The Adventures of Sunsette -- Texas Travels, Part II— Apr. 12

[Alliecat]

"Aloha again everybody!  We've got a couple more chapters to share with you as mum sloooooowwly catches up with all the photos.  Lejays, you should go!  And yes, the sunset was so pretty, with colours the camera just can't capture.  Mum misses her film camera...  Jubilee, our favourites were the magic garden at the retreat center, and the helicopter tour.  And, well, this chapter was pretty cool too."


"We're on our way to Lanai!  Mum had to stay on Maui to get there cos we couldn't afford the hotel at $1000 a night, and there were no Airbnb's."



"Departing Lahaina, we see the summit of Haleakala is beautifully clear.  This was the day we should have gone there, but, yesterday's rain messed up our plans."



"Approaching Lanai...  It's a 45-minute ride on the walk-on ferry (no cars)."






"Manele Harbor, Lanai.  They make you go inside and sit down when they dock and depart.  Mum was bummed that her photos were spotty from the windows!"



"Our driver had just returned from living on "the mainland" USA and was delighted to be back on the island he grew up on and had just started this job.  We envied him...
"The entire length of the road, all the way, is bordered by Norfolk Island Pines.  What a huge planting project!"



"We're heeeerrre...  The Lanai Cat Sanctuary!  They had just over 600 cats (probably a few more by now).  Their mission is to give Lanai's feral cats a home, adopt out those they can and care for the rest, and protect native birds by keeping the cats from roaming."



"E komo mai means 'welcome'."



"There are baskets in the trees and tons of little houses everywhere.  The cats get fixed and they all get enough food, so with no need to compete, they pretty much all get along."



"Lunch in the 'catfurteria' (really. there's a sign)."



"If you go to the full-size pic on Flickr, you can read about the sanctuary."






"You can just hang out for a few hours with the cats.  Mum shot like 100 portraits of them.  And she got very scratched when she brought out the treat bags... you get mobbed, and they are very eager."




"Aloalo and I had a quickie photo before it was time to go."



"Ooops!"



"True..."

"If you are feeling charitable, please check out the sanctuary's website or find them on facebook... send them a little donation or something from their Amazon wish list.  They always need more houses and supplies.  And they're working to ex-pand the site so the cats will have more room (and they can house more cats)."



"On our way back to Maui... you can see Molokai on the right and Oahu on the horizon."



"Another spotty through-the-window pic, of Lahaina harbor."



"We saw the reconstructed remains of an old fort in Lahaina.  It was originally built around 1832, and demolished in 1854.  The blocks are made of coral."



"And here's Alo on the famous banyan tree.  It was a gift from missionaries in India and was planted in 1873 in Lahaina to mark the 50th anniversary of the arrival of first American Protestant mission.  It was 8 feet tall when it was planted and now is 60 feet tall with 16 major trunks!  The canopy covers over half an acre!  It was an absolute racket of birds up there!"



"OK here's a plan...  Since property is so stupid ex.pensive and we're gonna want a boat anyway, let's just buy a boat and live on that."



"Yes, we want to stay!"



"The clock is ticking down.  We're so sad our time here is nearly over.  How can 3 weeks have gone by??  Technically we do have one more sunset in Hawaii, but somehow this felt like the last one."