Happy 50th Birthday Hawaii!!!

This past week, I was lucky enough to have my parents come into town to visit and "approve" of where we'll be living. I felt badly because I had to work during the day, but definitely had our share of fun in the evenings. The standing joke throughout their time here was that my mom (and dad you too) is older than Hawaii. This was figured out on the plane ride down here from reading a magazine. This joke lasted until a little boy in the hotel pool thought my mom was 365 years old. Apparently this is very traumatizing...but really, Hawaii is millions of years old...dang mom you look good for being over a million!!! :)

Bugs, spiders, peacocks, birds and alligators... I seriously never realized how petrified my mom was of anything that wasn't human. I did know though that my dad loved to tease the poor creatures...careful dad, one of these days the animal kingdom may strike back! I'm sitting here laughing out loud at how funny our excursion to Middleton Plantation was.

Strike one...While walking through the butterfly gardens my dad wanted to see how close he could get to these beautiful white herons. I decided to join in the fun, what kind of damage can a bird do to a person? Well we got pretty darn close and this heron didn't like the sound of the camera so he started squawking and proceeded to fly in the direction of my mom. My heart did jump when I saw it flying through the air towards where she was standing. I did manage to get some pretty good shots out of it!!

Strike two and snake two...This is snake number two that we saw while exploring the gardens. My dad wanted to see it move, so he decided that spitting at it would be a brilliant idea. At this point and time, my mom is walking as fast as her legs would take her away from the snake while yelling at my dad to stop..."Philip, would you please stop, it's going to come and bite you and Beth and I aren't strong enough to run from the snake and carry you at the same time!!!"...at which point my dad proceeded to spit at the snake again. Lucky for us it didn't move...maybe it was dead? I haven't been able to figure out if it was a copperhead...can anyone tell? Apparently they're plentiful around here.

This is the picture that we took after the snake episode when my mom stopped crying (okay, slight exaggeration) and forgave my dad. It was one of the most picturesque points at the plantation.

Strike three...After we left the snake infested area, my mom wanted to see the stables. Though I have no pictures of the stables, I do have a picture of my dad attempting to make a peacock spread its feathers. To which my mom commented that the male only does that when he's attracted to a female so he must not be all that attracted to my dad. Don't worry dad, all 5 of us girls think you're handsome!

So this is what I have learned is called a Banana Spider. Apparently it's not poisonous but its bite will hurt like heck! This picture does not do the size of that sucker justice, that thing is at least the size of a lemon. These spiders are EVERYWHERE!!!

I won't even POST a picture for you of a palmetto bug...these suckers are glorified cockroaches and are disgusting!

The only other valuable piece of information we learned related to critters was that "you only have to worry about alligators longer than 8 feet". Mom, this really isn't true...and don't worry, I'll be sure not to live near a pond.

Here are a few more pictures of me and my parents at Middleton Place. The gardens there were truly spectacular. In fact, the formal gardens reflect the style of the landscape architect from Versailles. French...now that's my cup of tea!

This Live Oak tree is over 85 feet tall, has a circumference of 37 feet, and a limb spread of 145 feet. Some of the branches have additional support to keep it from losing more limbs.

Aren't these lilly pads crazy huge?! I swear at any moment we all thought an alligator would climb out and eat us alive!

My most memorable moments though were in the pool at night. Dad and I would swim laps every night in the pool; we'd do 20 and then go sit in the hot tub with mom. One night, we convinced mom to join in the lap fun. She indicated that we were swimming too fast for her so my dad picked her up just like a football and ran her across the pool next to me. I only wish I had a camera, her expression was priceless!

Papa et maman, merci pour toute cette dernière semaine. C’était si amusant et je suis tellement heureuse que je pourrais vous montre où je vais vivre. Même que je suis quatorze heures loin de vous, je suis avec vous en esprit toujours. Je t'aime de tout mon cœur.

Have a great week!!

Love,
Beth