Kalapana & Lava Tree State Park

I get some interesting, 

Strange,

Annoying,

And downright ridiculous

Phone calls

In the hotel reservations / inquiries

Department...

But recently an extremely cheerful,

laughing (at his own cuteness, for one),

and downright colorful guy called...

And eventually he put me on

Speaker phone so he could

Sing and play the Ukelele...

He sang a really nice tune

About Kalapana,

A town that no longer exists

Thanks to a lava flow...

I found this esp. touching

Cause Ruben and I had taken a quick look

At Kalapana pretty recently..... 

...Or more like, what was left of it.....

This is pretty much it.

Pretty eerie.

We drove on to Lava Tree State Park, 

South of Hilo at the far east side of Hawaii.

The park has a loop trail...

This cool tree wasn't labeled but you can see it has the fluffy, lacy type "needles" ...

The lava trees, like this one that resembles a goofy face,

Are formed when hot lava pours over a tree,

Creating a mold of the tree.

The park had some of these pretty leaves...

Here's a better perspective w/ the leaves growing up this tree...

That's hubby posing...

Last but not least,

There are some Jurassic Park sized ferns growing in the park...

Ok, how's this for a better perspective?!

The park was eerily quiet and I kept looking over my shoulder,

Wondering if I would come face-to-ankle w/ T-rex...
But only the mosquitos were chomping that day.

The Hotel is Becoming a Zoo

It's beginning to look as though the local critters

Are trying to move in on us here...

This mongoose was sighted slinking around the front garden a couple days ago...

(Ruben's photo)

We've had a No. cardinal pair at the front feeders,

I think this is their offspring...either that or a rebellious, mohawked female...

Ok so maybe she's molting...

The java sparrows are always dining at the coconut shell feeders all morning,

I feed them around 6:30 AM daily...they get pretty restless by then...

We do have occasional, brief visits from a ruddy turnstone...

(Besides the wandering tattler)...

And the black crabs appear fairly often, 

patrolling the sea wall...

Then there's Smokey...

The neighborhood cat...

We feed him ea. morning and evening...

It was a part of our training,

Feeding the birds and Smokey that is...

We only see him those 2 times a day...

The geckos continue to scout bugs in the front office area...

This one is filling in my position for me,

Looking to check a new guest in....

And now we have a duck.  Yep, a duck!  This fella (or gal) appeared a couple days ago,
And is currently residing at Room 101's lanai...
When it isn't waddling around the back lawn or along the seawall.

The Art of Ocean Ogling

It occurs to me that I've been in Hawai'i for 3 months now....

And I haven't posted very many photos of the beaches/ocean at all!

What's with that?!

A really serious blonde moment?

Well whatever the reason, despite our lack of time away from the hotel, we do get away weekly and it usually does involve a beach...where else to try to just chill for awhile...?!

Recently, we headed back towards Hilo,

And stopped to see Black Sands Beach,

a.k.a. Punalu'u Beach...

Where visitors are greeted cheerfully...

...And yes, the sand is black...lava rock turned into countless tiny grains...

...Or not!  A lovely tide pool created on 3 sides by lava...

And very black sand in the foreground...

This type of lava (below) is called pillow lava,

for the way it flows into a pillowy shape...

...Last week we chilled at Pauoa Bay...

Where there isn't much sand... 

but plenty of white coral and black lava rocks....

A sunset just a couple miles from the hotel,

From the shore at the Outrigger Hotel...

The small beach where we saw the sea turtles...

We've been here twice now...

...But not matter how many beaches we visit,

We'll never master the art of ocean ogling

Quite like this lone 'ulili

a.k.a. wandering tattler...

Gotta love either name.

The pensive tattler was photographed on the sea wall at the hotel.
They arrive by August and leave for Alaska breeding grounds
In late April or early May.

Kolea, Waxbill, Francolin

The kolea, aka the Pacific golden-plover...the adults have arrived in Hawai'i from their Arctic nesting grounds...an August visitor...the immatures arrive in late Sept.  We just saw a few of these on Thurs. at Holoholokai Beach.

This neat little bird is a common waxbill, a native of Africa...they showed up a week or so ago, feeding on the grass seeds just outside our front door...I haven't seen them for a few days, was their visit that fleeting?!  Before seeing these guys, I saw a small flock of lavender waxbills just outside the front office area in a flowered bush...no camera available and haven't seen them since...they have pale gray bodies (prob look lavender in sunlight) with dark red tails and a black band across the eyes...

The gray francolin...introduced from India in 1958.  Saw this in a parking lot near a beach...the black francolin is more striking, maybe I'll get to see one of those too...no offense, gray!

Royal Poinciana...these tall flaming red-orange blossomed trees are sprinkled everywhere in Kailua on the Big Island.  I'm just throwing this in cause the trees are amazing and deserve mentioning.

Hualalai

Looking at the local map, Hualalai appears to be the name of the small beach surrounded by the Four Seasons Resort...open to the public, however.  We went there recently on the advice of hotel guests Tom and Perla, didn't stay long but had the beach to ourselves...

This lone black-necked stilt was wading in a small pond near the beach...

I've seen one in Florida but this is my 1st photo...it was too far to get a better shot...

Finally, sea turtles!  We came to this beach hoping to find sea turtles, and found about 5-6 resting on lava rocks near the shore...this one turtle was on the sand.  Isn't it the sweetest thing?!  Maybe it's Nemo's pal Crush! Or a distant cousin...

A Japanese white-eye!  It wasn't easy to get a shot of, moving around as it did.  The head is yellow.

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens

Ruben and I had some time off yesterday, so we headed N and NE to see the HTB Gardens a guest at the hotel had told us about.  It's almost bedtime so I'm not able to finish attempting to label the few flowers I've posted here tonight...this garden is beyond incredible!!  The flora and fauna were just amazing and way too many to get photos of all.  This is a major "must see" on the big island...

ORCHID Var.

MUSICAL NOTES CLERODENDRUM

NIGERIA

CANNONBALL TREE

MADAGASCAR, PHILIPPINES, POLYNESIA

TORCH GINGER

AMAZON LILY

CRIMSON MEDINILLA, 

PHILIPPINES

ROSE GRAPE

PHILIPPINES

BAT PLANT

MALAYSIA

BEEHIVE GINGER

"TEN DAY"

PERU, EQUADOR

CLERODENDRUM PANICULATUM

INDIA, SRI LANKA, MALAYSIA

ORCHID Var.

Kilauea and Kahili Ginger

Aloha again! We've reached the half-way mark of our 14 week adventure in W. Hawaii...is it all downhill from here on out?!  I hope so!  It seems for every positive there's a negative for us here, it's frustrating and a bit disappointing despite the positives here and there.  I could post so many photos but just don't have the time...I'm free from waiting on the phones at 7 PM and we are in bed at 9 PM.  So, will post the important bird pics and etc. for now...

I'm getting some photos of the yellow-billed cardinal...isn't he pretty?!  They're orig. from South America...

The past few days I've been hearing the squeaking chirp of the fledglings of this YB cardinal parent...there's 2 of them actually...they're outside our room, parent feeding the children ea morning...

Once in awhile this large spotted dove appears among the many smaller zebra doves, below the bird feeders at the hotel.

Wed. we visited Kilauea Volcano...pretty awesome!

We visited this big lava tube a couple weeks ago, by the roadside not far N of the Kona Airport.

Once in awhile we show a hotel guest how to feed the eels in the rocks on the ocean side of the sea wall in front of the hotel...I've seen 3 types of eels so far.  I think this is a moray eel...

The sunsets are still going strong here, daily....

A large driftwood tree at Kiholo Bay (I think it was), N of Kailua Kona.  A real nice little beach.

Kahili Ginger...the flower is about 10" tall...this is near a lava tube at Volcanoes National Park, where Kilauea Volcano is...

Ohia Lehua ... This flower grows at the Kilauea Volcano...a kind of ugly plant w/ a pretty red flower, which has a legend behind it...Pele, the Goddess of Volcano, liked an handsome guy called Ohia. But, Ohia was already in love with another beautiful maiden called Lehua. So, he rejected Pele's offer. Angry Pele cursed him to be an ugly tree. Now, Lehua begged Pele to take back the curse and make him a human again. Pele didn't agree. But, other Gods felt pity on Lehua, did whatever they could. They made Lehua a beautiful flower on the ugly tree. 

Well on that interesting note, I'll sign off....