Tuesday, June 27, 2017

miscellaneous pictures and commentary


The tropical flowers are so exotic








and the plumerias that I have to protect from freezes grow into 15'+ trees that are covered with flowers. White was the most common but I saw yellow and pink and magenta and coral orange and red and the trees were everywhere. The groundskeepers raked up fallen flowers the way we rake up fallen leaves.



At the black sand beach, on the edge where we saw the sea turtle and then walked down to the water's edge, it was more rocky than sand and when the wave surged in and then receded, it sounded like a string of firecrackers going off.


My friend Denise found this information about the Ki'Opi pond (picture at low tide): The languorous town Kailua-Kona, spread along one main street paralleling Kailua Bay, was a favored retreat of royalty long before the missionaries showed up in 1820 and was the refuge that the great King Kamehameha I sought in 1812, following eight years of waging war to bring the Islands under his command. The king sailed to Kamakahonu, in a sandy cove near the present site of King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel and built his residence, a hale called "Papa" nearby. John Papa I'i, an attendant of the succeeding King Liholiho, described the area, "Outside the (royal) enclosure, by the edge of the sea, was a spring called Ki'ope...It was a gathering place for those who went swimming and a place where the surf rolled in and dashed on land when it was rough. It was deep enough there for boats to land when the tide was high..."


The Hawaiian language consists of 5 vowels...A, E, I, O, U both long and short...and 8 consonants...H, K, L, M, N, P, W, and 'okina (glottal stop). The W is also pronounced as a V under certain circumstances.

Driving around both islands, it was common to see hedges planted and trimmed of hibiscus 


and often the road sides with banks of up to 10' or so were covered solid with blooming bougainvillea of all colors...red, pink, yellow, orange, white. This is the best picture I could get and it's out of focus because we were always moving and compared to most, sparse.


A few more miscellaneous photos...



I have no idea what kind of a tree this is but it is enormous.

A (prehistoric) tree fern growing amid another tree.

My salad for lunch in Hilo constructed as a volcano.

Puzzle boxes at the market.

links to previous posts in this series:

7. our last day and the journey home






17 comments:

  1. Oh...sigh...
    Just paradise. Especially, I am certain, before the missionaries got there.

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  2. You know, Ellen, it's just too much to take in.

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  3. I lived in Kealakekua Bay which is just a few miles from Kailua-Kona. I remember thinking that I was in paradise, truly. You caught it in these gorgeous photos. I've never seen a Bird of Paradise that looked so much like a bird!

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    1. I think I preferred Maui, but yes, paradise. the flowers, the trees, the water.

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  4. I bet you really enjoyed all the flora. So different. Did you eat any Spam?

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  5. Saw some familiar area, lovely collection of photos, I went through a few times

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  6. We have a couple of those anthuriums as potted plants in our living room. I think bougainvillea is actually native to the South Pacific, if I remember right. Love the puzzle boxes!

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  7. Wonderful photos and interesting history lesson. Thanks for sharing!

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  8. Those two enormous trees look like they're performing the Tango.

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  9. Gorgeous flowers. I just love that hibiscus - so pretty! And I could eat that salad right now!

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  10. Thanks for this post. It was so good to read. Hawaii is so far away, but this post allows me to see a bit of it as it is today. I doubt whether it will change much in the future. It's just a beautiful look at something I doubt I will ever see. A great post that I'm glad I found.

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    1. thanks. as you perhaps noticed, there are 7 other posts about our trip to Hawai'i. it is a beautiful place.

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  11. Erm....I've read them. They're good.

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