Walking through the Jungle

Hawaii isn't all about the beaches. It is also very green an covered with all sorts of trees and wildlife. One morning, while we had time to spare, we decided to head to some botanical gardens for a short hike. This place was only about a 5 min drive from the place we were staying.

I don't know why it surprised me that I didn't recognize any of the trees and plants around me. I guess because I know so many of the names for the plants in our neighborhood that I just assumed some of these would be the same as well.

I was wrong. There were none of the trees I could identify. Everything looked tropical with big leaves and vines growing and wrapping around.

The colors were lovely. Lots of red and orange flowers.

There were also a few cockatoos in the trees as well.

It rained everyday while we were in Hawaii. It would rain hard for a few minutes and we would hide under some trees and then it would clear up and be hot and humid again. No wonder everything is so green.

The humidity didn't do wonders for my hair. My straight as a stick hair just went flat against my head and then dried in funny ways so I spent most of this trip looking like I hadn't done anything with my hair.

This picture was taken when my hair still looked almost decent. I hadn't put a sun hat on and it hadn't been drenched in the rain yet.

Are those banana's you found Uncle John?

These red rose like flowers looked like something you might find in Willy Wonkas Chocolate room. They were somewhat waxy feeling and didn't have any smell. The certainly looked interesting.

As usual the boys spent a good amount of time looking for sticks to whack the bushes with. It was hard to convince them that she shouldn't do it.

Here we are hiding under a tree while the rain falls. We didn't get soaked because of the large canopy of trees above us. It was just misting us more or less.

Here I am looking a little wet after one of the rains

Sophie is in there somewhere.

Thank goodness for the trails. They were muddy but I wouldn't have wanted to try to walk through the jungle growth without a clear trail to follow.

Henry finally found a vine close enough for him to grab and swing upon.

Usually he has the camera so every once in awhile he asks to be in a shot.

It was a lovely hike but the mosquitoes were a little hard to deal with. So we didn't stay too long. Besides we had other things planned for the rest of our day.