May 4- From Mrs. Kushin's Diary-Fire Leaves Us Trapped!

Today Day 6: Tuesday
Started a bit off schedule due to the fact that the road was closed because of the fire that was not yet fully contained. This picture was taken by Kevin Olson and published in the Maui News. It shows just how close the fire came to the road causing lots of smoke and closing the road for 8 hours. During that time, we were supposed to head to the Sanctuary across island for a snorkel, we tried to do it at the beach by the hotel. Unfortunately there was enough wave action to make some very murky water. So we ended up playing in the waves – not sure we’ll ever get the sand out of the kids’ swimsuits. The road opened up in the afternoon, so we drove over to the Maui Tropical Plantation and took the last tour of the day to see pineapples, coffee, bananas, mangos, macadamia nuts, and more growing on the plantation. Another trip to the pool, and the kids are off to bed in hopes of an early morning paddle and snorkel at the sanctuary- if the road is open for us to get through tomorrow (Wednesday).
Here are some pictures and facts we got from the Maui Tropical Plantations. You can read about them online at www.mauitropicalplantation.com

Fast Facts (from Maui Tropical Plantation website):

Sugarcane takes two years to mature. One ton of water is needed to produce a single pound of sugar.

Heliconia range from 3' to 20' and come in nearly every color of the rainbow.

Versatile green ti leaf is a good luck symbol believed to keep evil spirits away and is often found planted by the entrances to homes in Hawaii.

The Malaysian starfruit tree is actually a native of China and India.

Hawaii produces the only commercial coffee crop in the United States.

Kamiya Papaya is a self-pollinating hermaphrodite with both male and female flowers.

Each trunk of our dwarf Brazilian apple bananas bears only one stalk in its lifetime.

Taro (kalo) is valued by Polynesian people as a rich source of carbohydrate and for its medicinal and supernatural powers.

Mango trees take five years to bear fruit but will produce for 100 years.

Guava juice has five times more vitamin C than orange juice.

It takes 300 pounds of pressure per square inch to crack the ¼"-thick shell of the Macadamia nut.

No machine has yet been invented that can husk a coconut, but take our tour and see your driver do it by hand in under 60 seconds!

Pineapples ripen from the bottom up. If your finger can pierce the "eye," don't buy it. Avoid pineapples with wet bottoms and strong smell. They're over-ripe.