Wednesday, June 17, 2009

I caught something unexpected yesterday

Don't worry, it's not swine flu or anything. I had to do some work in Honolulu yesterday, and I decided to take the long way home and drive around the S.E. part of the island and then up the windward coast. I love going this way, it's one of my favorite drives on the island. The water on that side is this deep, bright, amazing blue that you just don't see from the other sides of the island. I was trying to click pictures out my window when I decided, This?  Is stupid. I don't have anywhere to be, and it's beautiful outside. I should just stop and hang out. So I did. My first stop was at a little pull-off between Hanauma Bay and the Halona Blowhole-I'm not sure if there's an actual name for it or not. I climbed over the rock wall and walked around on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and got these shots.







Then I changed location and got these shots.
This couple was having a lot of fun with the waves that were coming in and crashing against the rocks.  

And here I am, admiring everything from my vantage point, including myself!  (Maybe "admiring" isn't quite the right word-I kind of look like a doorknob in silhouette.)


This is a close-up of what was going on down below me. I love all the different colors of blue.

After this, I decided it was time to get a move on, so I got back on the road and was driving toward Blowhole, when I spotted this:  

If I had been looking somewhere else for just a second, I would have totally missed it.  Of course, I had to pull over and try to get a picture.  So, I parked at the Blowhole parking lot and walked back along the road to where I'd seen this.  It was a little precarious; I was walking inside the guardrail, and I had about 18"-24" of  uneven asphalt before the 100' (?-I'm really bad with distances) drop down the rocks to the beach below.  I had my camera in one hand, I was wearing flip-flops, and I had on a skirt that I had to work at keeping modestly arrayed in the wind.  If anybody had hit the guard rail, I would have been screwed.  Luckily, nobody did, and I was able to get these shots!  


This one shows a little better where the rainbow was coming from.  The area is called Blowhole because there's a blowhole there (hey, sometimes the world actually makes sense!), which is a hole in the rocks that acts much like a blowhole on a whale or dolphin.  When the water rushes in with a wave, it gets pushed up through the blowhole and shoots up into a mist.  You can see that beginning to happen with the plume of water/spray to the left of the rainbow.  So, anyway, that was my unexpected sighting that I was able to catch on film.  :) 

6 comments:

Mike said...

That was something worth stopping for. There is some beautiful scenery in Hawaii. Much better than my suburban power lines. :)

donna said...

Your photos temporarily transported me to Hawaii. Thanks for the tour. Love the photo of the couple frolicking on top of the rocks, but the best is your doorknob silhouette. What a good writer you are.

Dreamybee said...

Mike-It was definitely worth stopping for! If it makes you feel any better, we have plenty of power lines out here too. :)

Donna-Wow, thank you. I'm glad you liked my doorknob silhouette. LOL!

Heather J. @ TLC Book Tours said...

Those views are gorgeous! The colors of the water especially.

There's a beach in CA called Blowing Rocks that has lots of those blowholes and it is REALLY amazing. My cousins took me there on my last visit to the Left Coast.

As they say, always take time to smell the roses (or the salt water as the case may be). :)

Dreamybee said...

Heather-They really are-I love this drive. Blowing Rocks sounds cool. Ha!-"Left Coast"-that's how I need to start referring to things. It always takes me a minute to straighten out East and West in my head for some reason. And, yes, we should always take the time to smell the roses or the ocean or whatever. Otherwise, what's the point in having them there?

Jeanne said...

Thanks for those photos!

Have you heard me say that I think Hanauma Bay is one version of heaven?