placed bronze sculptures, some 52 of them.
> These were by Gary Price, and others who do similar work. Again, not
> to my taste, but if someone were to go to Kauai and wanted to visit
> only one garden - this is the one I would recommend. What else did we
> do? Saw Waimea Canyon, called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, found
> waterfalls for DH to photograph, lounged on the beach (when it wasn't
> raining), bird watched - sighted some of the more common native birds
> (although even they are not common), shopped, and ate! Now, its back
> to reality. Will be catching up all weekend!
>
>
> Cathy, west central IL, z5b
>
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-- 
Pam Evans
Kemp TX
zone 8A

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