Hawaiian memories

Today a client sent me an email asking how my vacation was... it's funny to think "what vacation?" when it was less than a month ago! My boyfriend Sky just shared the photos with me, so here are a few to share with you. We went to Hawaii on the Hilo side, essentially to crash a couple's wedding since they don't have a strong memory of inviting us... but fun was had by all nevertheless! It was a short trip, so we stayed on the Hilo side and enjoyed the natural wonders looking for isolated adventures whenever possible.

This photo is the "backyard" of the place we stayed in. Super gorgeous!! The snorkeling was incredible although both Sky and I got a little freaked out in the water for various reasons.

My adventure of choice one day was to go see waterfalls. We sought out several along with large busloads of other people, so we snapped some pics and moved on our way since the crowds weren't our thing.

This banyan tree was at one of the waterall areas, so even though hundreds of other people were photographing it, we had to as well because look at it! It's gigantic and weird! Definitely unlike other arborean species I've seen.

Sky's adventure of choice was lava and the volcano... we went to several spots. This is a lava field that swallowed tons of houses. Isn't it impressive how much life emerges from such a weird substance?

The gigantic lava bulges made us nervous... actually we were not allowed to walk on the lava in this area. Some of the cracks were really deep and usually filled with ferns and other plants... a bizarre contrast to all the hot blackness.

We also embarked on a jungle hike that led us to natural lava steam rooms (actually it hid the lava steam rooms). This space is hotter than a suana! And look at the orchid growing through a bench that someone installed. We only found this crazy space because a pair of underwear were hanging on a bush which caused us to look around. The hike would've been more enjoyable if we had known there were no snakes on the island, which we only learned afterward so we were super paranoid the whole time.

A lava adventure day would not be complete without a black sand beach... really cool to see. The surf was a little rugged for us to swim so we got soaked just standing next to it.

This beautiful jungle path is what we walked on when hiking to a volcano. The whole island felt like we were driving through jungles like this. It was amazing to see larger-than-life-sized plants that I've owned as sad little houseplants before... now I understand the moist climate they enjoy.

We made some new friends (also wedding attendees), and this was their "backyard" for the week. I was brave enough to snorkel here while holding hands with my friend Karen... we saw a cool purple eel and tons of rockin' fish but not the sea turtles we were hoping for.

Thanks for looking back with me! I'll share some crazy plant images in another post... really hoping they will inspire some new work explorations!