Beth took this photo at sunset at Waikiki Beach. The banyan tree was pretty common around Hawaii. This one was huge. In the town of Hilo (near where we stayed on the Big Island) they had famous people plant banyan trees - Mark Twain being one. I think there is a tree there that started as a cutting from a cutting from the tree Buddha supposedly planted back in the 6th Century BC. 
But back to the island of Oahu... the next morning we went to the Byodo-Inn temple, which was a replica of a famous Japanese temple. To reach the temple we had to go through a cemetary. Along the way we stopped by this egret perched on flowering bushes who was so close we could have reached out and touched.
On the temple grounds we found mini bamboo forests. This particular forest intrigued me, but it was the sign which caught my attention. Okay, I admit, I have a weird sense of humour. But really, wet floor? I never considered grass to be a floor, nor needing a sign.
I enjoyed playing with the sepa setting on my camera. I thought it made the bamboo forest seem even more exotic.
On the Big Island, between the tide pools and the evening hike to see the lava flowing, we stopped at the Lava Tree State Park. There was a lot of greenery.
Here you can see the chasms created during an eruption in 1790.
But the lava trees were what I had come for. Lava trees form when flast flowing pahoehoe lava encounters wet 'ohi'a trees. As the flow drains away, it leaves a thick coating around the dying tree. So really, you aren't looking at trees, but what formed around the tree. The trees themselves died long ago. In this picture you can see two small trees and around four stumps.
Here is a bird's eye view of where a tree used to be.
I'm not sure what these plants are. The yellow 'flowers' reminded me of bullrushes. Any ideas on what this one is called?
On the temple grounds we found mini bamboo forests. This particular forest intrigued me, but it was the sign which caught my attention. Okay, I admit, I have a weird sense of humour. But really, wet floor? I never considered grass to be a floor, nor needing a sign.I enjoyed playing with the sepa setting on my camera. I thought it made the bamboo forest seem even more exotic.On the Big Island, between the tide pools and the evening hike to see the lava flowing, we stopped at the Lava Tree State Park. There was a lot of greenery.Here you can see the chasms created during an eruption in 1790.But the lava trees were what I had come for. Lava trees form when flast flowing pahoehoe lava encounters wet 'ohi'a trees. As the flow drains away, it leaves a thick coating around the dying tree. So really, you aren't looking at trees, but what formed around the tree. The trees themselves died long ago. In this picture you can see two small trees and around four stumps.Here is a bird's eye view of where a tree used to be. I'm not sure what these plants are. The yellow 'flowers' reminded me of bullrushes. Any ideas on what this one is called?I don't have names for the rest of these flowers. Please jump right in if you do! I'm not all that knowledgeable about plant names, but this reminded me of a morning glory.
This was a delicate little purple flower. I much prefer large, fat flowers to tiny.
This red flower looked like it was growing horns!
My guess for this one would be burning or flaming something or other.
These cut flowers we found at the market. They grow in the wild in Hawaii. Still hard to believe I was in such an exotic place that grew these flowers and I didn't have to visit a florist to see them. There's a Chinese couple who have a flower shop 2 blocks from where we live in Victoria. I often stop by to pick up a little boquet of flowers for Beth to look at during the day while I'm at work. They have the best selection. When I was in the shop last week I saw they had grown a number of orchids like these purple and white ones. Each plant had one orchid stem with a handful of flowers. And each plant was about $35. I never asked how much they were at the market in Hawaii. Probably a couple of bucks as there was a great supply of them.
One of my regrets is not getting to the market earlier in the trip to buy lots of exotic fruit. I'm not very adventurous when it comes to eating, but did try a fresh pineapple (I could smell them from about 20 feet away), star fruit (the sour variety our driver in the Waipio Valley picked for us) and papaya. The market had huge papaya's 4/$1. I found some in our local grocery store the other week and they were about $4 for 1. The papaya tasted okay, but I think I'd stick with the pineapple. They will never taste or smell as good as the one we had in Hawaii.
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