My Day With Jesse!

I got the pleasure of Jesse's company the last couple of days!

We stayed up late debating the finer points of family politics and back-walking Sunday. Then after waking up, getting ready, and eating cereal, I decided that I had to skip Coconut and spend time with this fine friend that hasn't been to these parts in a long 3 years.




We got a little bit of a late start, and should have maybe consulted a map before we left, but we made it to Ho'omaluhia with no problems other than sweaty bodies. Jesse was a good sport and didn't give me a hard time about not knowing how far it was or that it wasn't going to be a lovely walk. AND! He took pretty picture of plants for me!!

That top one is the coxcomb flower which we just learned in Materia Medica a couple of weeks ago. I'm ashamed to say that I don't remember the Chinese name of it.. although I could go look it up...

Then we have the banana flower over here... I love the bananas!






I'm not sure what this one is, but after talking about how the bougainvilla is a trickster and makes you think that it's leaves are the most wonderfully colored flowers, we were ready to call this guy out for trying to be sly.... little did he know that we were wise to his tricks. It was nice that the leaves were all soft and fuzzy (like a hairy-tits we know??)





These are what I learned as 'lipstick' palms, but the botanical gardens called them something else that I've blocked out. I just love the red-orange (my current favorite color maybe) next to the yellow green. It just does it for me, I guess. Try not to be too distracted by my pasty white arm molesting the tree...

We saw some more banana flowers and got lots of mosquito bites before it started sprinkling (nice break from the noon day sun) and we moved into the next part of the garden....










I'm not sure who this flower is, but I love how Jesse got the super up-close-and personal view of it.










THIS! is my new desktop pic! I LOVE MONKEYPODS!!! I want to have one in my pocket (next to Anne - she can enjoy it in my pocket too) so I can pull it out and sit under it reading a book or take a nap whenever I want.

I mean, who could possibly get tired of that view?? Think of all the birds playing around in there and the wind moving the branches and the leaves and all the shade on a hot sunny day... *sigh*

After the monkeypod we walked through a grove of Awapuhi - the shampoo ginger and saw a couple of nutmeg trees. This was very exciting for me as nutmeg is one of my favorite spices!

Then we stumbled into an area of spiky palms - which I also read the name of and promptly forgot. Damnit! We decided it must have some delicious fruit though to have to protect it like that.

After that, we were pretty much focused on a safeway sandwich and a beer of some kind, so we headed back towards the visitors center with a stop at the thorny tree.



Jesse made friends with a giant pea pod - separated at birth - Jesse and Kokopelli...


And, of course, on the way out of the garden, we saw in someone's yard, the quintessential picture of Hawaii... the plumaria.

We had a long walk back but were rewarded with juice, sandwiches, chimay, and a ride home from the store from that sexy neighbor of mine..

It couldn'thave been a finer day - or night - especially with the nice needling Jesse got to enjoy!