Hawaii - Fifth day

We went to Foster's Gardens.
There is a small lizard in this picture.

There were many exotic flowers and plants.

Angel's Trumpet

This colorful bark is the smooth bark of Bagras Eucalyptus tree.

This very strange tree is a cannon ball tree. Sprouts flowers and fruit right from the trunk. The balls are filled with a foul smelling blue pulp that attracts peccaries, pigs, and chickens.

Bread fruit tree that was part of the story of "Mutany on the Bounty" about Captain Cooke. Breadfruit was an important part of the Polynesian Islands diet, and was introduced to Hawaii, not a native species. A carbohydrate, the starchy fruit tastes like fresh baked bread when cooked.

This plant looks like it has huge grapefruit growing in clusters. It has the look and taste of a grapefruit.

This is an Indian Mulberry tree aka Noni, which there is a popular concoction made of this fruit that is said to cure all maladies!

There was a green house full of orchids and related plants that don't have traditional roots, like ferns, staghorn ferns, and bromiliads.

More plants in the green house. I wanted to see the yellow flowers.

After we looked at the plants we got in the car and drove to Pali Highway, that goes over the summit of the mountains that divide the island north and south.
There are always clouds on the mountain. The street names were challenging for us. We had to reference streets like Kalalakua andKanekapolei, Nohonani and Namahana.

This is at Pali Lookout

We went down to the east shore. We drove until we came to Sea Life Park. They had aquariums that you can view from above water, and down under through windows.

This is a sting ray that swam around the perimeter every 10 minutes or so. There was also a small shark that would swim by with the fin out of the water.

This is a pic of Ed photographing the shark! We stayed for the dolphin show. It was enjoyable. Then we hopped in the car and went to watch the water while we ate a snack lunch.

There were lots of tidepools. We tried to find some wild life in the shallow pools, but they were very shy animals.

This is a not so wild surfer near by. They had to surf toward the rocks. I thought they were brave.

Ed did manage to get a quick shot of this crab before it scurried away.

In some areas, the water was pretty rough.

This is near the area called the Blow Hole.


These people were looking down into the area called Blow Hole and there were many people who walked down there to get a closer look. We decided to call it a day.

Hawaii - Sunday, day four

We had one place to go today. That was the Harbor to catch a boat ride. The boat had a glass bottom, and we were excited to go over the rocky areas to see all the animal life around the reefs. It was a cloudy day, and when we got out to a good turtle feeding area, the Cap'n lifted the wooden cover over the glass bottom. Sadly, the water was turbid, and so we really couldn't see anything out in the water.

We were lucky to see a small group of dolphins. They were a small breed, and they were pretty close to the shore. They didn't stay long around us.

The boat ride was fun, in that it is just kind of fun to be in a boat, with the water rolling the boat.

The Cap'n lost credibility with me when he said that Sea Turtles are Mammals! That was because they breath air and could stay under water a long time. Honestly, I started looking for Gilligan!

From our hotel room we can see (barely) an entertainment program. Near the end of the show, the men come out to dance with the fire. I tried to get some pics of the fire.

These would be fun to see close up. I have a feeling we will see that kind of entertainment.

Hawaii - day three

My blisters were killing me, so I opted to do more sitting around close to our hotel.

We still had some walking to do though. We had seen a borders book store and wanted to go see what kind of plant and fish books they had. Ed got this shot near our hotel. On our way back from Borders, we scheduled a glass bottom boat ride for Sunday afternoon.

This is one that we took on our way from here to there. We spent the rest of the day on the patio sipping mai tai's and looking at our books.

Hawaii Day 2

Well, these pics are on the way to the aquarium at the far end of Waikiki. We walked along the beach and took shots of interesting things we saw. We stood on a pier and got these. Then we walked to the Aquarium.

The fish were in a nice cool building. they are so colorful. I like viewing them this way than going under water to see them!

I thought of Paul and his aquarium. It is much easier (I assume) to get the environment for the fish here due to the light and available sea water to exchange.

There were many more interesting fish that we saw.

Outside the aquarium, there were a few sculptures. This one is by Jun Kaneko. It was a thrill for me to put my hand on it, which I couldn't have done at an art museum!

People were surfing and pole surfing, which I had never seen before. They just stand on the boards and paddle around. It looks fun to me, except that if you fall in the water, there will be various fish swimming around you.

This is a canopy of a monkey tree. There are many huge trees.

Rubber tree.

Local bird nest. It was easy to find. I just found the dirty side of a park bench and looked up!

Another sausage tree. Ed and I are so fascinated with all the amazing plants, that we bought a small book to take around so we can identify them.

You know, those house plants that we find so difficult to grow in Idaho.

A look at Hawaii - The first day

Ed and I are at Waikiki for a Pest Management conference. We are staying at the Ilikai Hotel, which was slated for demolition until the new Hawaii 50 series was proposed for television. It has been remodeled and I guess some scenes are to be filmed there. The Ilikai is a 25 story building that has three wings. You can see them in this pic. There are blue panels on the balconies. We are on the 24th floor.

Here is the view from our room. We can see the artificial lagoon that is part of the Hilton Hotel. We stayed at the Hilton Rainbow tower 23 years ago. The Hilton workers called a strike the day we left Idaho, so the morning of our first day, we were awakened with noisemakers and chanting. Since they were between our building and the Hilton, we heard all the noise. This went on for 5 days. The strike was settled yesterday.

Our first day, we walked to the historical section of down town Honolulu. We saw a lot of interesting trees and plants on the way. Many of the houseplants that we try hard to grow in Idaho, thrive here, and get to be huge specimens. I liked the trunk of this tree.

Many of the plants here are not natives, but thrive because they came from a similar climate, like So. America and Africa.

This is fruit on a huge tree that has flowers that bloom at night and are pollinated by bats. They are Sausage Trees.

This is a Boabab tree. Has similar features as the Sausage.

We walked to the Museum of Modern art. Wow! What a great show they had. Most of the paintings were large and abstract. They had sculpture in stone and metal, and ceramic. It was a treat to spend a couple hours there. My brain reached a level of stimulus overload.

This is a mausoleum. We went to the historic museum of the early missionaries. They brought their Westernized ideas about life, and built traditional houses meant to keep the cold weather out. The structures were not designed for good air flow. It must have bee difficult living in the hot stuffy buildings with layers of long dresses and petticoats! The fire hearth for the kitchen must have made the small kitchen unbearable!
I had blisters on my toes by the end of the first day! Every step became unpleasant! And of course we had more places to walk to, so I spent money on Bandaids and Blister pads!