Hawaii (XIV)

The journey home… on the plane, watching the islands moving further and further away…

Going through patches of white clouds…

The horizon, the Earth… (The rest of the pics were taken with my ipod touch, so they are not as high quality as those taken with my camera)

Reaching Korea:

And then after a few hours we landed, back home in Shanghai. I played too much with the ipod touch and it ran out of battery, so no more pics for this trip, hehehe.

Our trip to Hawaii was complete and we came back home happy, relaxed, and ready to go on other amazing adventures in life. And so, “to be continued” is what I have to say to wrap up this post. Have a most beautiful day, everyone! 🙂

Hawaii (X)

Green Sand Beach…

The sand is really green! It is said that there are only two places on this entire planet that have green sand, Green Sand Beach Hawaii being one of them.

What a privilege to write “I ❤ U” on this unique beach!

Beach Naupaka:

Then a storm was coming and the water became more and more dangerous…

So we decided to leave. And the scenery on the way back was equally amazing.

With these beautiful memories we would leave Kona and fly to Honolulu early the next day…

Hawaii (IX)

The South Point of Hawaii…

On the way to the South Point:

We were there! The serenity that the landscape wrapped us with was indescribable! Speechless was all we could feel.

Then we decided to go to Green Sand Beach. And before we got there, we discovered this beautiful beach below:

Many first time visitors mistook this for Green Sand Beach and wondered where the green sand was. On here, there is none, because this is not it yet. We were told by friendly locals who drive tourists there for a small fee that the proper place was quite faraway and the terrain was too rough for visitors. So we hopped on one of their trucks… And, once on the road, we were thankful that they told us and that we made the right decision!

Photos of the GSB will be posted tomorrow 😛 Have a most beautiful day, everyone! 🙂

Hawaii (VIII)

A lovely village…

A game that the village kids used to play:

Carved wooden sculpture… looks like a chief facing the sea, contemplating on important decisions.

And the sea…

Plants and animals in the village…

Hawaii (VI)

Coming down from the shrine of the most revered goddess, we drove to a place that’s totally different in everything, hue, mood, plants, animals, culture, and everything else. It was the Japanese Garden, Topical style!

It’s a blend of two cultures, creating one unity and beauty…

A large canopy of a huge tree, viewed from outside and inside:

Cute little decorative structures:

A…I don’t know what it is, maybe a ferret? And a Japanese Cat. In fact, there’s a pack of them! Please excuse the blurry pics, my camera isn’t good enough when capturing moving animals…

Beautiful bay…

And… just thought this would be a pretty nice desktop wallpaper, LOL!

Hawaii (IV)

The sea, the volcano, and the stories…

Finally, pics of the sea! It’s amazing how this part of the ocean looked so different from the beach that we had previously visited. We were officially mesmerized…hehehe…

And there are also enchanting stories about the goddess of the island, Pele, and about the turtles, carved in memory and captured by camera!

These sea turtles in the pics below were and still are highly respected, because in ancient times they saved lives of children living on the island.

It was such a privilege to have encountered such magnificent creatures! They, along with all living beings on our planet, are indeed our best companions…

Hubby took a pic of the display panel with the story of Pele and the Naupaka flower on it. It’s very readable, so I’ll just put the pic on instead of typing the story up (so, if you’re interested, please click on the pic to see it with larger fonts) ^_~

Isn’t it an amazing story! And I, after acquainting myself with the Naupaka flowers, felt so thankful and content with the love of my life standing right here by my side. And I am thankful for being reminded of the most privileged gift of love and joy that we often times take for granted.

Hawaii (III.5): Through the clouds

I’ve just recovered more pics from the trip with the rainbow. They were taken when we were on our way up and into the tallest hill of Kona. As we drove up, the clouds became thicker and thicker and were literally surrounding us. As we reached the highest altitude possible for a car, the only thing we could see was the road right ahead of us, and nothing else at all. And all the rest is just a thick, thick mist of clouds. It was an amazing feeling! We were so excited about actually physically moving through clouds! No doubt we were on cloud nine, LOL!

Our camera is not that sensitive and I tried my best to capture what the eyes can see. Still, the camera doesn’t have a brain and so it can’t really differentiate cloud from mist ^_~  Any rate, here are the pics… ^__^

Over the rainbow… Romantic, eh? Actually, driving through from under the rainbow means driving through showers of rain, hehehe…

Still, the breathtaking beauty of this is all worth it!

Highest hill of Kona, covered from mid-section up with cloud.

The beginning: into the clouds, at first just a thin layer barely captured by the camera.

Inside the clouds:

And, looking down…

The actual experience is much, much more magical than can be captured on camera.

What’s amazing is, this part of Kona looks so different from where we board (closer to the airport). The volcano rocks, if there are any, are all covered by a variety of green plants. It felt like we were on a totally different island! Love the contrast! And there’s more to experience and enjoy…

Hawaii (III)

While rainbows are not unique to Hawaii, the precious opportunity to witness a huge, huge half circle of a rainbow and the privilege to drive through right underneath it, now that’s really something! Our camera doesn’t have a panorama function, so I had to take half and then the other half. It is said that a whole rainbow is always a circle; however, because it usually is huge, the best that we can see is often just half a circle. And what a bless to have seen it!

And… after the light shower and the rainbow, the sky, washed clear, decorated with patches of clouds sometimes covering even a hill top, a beautiful, beautiful landscape was sprawling before us:

Then we went to a neat little restaurant and had a great time. What a perfect way to end the day! And there’s more of Hawaii, right there, waiting for us to explore and discover…

Beautiful Season

I like fall — it’s a beautiful season. Still early, but surely it’s coming.

Having lived in quite a few places, I can’t tell anymore which I like best, esp. during this season.

Is it the vastness of the Mid-West that opened my eyes and my heart to an equally boundless joy? Or the sudden serenity that befell upon me walking down Central Park amongst those tall and elegant trees?  Or the falling leaves in Beijing dancing round me in the wind like butterflies in a riot of colors? Or maybe it’s the blue blue sky in Shanghai that’s just above the top of the trees with a touch of white clouds melting and forming and melting again? Or down further south, in the States as in Asia, the still high temperature and the even higher spirit of the people there?

I cannot tell. I love them all. And there are still so many other places, waiting for me to explore and experience.

Memory is a lovely function of not only the brain, but also every single cell of the entire body. A color, a smell, a touch, a sound, a thought… they are all remembered. And only the heart can decide how to remember — what kind of feeling we allow ourselves to bring together with all that’s remembered.

And may everything be remembered with a joyous heart. ~\(≧▽≦)/~