Today we're going to see the nearby Allerton Garden, a local botanical garden. Tickets are $45 per person, but you can save 15% if you buy them online 24 hours in advance. When we woke up and looked outside this morning though, it was pouring rain. So much so that a small lake had formed on our patio. Maybe booking 24 hours in advance wasn't such a good idea...
We made our way to the gift shop where we'd sign in for the tour. Tours are offered multiple times during the day, but knowing how hot it's going to be later, and since we're awake anyway, we picked the earliest tour they offered. As luck would have it, it seems like the early tour is less busy than some of the later ones we saw. It was only us and 3 other people this morning. One of the later tours we saw must have had 16 people at least.
After checking in, we still have a little time to kill. We brought a couple umbrellas just in case it rains a bit more. T is using it as a sunshade for the moment.
No free mosquito repellent here (unlike the Plantation Tour we took a few days ago). We were told the mosquitoes are pretty bad here, so it was highly recommended.
When 9am came around, the group headed to the bus to drive down into the valley.
The problem with doing trip reports months afterwards is you forget some of the details. I think this was an old coal storage place where they used to burn sugar cane. It kept filling with water and eventually they turned it into a pond. Add a few fish, have a few frogs fall in, and you've got your own little ecosystem down there.
Meet our tour guide David, whose nickname is Gandalf.
We looked at breadfruit.
There's a lot of fountains here on the property.
What happened to him?
We explored a few of the fruit trees.
Then we found some Miracle Berries!
A little snail.
Scratch that. Giant snail! It's bigger than Ian's hand! And let me tell you, it had a really good grip on the rock.
More of the garden.
A giant elephant ear leaf.
Bamboo garden.
Ian smacking the bamboo.
Another fountain.
Allerton Gardens has been used for filming for some movies.
We were told this portion of the river was used during the Harrison Ford movie "Six Days Seven Nights".
There's one other movie that was filmed here, and it might have been the whole reason I wanted to come here...
Check out these Morton Bay Fig trees above. Now check out this clip from Jurassic Park.
Hey! It's the same tree they found the dinosaur eggs in!
Playing peek-a-boo between the giant roots. We were ducking up and down and giggling.
Ian's teeth got a little too close to the root and he took a divot out of it. Didn't even cry though.
David told us they also did some filming in the tops of these trees, when Sam, Tim, and Lex encountered the Brachiosauros. He said when they were filming they hung all sorts of vines and stuff on it to make it look more jurassic park like. I looked through the movie, but had a really hard time matching up anything from the movie to the tree. I had always assumed they filmed that portion on a soundstage.
I forget the name, but David said it was a stinky flower.
Though I didn't get much odor from it when I took a closer whiff.
A lobster claw plant.
Ian found a papaya.
Our tour over, we walked back to the main building in the valley and waited for the 11am tour to arrive so we could take the bus back.
Thanks for the fun tour David.
It's been a habit getting shaved ice every day. Don't want to break that streak.
Ian eating my shaved snow.
We had fixins for lunch back at our hotel room, but figured why not go ahead and grab something out.
Bubba's Burgers was in the same shopping center. T and I got burgers and fries, while Aubrey got a salad. Bleh.
Ah. She was saving room for yet another shaved ice. Aubrey, I think at this point you might have a shaved ice addiction.
Saying hi to the swans as we get back to the hotel.
That afternoon, of course we grabbed our floats and relaxed in the salt water lagoon.
And played around while floating in the water.
Giving Aubrey kisses.
Oh boy.
After the sun went down, we went out and explored the hotel grounds. Checking out the fire pits.
Walking through the grass all sorts of frogs were out and running away from us. The snails were not so quick.
Hi snail!
Walking back to our room after another successful day.
Going back to the room, it was a regular thing for Ian to hide from Theresa and then try to scare her.
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