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.

Waimea Valley Waterfall...

Waaaaaay back when CJ and Danielle were in town we went to visit the Waimea Waterfall.  If you check out Dave's blog from time to time, then you have seen this waterfall on this post or this post...since he's been there like 4 times  The first time I went to Waimea I mistakenly left my SD card at home (oops), so I didn't get to take any pictures.

Waimea is an Ahupua'a.  What is an Ahupua'a?  Well, I'll tell you!  First, you sort of pronounce it as awe-who-pu-a-a (at least that's as close as I have become to the actual pronunciation ..only true locals seem to pronounce it correctly; every time I think I said it just like a local did they just shake their head and say 'nice try, but still no.'  Ha).  The word literally translates to mean from the mountains to the sea.  It was how land on the island of O'ahu was initially subdivided between different tribes.  So each tribe, or group of people, had a mountain area (where streams would develop), a plains area (to grow crops), and the sea (fishing).  This ensured that each group had a mixture of necessary natural resources.

Today, for the most part, these ahupua'a's are gone, with the exception being Waimea Vally.  Waimea Valley is now a protected sanctuary for protected plants and birds.  Many of the cities around the island are actually named after the old ahupua'a (example: Honolulu and Waikiki were previous ahupua'a's).

OK, well on to some of the pictures.

Danielle, Dave and CJ crossing the bridge

Here is the beautiful waterfall.  It is very refreshing to be in since it's fresh water, but it's pretty cold too.  If it looks famaliar then that's because its often used as a filming location for TV shows or movies (ie. Lost, Jurassic Park, and so on).

CJ and Danielle in the waterfall

Battling a thorn...it was so big it went through my sandle and was poking me in the bottom of my foot.
...and I need a haircut, but don't worry: I already got one.

NKY Visit...

After Utah I took the late night flight to CVG (Thanks Pops for picking me up so late).  It was great seeing many of my family and friends.  Thanks to many of you that took time out of your busy schedules to see me during my very short time back home.

Cincinnati outside my plane window...home sweet home!

I was most excited to meet my new little nephew, and to make sure that my niece (1 year and 5 months) realized I was more than just the Uncle inside the iPad.  Speaking of babies...there's been an explosion of them since I've been away.  Note to friends: was something in the water a year ago?  Never seen so many infants at one time, but they were all very cute.  Thanks Rotie for letting me crash at your place (maximization of niece/nephew time!).

The little guy was all smiles when I met him for the first time!

It was also nice to experience some more fall-type weather.  I definitely miss the season changes here.  And Chipotle never tasted soooooo good!  Is eating Chipotle 3 times during my mainland visit too much?  No, I didn't think so either.  Squeezed in some Skyline and Greater's too.  mmmmmmm...I already miss them all.

...and I made sure not to forget Sage.  She won the award for most excited to see me!  Ha.

That's all I got.  I hardly took any pictures since I was too busy seeing people (I also didn't have my camera).  Now back to Hawaii adventures.  Mahalo for visiting!