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| Sea turtles on one of the beaches we visited. They were roped off and nobody was allowed to approach them. |
These turtles were large, not obvious in the photo. Large like a coffee table. We got to see one swimming in a bay, eating algae off a sea wall. They are such gentle creatures.
There were so many things about Hawaii that surprised both of us. For me, it was a realization of how remote Hawaii actually is. Looking on a map gives me a false sense of where it is; a globe is a much more accurate picture of Hawaii's location in reference to anything else. It sits out in the middle of nowhere.
Hawaii may be one of the fifty states, but the people who live there, and especially those who are natives, tend to see themselves as a country unto themselves. Even more than your typical Texan, who doesn't lack state pride, Hawaiians are fiercely proud of their heritage and how beautiful their state is.
They have their own language, something most of the other 49 states cannot make claim to, and it's still spoken today. Consisting of only 12 letters, five of which are vowels, it was interesting to see the names of streets and highways, to hear names of people. Their language doesn't have the consonant, 'S' and I meant to ask a tour guide how they make anything plural or possessive.
We were told most people who move to Hawaii leave within 6-8 years, due to the cost of living, feeling claustrophobic (not real conducive to a road trip), nobody comes to see them as they expected they would, and no change of seasons. So if you happen to be one who thinks you'd love to live in paradise, apparently you should give it more thought. Almost every day was 85-90 degrees, and very humid. We found it a charming place to VISIT.
We only saw one license plate on a vehicle that wasn't Hawaii and it was Texas, of all places.
Here's a handful more of our photos from our time there. They're not terribly organized, so they are from several of the islands, and different excursions we went on.
Most of the floral photos are from a botanical garden on the main island, at Hilo (he-lo). They were hit by the hurricane this past week, and received crazy amounts of rain. Some of the homes on Hilo are dealing with 40" of rainfall from last week.
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| This was lipstick ginger, it grew everywhere! |
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| Doesn't it look like gorillas and monkeys should live here? they don't. |
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| Such beautiful, strange plants. |
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| Unbelievably huge leaves! |
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| orchids grow wild |
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| this is Lily Palm, a very common house or office plant. |
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| Most waterfalls we saw had people swimming in the pools below |
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| Orchids - they all looked like high school corsages to me. |
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| Split leaf philodendrons on everything |
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| Orchids :-) |
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| Watch out below! |
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| The only lizard we saw the entire time. He was awfully cute. |
More later this week, we were there ten days and we took SO many photos! I've still got photos of the island of Kauai, with the Napali coastline (the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life) and of our visit to Pearl Harbor, plus a couple days on Waikiki Beach.
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