Happy Halloween!

Picture Credit to the PCC and this website.

Well, I survived the Tsunami in Hawaii, despite the fact that it disrupted my camping at the beach on Kauai.  More on this in later posts, but for those of you that were concerned: I was perfectly fine.  For the most part, it was just a "tsunami scare" that caused major panic in the locals, but only minor property damage to beach front locations.

So it's difficult to get into the fall spirit here in Hawaii, because it still feels like summer.  I know this is the last thing everyone wants to hear back home where Sandy is causing all kinds of crazy weather, but trust me: the grass is not always greener on the other side.  So I've tried to find some things to do that seem more fall-ish.  Last week I went on a Haunted Lagoon Ride.  Instead of a haunted house, you get in a canoe and float along a lagoon.  The ride was pretty impressive, but weird to see people jumping out from behind palm trees instead of leafless deciduous trees.

 To also get in the fall spirit, I went to see Young Frankenstein at a local theater.  My ensuing story isn't so much about the play (although it was a great, especially for a small independent theater), but more about what happened during the play.  The first act went well.  Then came intermission, where my date and I bought wine (because that's what classy adults do at theater productions, right?).  The second act started with this soft song by a character, when the Monster abruptly burst through the wall...reminiscent of the 1990's Kool-aid man.  Those commercials were awesome!  OK, I digress...  When this happened, I was suddenly splashed in the face and eyes.  I found myself impressed with the special effects of the theater to squirt water on us.  Unfortunately, a moment later came the realization that my date had thrown her entire glass, full of red wine, in the air when the Monster annihilated the makeshift wall.  'She scares easily' was an understatement!  But it didn't stop there.   Wine was all over her, myself, down the back of a gentleman's shirt in front of her, PLUS 5 other innocent folks in the crowd.  I don't think she could repeat that kind of spray pattern if she tried.

Picture credit to this website.

We were profusely apologizing to everyone around us, but obviously this is hard to do during the actual show (have you ever tried to whisper an apology to a stranger in complete blackness in between scenes...as you can imagine: it's difficult and awkward), which led to many more apologies after the act was finished.  Luckily, everybody was nice, except for one guy, but let's be honest: he had the complete right to be more than annoyed with us!

My night ended with using club soda on my clothes and rubbing salt into the stains (a common recommendation on the internet that didn't really help much...google: you are not that awesome).  The next day I washed my clothes on repeated cycles with stain remover each time (thanks Minday for the tip).  Luckily, my linen pants made it, but my shirt did not fair the same result.  The good news is that I have another great story of odd dates to add to my list.

Sorry, pictures during the Haunted Lagoon ride and theater show were not allowed so I had to improvise for this post.  Happy Halloween season to everyone.  Hopefully you all get a good scare in that's equally as good as my date at the theater.

The stage before the show                                //  Doing laundry at the end of the night 

Lizard Stalking...

I recently took a picture of a flower and when looking at my LCD screen to see how it turned out, I suddenly noticed a slightly blurry little figure on the back side of the flower.  To my surprise it was a little lizard!  I had been looking through the view finder, so it was hard to see him when I actually took the picture.  I love little lizards/toads/frogs.  In fact, I used to have a fire-bellied frog as a pet.  His name was Snickers.  Unfortunately he had a traumatic ending...I accidentally killed him...with a couch (yup, you read that correctly; it's a long and traumatic story).  I digress...

So what did I do?  I stalked him and ended up with these shots.  Mahalo for visiting!

Blurry little guy on the back side. 

Stalking him was initially difficult but became easier.

This is my favorite shot since you see the underside of his chin and belly, and especially because you can see both eyes on either side of his head.

Waimea Botanicals...

This post comes from Waimea again.  Last post it was all about the waterfall, but this time it's about the flowers and the Hawaiian Moorhen.  The Waimea Valley has a lot of great flowers along the walk to and from the waterfall.  Along the way I was looking for the Hawaiian Moorhen too.

The Hawaiian Moorhen is a rare Hawaiian bird, but Waimea is a sanctuary for them.  They are cute little birds that have a red forhead and upper beak.  This bird, called 'Alae 'Ula in Hawaiian, was featured in their folklore about fire.  Apparently the Hawaiian Moorhen held the secret of fire.  A demi-god, Miui, asked for the secret from one of the great Moorhens, but the Moorhen lied about how to obtain fire.  When Miui realized the great Moorhen had lied, he choked the Moorhen until he was finally told the secret.  As a punishment for lying, Miui burnt the foreheads of the 'Alae 'Ula with red hot stick, forever giving them this feature.

Be prepared for a million pictures of flowers, but there are a couple bird pictures hidden in here too.  Mahalo for visiting.

Bird of Paradise Flower.  These are my favorite flower here.  

It's like they explode out of their covering.

Who you looking at Ms. Peacock?

My first sighting of the Hawaiian Moorhen!  All the ones I saw were tagged.  I'm assuming its because they keep track of their population numbers.  Many of the Hawaiian birds are on the endangered species list, so they are often monitored by the scientists.

This leaf is slightly larger than my torso.

Second sighting: found this Hawaiian Moorhen hiding in the grass.

One of my favorite pictures in this post.  I have no idea what kind of flower this is, 

but it looks like it is sticking it's flower-like-tongue out.

This picture wins as my favorite.  I barely found these little guys.  The flower is really only the size of maybe a quarter, but rich in color and fascinating how it hands down too.