PapaMarshall

Day 3 – 4/23/22 – Wandering the Garden

We began our day at breakfast

where we were seated right next to a pond
and entertained by a pair of swans
Watching them walk across the grass I couldn’t help remembering the scene from Jurassic park where a flock of dinos crossed a meadow with that same gate.
While we were eating the Koi, and several birds congregated at the far edge.
Sure enough, shortly thereafter the nice lady showed up with their breakfast.

We finished breakfast just in time to hit the road for our tour of Allerton Garden.

Allerton Garden is one unit of the National Tropical Botanical Garden. Along with other units on Kauai, Maui, and in Florida the NTBG engages in conservation, education and research into tropical plants. Allerton Garden is on 83 acres purchased by Robert and John Allerton in 1938 and became part of the NTBG when congress established the garden in 1964.

Visiting Allerton garden is possible on a guided tour. Our guide, Dr. Bob is a (very) soon to be retired dentist who has been volunteering at the garden for over 30 years. He was a wealth of information about the plants and animals we saw and a great story teller recounting the history of the garden and the personalities involved.

We arrived, checked in, and were given some time to peruse the gift shop (so kind of them).

Not everything in the shop was for sale.

Then we loaded a 22 passenger bus and headed up into the garden itself.

Here are a few of the photos we took as we wandered thru the paths on our 2.5 hour tour.

These are not palm trees.
A leaf stem from a ‘Dogbone tree’
Spot the toad.
Dr. Bob
Dr. Bob gave an interesting lecture on bamboo and the role it played in cultural development.
Sampling raw chocolate
One of three giant fig trees.
Some scenes from Jurassic Park were shot here. Apparently they left some props behind.

I’m not sure I like this picture format. It’s fine for a computer but not if you’re viewing on a phone. So let’s try a slideshow format.

  • These are not palm trees.
  • A leaf stem from a ‘Dogbone tree’
  • Spot the toad.
  • Dr. Bob
  • Sampling Raw Chocolate
  • Some scenes from Jurassic Park were shot here. Apparently they left some props behind.
  • One of three giant fig trees.

In addition to plants the Allertons were obsessed with water. In a trip to Spain they saw and appreciated the Moorish concept of running water and its benefits, both for cooling the air and for refreshing the soul. Here are a few of the water features we encountered.

The shape of this manmade stream is important. As the water flows from the wider sections to the ‘necks’ (and over a slight rise at each neck) it creates a rhythmic ‘beat’ – at 60 beats per second – creating an overall calming effect as the observer’s heart slows to match the beat of the water.
This fountain is in the middle of an outdoor ‘living room’ (the dining room is thru the gazebo).

From the garden we went straight to the airport to return our car (after stopping to fill with gas and grabbing some lunch). Since the fun time of the trip is over, we won’t be needing wheels any longer. Then we waited a half hour while Uber tried to scare up a driver, and for him to get to us. We arrived back at the resort about 2:30 and spent the next couple of hours lounging out by the pool, reading, napping, recovering from our stressful morning.

Then it was time to change for the welcome reception/dinner. It was good to gather with the others from the bank and to greet old friends that we haven’t seen in the past couple of years.

After dinner we returned to our room to read, blog, and sleep.

The real convention stuff starts in the morning with breakfast and a general session on ‘unmasking cybercriminals.’ The speaker is Theresa Payton, first female White House Chief Information Officer and star of the TV series “Hunted.” Should be interesting.

Better get rested up.  TTFN.