Bits from the Big Island

I'm sharing photos in no particular order here, from the past 2-3 weeks.....

Zebra doves are common here...dozens eat the bird seed on the ground below the hotel's feeders...

There are daily beautiful sunsets seen from the pool area of the hotel....many are a deep red due to the haze from the volcanos further east...but this one was a golden delight....

John and Cathe, Hawaii and ukelele enthusiasts, were guests for a couple weeks...

Me and a small flowering tree...these get quite large and can be a much deeper yellow...

These small ones are outside the local Walmart!

Ruben does the nightly tiki torch lighting ritual...he blows a conch horn while a guest lights the tiki torches around the front of the hotel...this guest, Rebecca, was from Australia....

The plumeria grows abundantly here, in white, pale pink, deep fuchsia pink, yellow...these are the flowers used for leis....

The hibiscus here in Hawaii are extremely abundant, in pink, orange, yellow, and white.

Not an overly flattering shot but hey it's proof that we made it, by kayak, to the Capt. Cook Monument, Despite being dumped into the crashing ocean waves -- twice -- before even getting away from the sea wall where we were setting off from.....

Our landing spot, on lava rock....and a peek of Kealakekua Bay...

Orange-spotted day geckos are very common here, and so darn cute...they hang around the "open-air" front office of the hotel. They look iridescent in bright green, a bit of blue, and the orange spots on their rump.

Island Birds

Aloha! I wanted to post sooner but I couldn't figure out how to upload photos from iPhotos with my new Mac notebook...anyway we've been in Hawaii almost a month now and it's impossible to go into all the details about our intense 6-day training on how to run a 16-room hotel, and the following 3 weeks...Ruben's doing a ton of the physical work, I'm mostly doing the mental work and we are up at 5AM, the office hours are 7 AM to 7 PM, so we have 14 hr days and only get a whopping 10 hrs a week off!  We haven't seen a lot of Hawaii yet (big island) but we went snorkeling nearby recently at Kahalu'u Beach, my first time snorkeling, and it was so awesome!  I am no swimmer but the desire to see the tropical fish was so great that I learned real fast, which is typical for many people. We saw over a dozen different fish and will be going back again one of these weeks.  We also went kayaking from Kealakekua Bay to the Captain Cook monument, got dumped out twice at the sea wall where we were trying to set off from, that was so NOT fun, esp w/ my fear of drowning and we were being slammed by ocean waves coming in....we got out of there on the 3rd try, and on the way back in we saw a small pod of spinner dolphins about 30 yards away passing us, way cool!

I need to go to bed soon but will share what few bird species I've seen so far and have pics of, all are common....there's one pretty bird I see a couple of some days, very scarce but I'll share it once I do get a photo...I know what it is but will leave it for a surprise....

The java sparrow is really common...we have 8 coconut shell feeders hanging in the trees in front of the hotel and we get dozens of the javas every morning chowing down...I put the seed out every AM around 6:30 and they're up high in the branches waiting....

There's a few saffron finches that come to feed each day...it used to be one pair (males have orange on the head) but now I see either a couple extra females or immatures...I see them around town too...

The myna birds are a Hawaiian version of a crow really...

We also have a lot of zebra doves on the ground eating fallen seeds, I still need to get a decent photo of one...they bop around, don't stay still so I can get a good shot.

I have a lot of flower photos to share, the flowers here are beyond amazing!  There's one that is a flaming orange color in a tree, need to get a shot of that yet and ID it but it's gorgeous.  The plumerias used in leis are everywhere, white, pale yellow, and hot pink....

We've made good friends w/ one couple that was staying at the hotel recently, from Portland, OR, and were able to go out to lunch w/ them one day at the local marina....we have guests from all over the world, right now we have a couple from Italy and one from Australia...

As hard and tiring as the job is, we're making memories to last a lifetime.....

More to come..... Mahalo for visiting....