You smell the lavender before you see it. So as we pulled up to the Alii Kula Lavender farm, we were already a little drunk with the fragrance filling the car. It’s such a soothing smell too. It took all my willpower to not lay down on the lawns surrounding the purple fields and let the lavender breezes soothe me to sleep.
But unfortunately for me, the lavender scent did not have the same calming effect on a seven year-old boy. While I saw a place for quiet reflection, he saw open land to explore.
So we hiked around the lavender fields and then down the garden trails looking for clues on the Lavender Scavenger Hunt. You can pick up your scavenger hunt clue card at the gift shop and then set out to find the stamps hidden throughout the farm. When my son filled his card with the stamps, he took it back to the gift shop and got a lavender cookie as a prize. This was an easy way to explore at our own pace, since we didn’t have time for a scheduled tour. I made sure we didn’t leave before we tried their tea, lavender scones, and lavender brownies out on the balcony overlooking Maui. I sat there pondering how I would retire, come to Maui, and become a lavender farmer. I’m still working out the logistics.
There is no way to really share the experience of sitting at the top of the Maui’s upcountry, overlooking fields of lavender, and the valleys and ocean below. I’m going to count on your powers of imagination. Here’s a short video of a 360-degree view of the lavender fields. It may make you a little dizzy, but just imagine that it’s because you’re drunk with joy and not because this is the first video I made with my Flip camera.
I do hope that it helps you experience this little piece of lavender heaven. Enjoy my Monday dreaming and go check out Mother of All Trips this week, she’s helping raise money to build a school in Cambodia.
I noticed a frog pattern in my photos of the garden. There were frog sculptures here and there.
And then the guide pointed out this real teeny, tiny froggie, which my son immediately put in his hand. The frog immediately hopped out of his hand. I barely had time to snap this picture.
If my son had his way, he would have spent more time by the pond looking for an even bigger frog. I think he would have liked to be that boy in the sculpture.
…are my favorite. The weekdays are full with work, errands, and homework, so that by the time Friday comes around, I feel like a deflated balloon. That’s when I need to take a weekend trip, and head outdoors to get my vitamin D, sunshine fix. It turns out that these weekend mini-trips are also good for my kid. He needs to catch his breath and reflect on the difficulties on being a third grader (which is not an easy job these days).
Once upon a 
5. Ready, set, go: Rainforest. The rainforest exhibit opens an hour after the museum, and although museum employees discourage people from queueing up too early, people do anyway. For us, this was the highlight of the museum, so I don’t recommend you skip this. The butterflies are the main attraction, and they are more plentiful in the higher levels of the dome. They will land on you, so don’t go if you get queasy about insects. My son stood there for about ten minutes, waiting for the butterflies to land on him. One finally did. 
