Next Adventure ... Whaling!!!

Well, not exactly, but we did go to the Whaling town of Lahaina and experience some of the lifestyle of the old sailors.  There are lots of buildings still existing from that era, including the original missionary's home and the old Courthouse, now housing a museum.  The star of the party is this banyan tree covering the entire park.  Banyans send out roots from their limbs.  When the roots hit soil, they start growing and expand the tree.  All the trunks you see here are from the roots of the original tree.

Amazingly, this tree was planted in 1873 to commemorate the opening of the Courthouse and the accompanying Jail in the cellar.  It continues to grow today from this original trunk and was planted in the middle of the fort that is now gone.

At this point, we met a lovely gentleman who invited us to Jail.  Of course we said a resounding YES and followed him, camera in hand.  Basements aren't exactly the place to take great images (especially when the flash is in the condo), but we forged ahead into the cold dank darkness, pretending to be pirates sentenced to 30 days rotting in jail for public drunkenness!!!  Then he turned on the lights!!!  Four cells, still intact, were filled with artwork from local people.  We relished our time in jail, since it was probably 20 degrees cooler than outside.  Yup ... we spent quite some time looking at art!!!

Since you don't get fed in Jail, and shopping makes me VERY hungry, we headed out to find Cool Cat, a local restaurant recommended by one of the residents here.  Second story, right on the edge ... great for photography too!!

Lunch came and went ... we were starving!!!  But I did get this picture of grilled Mahi Mahi on the salad before it was devoured!!

More shopping ... did I mention it's pretty hot???  There are NO tradewinds to keep us cool, so Hawaiian Shave Ice is the next best thing.  It looks like a snow cone you say???  No way!!  Snow cone is a bad word here.  The ice is shaved very thin, placed over ice cream and covered in syrup.  Since all shave ice isn't exactly the same, we tried a new place.  They didn't have my preferred flavors ... so chocolate macadamia nut with red raspberry would be mine ... Patty got the same ice cream with red raspberry and coconut.  It was cooling ... but not as good as when I was here last.