480. Flowers Rock on Maui!
A trio of tiny little rocks, with mini flower carvings by nosox!

When we asked MA master carver nosox if she had any tiny little carvings that she wouldn't mind having us "gorilla-glue" onto small (1-inch) stones to take out with us on our winter 2013 "travel light" Hawaii trip, she kindly obliged with three delicate little flowers, which we have planted at very easily accessible spots for tourists traveling to Maui.

The first is almost like a little lei greeting for cruise ship passengers arriving on the dock at Kahului. It can also be done as a 2 mile walk or bus ride from the Kahului airport to the Maui Mall stop near the Whole Foods store. In any case, simply find the large banyon tree southeast of the green-signed pedestrian walkway, if cruising in, or northwest across the street from the Whole Foods parking lot, if driving in. Note the knot about 4 feet up in the middle of the Banyon on its ocean side - makai - with an RM heart off to the right and an S black cross a bit back to the left. Behind this middle knot is a small shelf holding a 1-inch shiny black squarish stone with the "Delicate Daisy" glued underneath. (Remember: we're "travelin' light" here (no box, no logbook) and there's "no loitering", so just stamp up quickly, replace the rock carefully, and off you go on your merry daisy way!)

The next two rock flowers can be found by "cruising in" to the historic town of Lahaina. We were actually planning to plant one flower somewhere within the huge 1/4 acre banyon that spreads through Courthouse Square, but that area was far too busy, so we settled on planting near another popular area attraction, the Old Lahaina luau, a mile or so further up Front Street. Just north of the luau location, along the west side of Front Street is a cute little restaurant called Aloha Mixed Plate which serves the typical Hawaiian lunch plate of 2 scoops of rice, potato/mac salad and chicken/seafood. To find the "Happy Hibiscus", perhaps after enjoying lunch or luau, sit down on the curved part of the low stone wall on Front St near the big wall that separates the luau from the restaurant. Look over you left shoulder to the large bamboo clump of maybe 10 or so shoots, with several chopped off in front. Directly behind the chopped-off stalks, between and in front of two orangish 2-4 inch diameter shoots, a 1-inch blackish triangular stone rests about 6 inches off the ground. You know what to do - pretend to tie your shoe!

Finally now, off to a peaceful little spot tucked away on a side street a few blocks back south along Front St. to near where "Jesus Is Coming Soon". Go south/southwest on Ala Moana to get to the Lahaina Jodo Mission, then turn left after passing through the main gate to find yet another banyon tree shading this corner of the courtyard. If you go behind the banyon, you should see some cut-off branches to the left of a white bark section where the letter "J" can be seen about 6 feet up. A natural brownish reverse "J" has grown around a part of one of the cut-off branches, with a little shelf above it about 5 feet high. Here rests a tiny "lotus" (actually a chrysanthemum) on the back of a light grey 1-inch oval stone. Please put it back to blend in naturally with its surroundings!

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