Lighthouses by our hotel

Lighthouse on Kuku'i Point. What a view on the golf course!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dash-8 Turboprop (inter-island commuter plane)

coming in to land over the Ninini Point Lighthouse

ATVing (3 of 3)

This wrapped up our tour.

 We asked our guide to take a picture of the

two of us before heading down the "mountain"

Here is the view as we headed down.

  An amazing view of the valley

Darren taking a picture of us on our way down.

ATVing (2 of 3)

Traveling through the bamboo

Crossing a stream

Our guide showing us how Harrison Ford swung out from the tree

 in Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

 This is a private beach that we weren't able to go to, but could view from the top of the overlook.

The tan you see is just dirt! :)  The view was spectacular as you can see!

Day 1: ATVing (1 of 3)

Here is the excerpt from the atv tour website:

Join us for a beautiful and breathtaking 3 hour scenic tour through Kipu Ranch. Take a ride through tropical forests, river valleys and rolling pastures. The ranch is home to hundreds of head of Hereford, Angus and Brangus cattle as well as wild pigs, Hawaiian Nene geese, pheasant and much more. Our guides will share some history with you about the ranch and island and even movie sights!

We are just starting our tour

The first stop on our tour

Darren stopped to take a picture of the trail

This used to be sugar cane fields until the 1960s, now these are just areas for grazing.

 Starting to get a little dirty! (the ocean is the blue in the back by the end of the valley)

Just one of the many amazing views while we were riding.

Introduction to Kauai

We got off the plane & immediately went to see this waterfall. It was a beautiful introduction.

 

 This is the ocean view from our hotel room.

Here is the pool at our hotel. Our hotel room looks down at the pool. We haven't enjoyed it yet, but have discovered the hot tubs! :)

Walking Around Gent

Here are some pictures I took walking around Gent.

Here is a fun building. It was hard to take a picture of the full building without getting the tram lines. The building is crazy enough, that I decided to go with the building & the tram lines in the picture. :)

And as always, McDonalds.

Here is a picture of the cannon, Mad Meg (lower left hand side) They had to plug the end because they had homeless people living in it. Apparently it was never fired. 

Weekend Trip - Gent Belgium

We stayed in a brand new Marriott in the historic downtown area.  Here are some pictures I took from the website and then I have some pictures of my room and then the view from my room. 

The red sign above the window on the third building is the Marriott sign.

 Same view, slightly further away of the back of the hotel at night.

 Here is the lobby area

 Here is the view looking down at the lobby at night.

 This picture was taken with me standing in the doorway to my room.

The stairs look fun, but aren't fun in the middle of the night! :)

 Here is the Closet

 Here is my bed, with all of my stuff on it. Probably should of thought of that before I dumped everything on it, but I was getting ready to leave when I realized I still hadn't taken any pictures of my room.

Here is the opposite view of my room. Can you find me in the picture?

Here is the window, that gives you a little bit of an idea of what I could see from my window.

AND HERE IS THE VIEW FROM MY ROOM....

Design doesn't always mean Fashion

Walking around Rotterdam we came across a couple of workout outfits that are sure to draw attention. My personal favorite is the shoes to complete the outfit!

Keukenhof

On our first day back in Holland we decided to visit the Tulip Festival, or the Keukenhof. It was 79 degrees and a beautiful day for walking around. I think we all would have liked to have enjoyed the day with more then an hour of sleep, but it was still amazing to see.

HISTORY of KEUKENHOF
Where Keukenhof is situated now, was a hunting area in the 15th century. Herbs for the kitchen of the castle of Jacoba van Beieren were also collected here; hence the name Keukenhof.

The current park was a section of the sizeable estate of Slot Teylingen, with beautiful untamed bushes and dunes. After the decease of Jacoba van Beieren Keukenhof fell into the hands of rich merchant families. Baron and baroness Van Pallandt invited landscape architects J.D. and L.P. Zocher, designers of the Amsterdam Vondelpark, to make a design for the garden around the castle. This design, in the English landscape style, has always been the basis of Keukenhof.
At the moment the estate belongs to a Foundation. On the initiative of the Lisse mayor of that time and a number of leading flower bulb growers and exporters, an open air flower exhibition was organised here for the first time in 1949. This expanded to an annually recurring event that has always drawn great numbers of visitors from all over the world. This is how Keukenhof became the park that we now know.

FACTS & FIGURES (from the website)
Has won prizes as Europe’s most valued attraction
It is one of the most popular attractions in the Netherlands and has clocked up more than 44 million visitors in the last 60 years
It is the largest bulb flower park in the world
It covers an area of 32 hectares 4.5 million tulips in 100 varieties
It is the most photographed place in the world
There are 15 kilometers of footpaths
It is the largest sculpture park in the Netherlands
The bulbs are supplied by 91 Royal Warrant Holders
7 million flower bulbs planted by hand
More than 2,500 trees in 87 varieties

Keukenhof - Pictures

Here are some seats that they made out of logs

 

 The first of many tulip pictures...

Anna and I by some "cube art" made of small plastic bags

 

More Art by the flowers

Large windmill that was moved to the property in 1957.

Landscaping by one of the restaurants

Water Art

 

Outdoor Organ playing Polka music. For 10 Euros, a cd could be yours...

The next two pictures are of some of the unique landscaping in the park.