On our way home

We are on our way home.  We should touch down in Saint Louis in about 1 hour.  We really had a wonderful trip.  We will be glad to get home and see Grace but otherwise we could have stayed a long while on the Big Island.  The whale watching did not work out - we were a bit early for the whales but we learned a lot about local Hawaiian culture this visit.  It was very interesting.

The flower above is Naupaka.  It grows in a half flower.  The Hawaiian legend is:

That two lovers, greatly devoted to each other, came to the attention of the Goddess Pele. Pele found the young man desirable and appeared before him as a beautiful stranger. But no matter what Pele did the lovers remained devoted to each other. Angered, Pele chased the young man into the mountains, throwing molten lava at him. Pele's sisters witnessed this and to save the young man from a certain death, they changed him into the mountain Naupaka. Pele immediately went after the young woman and chased her towards the sea - but again Pele's sisters stepped in and changed the young lover into beach Naupaka.

It is said that if the mountain Naupaka and beach Naupaka flowers are reunited, the two young lovers will be together again.

 We will give you a few more Hawaii posts over the next few days-  Thanks for dropping in and welcome to our new followers. Randy and Pam and Rodder 98.  Thanks for following!