Sunrise at Queen Lilli Park...

I just happened to be a few minutes ahead of schedule this morning...and whenever that happens I like to take a quick drive around Queen Lilli park in Hilo. It is a ocean park but is very well protected from ocean waves & such...the ocean is just across a small road, maybe 20-30 feet from the main park and continues down one side of the park for approximately a half mile.

This gorgeous park is scattered with benches for sitting and contemplating, around every corner there is a "view", maybe a blooming tree, a neat statue or a memorial...and lots of different textures have been used.

The pervading sense is of peace...not to say the park is not well used! Sometimes I think 1/2 of Hilo is walking their dogs, jogging, or picnicking in the park. Even at 7:00 in the morning I had to wait to get this photo with no one in it...it's lovely to see it so enjoyed, it is so refreshing to spend just a few minutes remembering why you work so hard, it revitalizes you for the rest of the day!

Sea Cave...

This is the beginning of a sea cave developing off the shore line in Lower Puna, the pink color on the rocks is a algae growth and it is especially preferred by the local variety of Opihi, a edible mollusk that is a tradition Luau food in Hawaii.

Hawaiian Pineapple...

We were discussing our up coming Pineapple crop the other day and I thought I would share a few photos with everyone...some people have never seen a pineapple on the stalk... This pineapple is in my woefully ignored Pineapple bed, I have a great plan about the rotation but it rarely happens. Theoretically every 2-3 harvest you need to pull up the old plant & replace it, at my house we just plant the tops of the pineapple we just ate and whenever the old plants make pineapples that are to small we pull them out. This one should have been pulled out probably last harvest but I love the tiny Pineapples it makes! Just enough for 1-2 people, some people like a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. I like them naked, just the way they come...the one in the photo didn't get much bigger before it ripened.

You can see the thick stalk holding it up from the parent plant which is actually just a top of the previous pineapple set into the cinder soil (we don't have much dirt here, so we use crushed lava cinders. As you can see it doesn't seem to slow them down!)

This is the same Pineapple viewed from above...I love the way the leaves are so symmetrical in their arrangement, and when it rains the water cascades from leaf ring to leaf ring and then flows over the pineapple down to the main plant and then the ground & roots.

I have always wanted a Bronze statue/fountain of a pineapple for a water element in my garden or that pool I am going to finish some day...never enough time in the day for all the cool things we want to do & see...

In The Curl...

This is the view from one of my favorite beach parks located at the end of a subdivision named Hawaiian Shores in the Puna District...for some reason the weather is almost always grand in this area and you can stand right on the cliff walls over the ocean & feel the ground shake from the waves crashing onto the rocky shore below.

Oftentimes you can see whales just off shore as the ocean deepens pretty quickly here. But you never see surfers taking advantage of the gorgeous curls as the coast line is incredibly treacherous with lots of partially hidden rocks.

But the Opihi (edible mussels) love the constant wash of water and they are abundant, probably because they are fairly protected from being over harvested due to the danger of getting to them!

This is a closer view of the curl just starting to barrel, check out that reflection (maybe it is bubbles? Or maybe it is a leviathan coming up from the deep ;))

Very fun afternoon, great place to grab lunch & 30 minutes for a perspective break...& lovely at sunset as you get the reflected sunset colors on the ocean clouds, & a nice fresh trade wind usually comes in at dusk. You could almost imagine you can hear the whales singing to each other...

What A Beautiful Day!

We have had so much rain in east Hawaii the last 2 months that we all started growing gills in self defense!

But the last few days have been gorgeous! Reminds us why we are "lucky to live Hawaii!".

This view is of the back side of the Hotel run on Banyan Drive...I am standing in the parking area of lovely Coconut Island to take this shot.

We saw schools of fish erupting out of the water (I have no idea what they were feeding on as I couldn't see anything), some colorful tropical fish, a knife fish & 3 Sea Turtles! (of course there is no picture of them as I left the camera in the car, dang it...) One was just huge, definitely a grandaddy (or mommy) of turtles, and I was able to watch it for 3-4 minutes as it leisurely swam away...

Great way to start the day!