These three buildings in downtown Honolulu look, to me, like an architect’s drawing, all mirrored glass and carefully rendered lines. “Picture yourself living in the heart of downtown Honolulu, in a luxury apartment with its own private balcony.” Aaaargh.
Posted in response to this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge ‘Lines.’
Recently, these two new speed limit signs appeared, alongside the main road, not far from where I live. Nothing too remarkable about that, you may say, but it is odd. The first sign gives the speed limit as 45 miles per hour, but the second sign mandates a minimum speed of 40 miles per hour. Seems like a prime area for tickets to be handed out. I can’t imagine anyone getting very far without breaching one of those two limits.
As it happens, about a quarter mile before this pair of signs, there’s another pair that have been there a long time. Those signs, which mark the departure from a more residential area to a largely uninhabited stretch of road, mandate a speed limit of 55 miles per hour, with the same minimum speed of 40 miles per hour.
So why would the county want people to speed up to 55 only to put the brakes on a few hundred yards down the road? They don’t. They just put up the wrong sign. It was gone a few days later.
This isn’t the first time the Hawaii County Department of Public Works has had a sign problem. In late 2016, a major new road project, the Mamalahoa Highway Bypass, south of Kailua-Kona, was completed. Where this new road joined the existing Mamalahoa Highway, a dangerous Y-shaped junction became a fully-signaled, four-road intersection.
Most people were thrilled with the new, safer setup, but not all. People unfamiliar with the area were perplexed. They didn’t know where to go because the major new highway intersection didn’t come with any signs. If that sounds like it must be an exaggeration, it is a bit. There was one sign, on the old road, that had not been removed during the project. Unfortunately, because of the intersection’s redesign, the directions it gave were wrong. It indicated the main highway went straight ahead, but that now sent traffic plunging down a steep, winding road into a populous residential area.
As with our local sign, after a few days the old highway sign disappeared and a week or so later proper signage was erected for the new intersection.
Hala (Pandanus tectorius) is an indigenous tree that might have arrived here on its own – the fruit floats and is salt tolerant – but was probably also brought over by the Polynesians. One feature of the tree is the dark green leaves, which are sword-shaped and bent, and which grow at the and of the branches. Here they look like star bursts against a blue sky.
One of the first things anyone visiting a rocky seashore here will see is lots of little black shapes skittering away. Those shapes are a’ama crabs.
On this day, I had, as usual, spooked the crabs into motion, but after putting a little distance between me and them, they settled down again. Where they settled was on this sloping rock next to a blowhole. Moments later, water shot out of the blowhole creating this scene.
Where I would have been squealing and running from the sudden deluge, the a’ama crabs remained. I guess, living on these rocky shores, they are well used to this sort of thing.
One of those photos better taken with a telephoto lens, perhaps. This is by the old Civilian Conservation Corps Cabin near the Palila Forest Discovery Trail on the slopes of Mauna Kea.
For more information about Palila Forest Discovery Trail, go to dlnr.hawaii.gov/restoremaunakea/palila-forest-discovery-trail/.
A green turtle comes to the surface for air, looking mysterious and somewhat threatening.
This sign can be seen at Pana‘ewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens in Hilo, and that’s Sriracha pacing behind the fence. I post this because I really want one of those signs. It would be great, give local kids something to think about, maybe even cause the neighbor’s dogs to think twice before pooping in the yard.
The only thing that could improve this sign is to add, ‘or we’ll throw you over the fence.’
For more information about Pana‘ewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens, go to hilozoo.org.
I’d rather be out exploring, which is how I found conclusive evidence of the existence of this previously unknown creature – half man, half bird. I bet it spends a good deal of its time going around in circles.
Posted in response to this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge, ‘I’d rather be…’
Graham's Island 