Shavua Tov
It is early Sunday morning and our last day on the Big Island.
On Friday we started our day by taking a short hike from our house thru a mountain trail that led to the area where the Chabad House was located. It was a beautiful quiet trail and quite a comfortable walk. Amazing tropical flowers everywhere....
Along the way we passed a house where they had pineapple growing and then we saw an amazing tree that passersby had carved their names into the leaves. As we were looking at the leaves, a jogger walked by and told us that this is called the Autograph Tree...google it...it's the real name!
The Autograph tree gets its common name (also called the Signature Tree) because of the leaves. Each leaf is fairly large, 5 to 8 inches, oval, thick and sturdy. You can scratch the leaf with a sharp object and it will remove the dark green outer layer and reveal a light green inner layer. People write messages, their name, love notes and other types of graffiti into the leaves. The messages stay as long as the leaf is attached to the tree, often months. The leaves have also been used in the past as playing cards.
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| What we wrote. |
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| What it looked like 48 hours later |
The Autograph tree gets its common name (also called the Signature Tree) because of the leaves. Each leaf is fairly large, 5 to 8 inches, oval, thick and sturdy. You can scratch the leaf with a sharp object and it will remove the dark green outer layer and reveal a light green inner layer. People write messages, their name, love notes and other types of graffiti into the leaves. The messages stay as long as the leaf is attached to the tree, often months. The leaves have also been used in the past as playing cards.
We took a picture of our Anniversary Message in the leaf and then on Shabbat when we walked by the carving had become more pronounced because the heat sort of etches the carving deeper into the leaves. We are going back today to take another picture of the leaf. Amazing.
We continued our day by visiting the local Kona Farmers and Craft market and we finally found fruits and veggies that were a bit more affordable. They had some cute crafts there as well. It is in downtown Kona, which is very touristy...a real beach town. As we would find out on Shabbat, there is nothing quite as sweet as a Low Acidity Maui Gold Pineapple!!!
Then we drove north from Kona to the area where the major resorts are situated on the island. The developers of these resorts have taken lava fields (if you have never seen one, it is quite a dark and stark landscape of black and brown lava rock....think of lava briquets that you would use in your BBQ....strewn randomly over thousands of acres) and cleared areas and planted grass and the most lush vegetation to turn these areas into luxury resorts.
Then we drove north from Kona to the area where the major resorts are situated on the island. The developers of these resorts have taken lava fields (if you have never seen one, it is quite a dark and stark landscape of black and brown lava rock....think of lava briquets that you would use in your BBQ....strewn randomly over thousands of acres) and cleared areas and planted grass and the most lush vegetation to turn these areas into luxury resorts.
The nice thing about these resorts is that the beaches are still public...so you can drive into the resort and use the public beach. Fran took her book and I took flippers and a snorkel that was provided in the house where we are staying and went snorkeling. The bay was small and very protected so there were no great waves...just calm water and the most amazing fish life that I had ever seen up close and personal. Here is one of the fish that I saw while snorkeling.
It would be nice to say that I had taken this photo but I did not have an underwater camera. There was fortunately a large board at the beach with all the different fish that you could see, and this was one of them...google provided the photo of the Butterfly Fish.
Friday night was very quiet as nothing was doing at Chabad and our guest had called before Shabbat to say that he was not feeling well and would not be coming.
Friday night was very quiet as nothing was doing at Chabad and our guest had called before Shabbat to say that he was not feeling well and would not be coming.
On Shabbat morning, we davened (he had told us that the chances of there being a minyan were slim and slimmer!), made kiddush and then walked over to Chabad and the young man was sitting all alone waiting for people who never arrived. We were the only ones who showed up...so I did not have to lain...but we spent an hour talking with him about life and his experiences in Kona...quite amazing...a very difficult life for a frum young man far away from everything Jewish and with no friends at all...just wanting to do some much needed outreach. We were quite impressed with him and his dedication and maturity.
On Shabbat, he was feeling better, so he came back to our house and we had a wonderful Shabbat meal (menu: Wine, Challot, Avocado and Egg Salad...the avocado was picked from the tree in our garden, Hot Veggie Soup made in our traveling crockpot, Roast Chicken, Side Dishes of Couscous, Hot Veggies from the Roast Chicken Pan, Fresh Veggie Salad and a dessert of Pineapple and Papaya). Not too shabby for a traveling meal.
We had a very relaxing afternoon on the large deck in our home.
Today if it clears up, we will do a little more exploring before heading to the airport for our 5 PM flight to Maui.
Hope you are all doing well....All the best
Fran and David
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