I’m back in Hawaii of course. And I’ve had a few days of relaxation. On one of those days, I was able to take Gavin to Temple Valley. The last time I took Gavin there was quite a while ago. It was so relaxing. Gavin was naturally awesome. We walked on over and just took in the sights. We looked at headstones and noted the dates that some of these people had died. There were a few that were really recent. Just in the past few years. And there were a few that had died almost 100 years ago. Gavin found this very fascinating. We finally made it to the temple after almost 1/2 hour. It is amazing how suddenly calm you feel when you step on the temple grounds. We put in some change and Gavin and I rang the 5 foot tall bell. Such a calming sound. We walked the path for a bit, following a few tourists. When we made it to the temple doors, we removed our slippers and walked in. Gavin was no longer scared of the giant Buddha. 🙂 Following up on a conversation we had with Gavin a few days ago, I was more accurately able to explain to him what incense was. After leaving the temple, we came face to face with a local wild peacock and it’s two babies. The peacock was very beautiful and elegant. The babies were a little less beautiful and less elegant, but it was quite mesmerizing to watch them walk around an be curious. After witnessing those fine birds, we walked to the opposite side of the temple to where all the Koi gather for feeding and where the birds swarm for dropped food and where the gift shop preys on tourists. 🙂 As we crossed the wee bridge where the Koi gather, a nice tourist (as opposed to those really mean tourists) gave Gavin half a bag of fish/bird food. Gavin politely said thank you and proceeded to feed the fish and swans and turtles. Usually he does this for the whole time, but this day he decided he’d rather spend most of his time feeding the birds. So that is what he did. And he loved it. I bought him another bag of food so he could continue being the bird boy. He was so cute. At the end of our stay, we stopped at the autograph tree to sign Gavin’s name. So next time we go to Temple Valley, we must find his name again and take a picture of it. In the mean time, here are some pictures of our most recent Temple Valley trip.
