Turtles, Wedding, Rain and More Rain

We finally got to the Hukilau Cafe for coconut pancakes.

Here is Bishop Mahoni with his daughter Brianna.

The wedding reception was huge, in a cricket field, and
authentic "Maori", complete with a haka to
the bride and groom.

Lots of Maori food.

Last Saturday we tried to find the "real" Turtle Beach. We
had to walk over this huge rock field first.

We wondered if we had gone the wrong way. These huge rocks
were easily scaled by the crabs, but were much
harder for us "old folks."

Just when we were about to give up, we came across over
15 turtles on this small beach tucked up in front
of private homes.

We were the only ones here, besides some fishermen
around the point.

There were big turtles, baby turtles and they were
soon joined by 5 more turtles that came out of the
water to warm up on the beach.

In total we were surrounded by 20 turtles.

Afterwards we stopped at the ancient Kukaniloko
birthing stones. The royal Hawaiian women and chiefs
would come here and a woman would give birth
on these stones. The child would then be
whisked away and the mother would not
see the baby until adulthood.

Next stop at the Wahiawa Botanical Gardens.

We found a large variety of huge, lush plants.

There were plants from all over the world.

This giant eucalyptus tree was called a Mindinao
Gum Tree from the Philippines.

This Jade flower plant was also from
the Philippines.

We have  had heavy rain lately with thunder and lightning. I
have never seen it rain so hard for so long, not even at
the cabin on Hebgen Lake. 

Unfortunately, it has flooded Bill's job sites.  

They have been shut down for many days.