Dan's Greenhouse

Location: Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, USA
Address: 626 Front Street #4
Date: Feb 2017
Website: www.facebook.com/DansGreenHouse

  Front Street in Lahaina is filled with many shops and restaurants.  One of our favourite places to visit when on the Hawaiian island of Maui is Dan's Greenhouse.  We leave Front street and hurry up the stairs to the top floor.  The shop is filled with exotic plants, birds and usually one or two mini-pigs.

  There are Fuku bonsai trees and other plants just waiting to thrive under the Hawaiian sun.  As tourists we were not looking to take a plant home and didn't think customs would let us anyways.  We came to spend a little time with the wild animals who seem to enjoy seeing us as much as we enjoy seeing them.

 A black palm cockatoo was sitting by the window.  It looked as if he was in charge of flipping the OPEN sign at the end and start of each day.

    In the next window sat a beautiful female eclectus parrot.  These parrots have extreme sexual dimorphism.  The female is bright red and the male is bright green.  Easy to tell them apart, but people used to think they were two different species.

  In a small little pen in the middle of the store were two little piggies.  They were so cute and were wearing floral leis.  These are known as Göttingen mini-pigs and grow to be about 35 kg as adults.  The myth of the teacup pig isn't true.  Be careful if buying a pig as a pet as you don't want your little cuddly piglet to end up being a 200 kg plus porker.  These two little guys grew on us while we were visiting, but only in our hearts.

  As we headed for the door, one last bird wanted our attention.  A bare-eyed cockatoo was speaking to us.  It wasn't long before it had hopped up onto one of our shoulders to get a better look.  We spent some time talking with our new feathered friend until the store owner moved it back to its perch.  Good-bye little friends.  That includes all of you pigs, birds and even plants.  After all some positive words never hurt a plant's growth.

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Map of Our World

Dan's Green House

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Post # 282

Year of The Pig

1. Hawaiian Pigs
2. Babirusa
3. CNE Pigs
4. Miss Piggy
5. Miss Piggy
6. Red River Hog
7. Tamworth Pigs
8. Pig Pot at the ROM
9. Pigman at the Campbell House
10. Warthogs

  People born in the Year of the Pig are said to be thoughtful, polite, reliable, courageous and ready to help others.  They can also be naive, and self-indulgent.  2019 is the Year of the Pig according to the Chinese zodiac.  To celebrate here are 10 of our favourite swine encounters. Oink Oink.

1 ) Hawaiian Pigs

Dan's Green House is located in the town of Lahaina, on the island of Maui, in Hawaii.  They have exotic plants and rare birds as well as mini pigs.  We got a chance to spend some time with these two little guys.  Aren't they just the cutest?

2)  Babirusa

Speaking of cute, we are sorry but babirusa are just the opposite.  They have long legs, weird curvy tusks and look like all of their hair just fell out.  They are only found on a few islands in Indonesia and are unforgettable.  We saw this pair at the Toronto Zoo.

3)  CNE Pigs

When the Canadian National Exhibition comes to Toronto at the end of each summer so does "The Farm".  You can experience the sights and smells of livestock.  There are always lots of pigs and usually one big sow who spends her day constantly feeding her litter of piglets.

4)  Miss Piggy

In Queens, New York the Museum of the Moving Image has a Jim Henson Exhibition.  Miss Piggy is one of our favourite Muppets and favourite pigs.  Here she is in her wedding gown ready for her big day.

5)  Miss Piggy

This Miss Piggy is a crashed freight plane.  It can be found in Churchill, Manitoba still sitting where it crashed in 1979.  Miss Piggy the Muppet made her debut in 1974.  We have read that the plane is named after Miss Piggy because it was overloaded or it once carried a cargo of pigs.

 We think it should be called Miss Piggy because of its flat snout.

  By the way Miss Piggy, your engine is way over here.  Also watch out for polar bears hiding amongst the rocks and wreckage.

6)  Red River Hog

The red river hog is a colourful African pig.  We like its whiskers and red coat.  It turns out that we have a fondness for animals with red coloured fur.

7)  Tamworth Pigs

Based on our previously professed love of red furred anuimals you can see why we like Tamworth pigs.  They are one of the oldest breeds of pigs.  You can also see the curly little tail in the photo above that makes pigs even more appealing.  These pigs are from Toronto's Riverdale Farm.

8)  Pig Pot at the ROM

This pig shaped vessel was at the Royal Ontario Museum.  We imagine it could be filled with some sort of liquid which could then be poured out of the spout in the snout.  We didn't make note of what was listed as its intended purpose and often the museum uncovers artifacts whose purpose is only assumed.

9 ) Pigman at the Campbell House

We took this photo of the Campbell House Museum in Toronto.  The Campbell House was built in 1822 and was actually moved to where it sits today.  Looking at our photo later we noticed something odd.

There was a well dressed pig man on the grounds.  We hope he was there for an event or promotion at the museum. 

10 ) Warthogs

We took a trip to Africa and encountered many wild warthogs.  We watched them come and go at a waterhole in Greater Kruger in South Africa.  We also watched them mow the lawn in Zimbabwe beside the mighty Zambezi River.

Because warthogs have such short necks they usually have to kneel down on their front legs to eat grass.  In the video below, various African animals eat beside a waterhole until the warthogs come and take over.

  That is our list of favourite pigs.  We took part in some celebrations at the Scarborough Town Centre for the Chinese New Year.  You can celebrate and enjoy pigs all year long.

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Map of Our World

Toronto Zoo , A'Zambezi Lodge , Tremisana Safari Lodge , Riverdale Farm , Dan's Green House , CNE (The Farm) , A'Zambezi River Lodge
Campbell House , Miss Piggy
Scarborough Town Centre , Museum of the Moving Image , Royal Ontario Museum
Chinese Zodiac

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Post # 241

Maui Air Flight Over Kilauea Volcano

Location:  Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii
Address:  4050 Honoapiilani Hwy
Date: June 2010
Website: www.volcanoairtours.com

  The Hawaiian islands were formed by volcanoes.  The island of Hawaii is usually referred to as the Big Island and is home to the most active volcano.  It has been erupting for close to 30 years.  We chose to book a small plane tour and fly over this volcano.  Why not?  The volcano is called Kilauea and has been erupting for decades.  It is currently wreaking havoc on homes on the Big Island.   A 6.9 magnitude earthquake at the beginning of May 2018 took things to a new level.  When we visited it was during quieter (but still not silent) times.

  Our flight departed from Kapalua airport and it wasn't long until we were flying along the Maui coastline.   

  Our pilot was Captain Billy and he made sure to turn the little twin prop plane so that we could get a bird's eye view looking straight down at the coast.  To get from Maui to the Big Island we had to travel across the Alenuihaha Channel.  The channel is about 47 km wide and for a while there it was just Pacific Ocean as far as the eye could see in every direction.   We were glad when land came back into sight.

  The Big Island has beautiful valleys.

  It also has the Kohala cliffs which have waterfalls streaming down the side.

  And of course it is home to the Kilauea volcano.  As we approached the crater we could see steam rising into the air.

Captain Billy made sure we could get a good view.  We got closer to the mouth of the volcano.

And even closer.

  And then closer still.   We could smell and almost taste the sulphur. The small plane was completely engulphed in sulphuric gas.  Looking out the window we could just see the propellers working to guide us through the thick smoke.

   Traffic ! Traffic ! went the warning in our headphones.  A small buzzer sounded.   Lights flashed on the control panel.  As we emerged from the smoke we realized we were not alone.  Several other helicopters and planes were bringing tourists to take a look down the throat of Kilauea.

  As our plane turned sharply to give us another view, the combination of gas and turning started to take its toll.  We started to sweat in our big noise cancelling headphones.   Traffic ! Traffic !  went another warning as we turned yet again.  We felt a bit queasy.  Many people including at least one of us are quite allergic to sulphur. 

 

  We moved away from the main plume coming out of the volcano and we started to feel a bit better.  On the edges of the volcano we could see flashes of bright orange lava along with the dark grey from lava that had cooled and formed a crust.   Some groups of trees were on fire as the volcano's lava flow took them in its grasp.  We were in awe of the destructive powers of the volcano.

  Eventually we left the Big Island behind and it wasn't long before we were headed past the hotel row near Lahaina.  One smooth landing later and we were back on Maui.  Captain Billy gave us the shaka sign as we said goodbye and left him beside his plane on the runway.   He would probably be re-fueling and then doing it all over again.  We can always re-live it all over again in our memories as we watch the sun set across the Pacific.

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Map of Our World
Kilauea Volcano
Maui Air (Kapalua Airport)

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Post # 214

Mama's Fish House

Location: Maui,Hawaii,USA
Address: 799 Poho Pl.
Date: Feb 2017
Website: www.mamasfishhouse.com

   Mama's Fish House is rated as not only one of the top restaurants in Hawaii, but in the USA.  We have been lucky enough to eat at Mama's twice during our Hawaiian vacations.  What makes Mama's so special?  Well, for starters it is located on the beautiful island of Maui.  Even the Jack In The Box in Kahului gets extra points for its island location.

  Mama's Fish House is also situated on a small, secluded section of beach with a light breeze and the soothing sound of waves.

  The first time we visited Mama's we had a reservation.  If you want to ensure yourself a good table we recommend that you reserve before you even arrive in Maui.  We had a lunch reservation on the last day of our trip before heading to the airport.  We were earlier than our reservation time so we had to wait for our table.  While we waited we enjoyed the view and even spotted sea turtles in the water below.  Before we knew it our table was ready.

  We were lucky enough to be seated with a beach view (below).

 

  Mama's always has great food, great atmosphere and great service.  One thing they do on their menu is print both the fisherman's name and the location where the fish was caught.  They do the same thing with farmers to show their support of the local industry and how fresh their food is. 

  On our second visit to Mama's we did not have a reservation, but we got lucky.  Parking spaces are limited so there is only valet parking.  We drove up to the valet and they asked if we had a reservation.  Just as the valet was telling us "Sorry", a spot opened up at the bar.

  The bar is a small section where you could eat, but it is not as nice as having a proper table.

  After leaving our car with the valet we walked down the stairs and across the front of the restaurant.  On the way we were greeted by a brown anole before arriving at the hostess.  We were lucky again as now the hostess informed us that a table had just opened up.

 

  From appetizer to dessert everything was always delicious and perfectly prepared.  It is well worth the higher price tag.  Their signature dish is crab stuffed Mahimahi with a macadamia nut crust.  It was delectable.

  After enjoying our dinner we headed back out to the beach. 

  A group of people had gathered near the water's edge.  We then noticed that two of the rocks seemed to be loose.  On closer inspection we realized that once again we had found green sea turtles off of Mama's Maui shore.  These two turtles were enjoying a feast of their own.

 

  A Hawaiian green sea turtle is called a honu and is said to be good luck.  Getting a table at Mama's Fish House is also good luck and a delicious meal you won't soon forget.

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Map of Our World
Mama's Fish House

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Post # 166