This lovely Ginger is growing in Hawaiian Acres in the Puna district, not far from Hilo... Most people are familiar with ginger from their ginger bread or ginger snap cookies, but most varieties of ginger either can not be eaten or have little if any flavor. But they do have some spectacular blooms and striking foliage!
We saw this cute couple with there doggie out to the Lava flow the other day...talk about a well prepared couple! They even had the pups water bottle packed! Now that's considerate owners...it gets real hot out there on that hike to the ocean entry but they had it covered...we need more pet owners like them!
My daughter & I went for a hike the other day in the Thurston Lava Tube, and this photo is of yours truly at the very end of the lava tube, I am sitting on what was originally the flowing lava that filled the "tube" before the flow "petered out" (anyone know where that term came from? It is very fun to say ;}) As you can see, the roof of the tube and the top of the flow meet...I laid on my tummy & could touch the back wall with my fingertips. It is very cool and moist but not wet in the tube and if you turn off your flashlights and just sit for a while you begin to see images in the dark as your eyes struggle to adjust to the total absence of light. And pretty soon you can hear your heart beat, & then the person your with's heart beat...pretty surreal & very cool.
And this is my daughter in the same place...notice our flashlights, most important thing to take on the hike!
This end of the tube is past the "public" area, most people stop at the gate thinking they are not allowed any further. Not true, the gate is not locked and you just need closed toed shoes and flashlights to hike the rest of the way in. There is one good sized gallery that I want to go back and explore further.
I was taking a class at UHH (University Of Hawaii at Hilo), and I saw this reflection in a bank of windows during a shi shi break (in Hawaii we say we need to shi shi instead of go to the bathroom), anyway...I saw the reflection before I saw the image! I really didn't think it was going to come out in the picture but when I uploaded it, it showed very clearly.
This is what the image actually looks like, this is Mauna Kea seen over the roof tops of Hilo Town...those little white dots you see on the top of the mountain are the world famous Keck Observatories! Mauna Kea means white mountain as it regularly has a mantle of snow, but we never forget that our gentle giant is actually a slumbering volcano...
This is a quick glimpse of the roof top outside my office, Scott put these gorgeous Bougainvilleas in pretty pots on the roof top when we moved in a few months ago and we all sat back and waited for them to die... Turns out, they LOVE it! The Hotter the better! Look at them blooming and they are growing like mad as well, you can now easily see them from the street, where as when they were planted you couldn't hardly see them at all.
