Category Archives: Places

Habenaria Medusa orchid

Another flower from the Hilo Orchid Show. These flowers were tiny and so delicate, I would never have thought they were an orchid without the handy label.

’Ulei flowers

A bee forages on ’Ulei flowers. ’Ulei, also known as Hawaiian Hawthorn, is an indigenous shrub that grows in a variety of habitats. I saw this one hiking on the Kau Desert Trail in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

The Numbers Game #88

A green turtle swims in the waters of the Big Island of Hawaii. — A Green Turtle swimming by, taken from shore while waiting for a tour boat.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 210. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

Surf breaks at Mahukona in North Kohala. — High surf at Mahukona.

A crescent moon and palms in black and white — High surf at Mahukona.

Going up

Pumping concrete at a construction site at Hilo Benioff Medical Center in Hawaii — A pumper funnels concrete to the new building.

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Things under Construction.’ See more responses here.

Last Friday, I had cause to visit the hospital in Hilo (Don’t worry, they say the leg will grow back!). The hospital is now called the the Hilo Benioff Medical Center. That’s because Marc Benioff, the CEO and co-founder of Salesforce, donated a chunk of the money to build the addition to the hospital seen in these photos. The addition will greatly expand the Intensive Care Unit and add additional hospital beds.

A crane at a construction site at Hilo Benioff Medical Center in Hawaii — Got to get it in the right place.

Moving materials at a construction site at Hilo Benioff Medical Center in Hawaii — Got to have supplies for all this activity.

Trouble boiling?

I was in Hilo yesterday, and I visited a few places I hadn’t been to in a while. One was Boiling Pots, part of Hilo’s Wailuku River State Park. It’s a beautiful spot, but the river can be dangerous when it’s roaring, so it’s plastered with warning signs.

As you can see, the signs don’t impress everyone. In truth, this group was probably perfectly safe. The river was as low as I’ve seen it. It’s been dry all over the island and the forecast for the day was more of the same. But it’s not the rain in Hilo that causes the river to run, it’s what’s happening on the slopes of Mauna Kea. And while the forecast was good, forecasts can be wrong, as I think we’ve all experienced. But people will be people.

Frankly, the signs at Boiling Pots are something of an eyesore, but the county has to try and cover itself. If those folks did get swept away, their next of kin would likely lawyer up and hold responsible anyone and everyone, except for those who should have known better.