Once we got off the switchbacks leading down from Haleakala, we stopped in a little town called Kula and visited the botanical gardens there. We really enjoyed the gardens. I loved all the flowers and trees. There were some turtledoves (I think) and Nene geese. We learned that the Nene are descended from Canadian geese. We also got a kick out of all the tikis scattered throughout.
Most of the plants were labeled with their names and where they originated from. I like having information like that. We noticed that a lot of the trees had what looked like orange bark. We figured out that it was actually an orange lichen (we think) that covered the trunks and branches.
Kula is on the side of the mountain, so the garden paths were fairly steep. We had to "choo-choo train" it to get Patrick through it. Going up and down the mountainside took a lot out of him, but it was totally worth it. There were barely any other people there and it was still early in the morning so it was peaceful and quiet.
After our adventure filled morning, we spent the rest of the day at the beach relaxing. One thing I haven't mentioned is that we could see whales from most of the beaches we visited on the west side of the island. It was pretty neat to see them breaching or slapping fins right from the shore.
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