Amoeba and the Quill are in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island. He gets to work everyday in a laboratory with his algae specimens and a microscope. She is having to enjoy the beaches, shoreline drives, and beautiful scenery. I know it seems unfair, but she is making do.
Kailua Bay
Humpy's Big Island Ale House
They went out to dinner the other night and walked back to the condo together along Ali’i Drive. She took a couple of photos of the sunset.
I’ve been doing internet research on Cheap Flights. It is time for a trip east to see Amoeba’s family. We were there last February for Amoeba’s mom’s 80th birthday, but it looks like we won’t make it back until April this year.
I am all up for visiting in April. I recall very well that February was cold! I’ve had enough of that now, thanks. I’m looking for warm and All Cheap Fare is helping me! They offer up to 65% off the price off regular airfare!
At any rate, Amoeba wants me to score the Airline Tickets asap. The earlier we buy the cheaper they are.
I am excited to see Tilden! I am also excited to see the Atlantic up close and personal. I saw it last year, but I didn’t get out of the car. It was way too cold!
Speaking of being warm, All Cheap Fare also sells vacation packages. You suppose Amoeba would notice if I booked a vacation for two in the Caribbean? I can see me on the beach with one of those little umbrella drinks in my hand.
I’ve been busy visiting with my family. Amoeba seems to be holding up well. He has even admitted to enjoying himself a couple of times.
I am keeping up with all of your comments on my blog via my phone. I can’t actually read my blog — operator error I am certain — but I do get your comments emailed to me. The reason you haven’t heard from me more is two fold: busy (I already said that) and stupid. I packed my mouse and my keyboard, but I managed to leave my computer at home.
I am currently using Amoeba’s laptop. That means my time here is limited. I am sorry I can’t get around to visit all of you. Likely I will see you soon. We are traveling home tomorrow.
We didn’t buy tickets to the luau. Luaus are for tourists. We’re not. Unfortunately, I forgot that Ella was. When the drums started she got all excited. I took her outside on the balcony and told her we could watch it from a bird’s eye view. Oh boy, you should have heard her shriek and whistle when the torch bearers came in.
Sorry the photo is blurry. Ella was jumping around and jostled my arm. I thought for sure she was going to fall off the balcony — or jump! She wanted a closer look at those hunky men.
The torch bearers circled the spectators three times. Truth to tell, I was enjoying my look at the hunky men, too. that’s probably why I didn’t notice until too late that Ella was no longer on the balcony. In fact, she was no longer in the room!  I shot out the door and headed for the elevator.
Of course she had quite a head start on me and was already on th4e ground floor before I got into the elevator car. I didn’t know what she would do or how she would behave when they wouldn’t let her onto the luau grounds because she didn’t have a ticket. I needn’t have worried.
She’s an eleven inch tall plush elephant. She walked right in under the radar. Problem was, I couldn’t go get her!
She climbed up on a chair, then she climbed up on a table. Then she started wiggling her ample elephant ass-ets! Oh my! I thought about going back to the room and pretending I didn’t know her.
About that time the bus boy showed up at the table and said no pets were allowed because of the food. Of course everybody denied knowing Ella. The bus boy picked her up and escorted her to the gate — where I was waiting for her.  I told her I was going to take Melli’s advice and buy her a leash!
Ella promised she’d be good if I would please let her stay close to watch the luau, so we went to the terrace.
One of the tiki gods was kind enough to share a planter with her. Unfortunately between the shrubbery and the other non-paying watchers standing around, Ella couldn’t really see much and I didn’t get any decent photo opps. Finally she said my idea of watching from our balcony really was the better choice, so we went back upstairs.
We missed the female hula dancers and only caught the end of the men’s performance, and then the luau was over. Ella was pretty upset about that, but I reminded her who it was that wasted all of our time and insisted on going downstairs to see the show. “Oh,” she said. Pft.
Ella and I were on our way to breakfast. We had dropped Amoeba off at work and were looking for a little local diner, not a tourist spot. We headed off the beach strip and up into the hills. The road was twisty and dense vegetation packed either side, but every other curve or so there was a pull-out and I caught glimpses of a shopping center on the ridge above us.  Just as I turned the last corner, Ella yelled for me to stop.
She was hopping all over the car, pointing out the window and jabbering a mile a minute. I thought for certain she’d seen a dead body along side the road. I wondered if I should call 911. I pulled over and Ella shot out of the car and ran down the road as fast as her fat little elephant legs could move her. I followed.
I am so glad I had enough sense to grab my camera. Hylocereus Undatus is generally only seen at night. Like a vampire, it cannot stand the light of day and withers away when sunlight hits it.
Thanks to the dense vegetation on either side of the road, the sun had barely made it to this patch, but this flower is already closing up.
Most of the flowers had 3 or 4 bees in them frantically working to gather the pollen before the blossom closed and wilted away.
I got Ella to pause here so I could take a picture of her, but for the most part she was climbing through the prickly cactus like she was on a mission. I asked her what she was looking for.
“Dragon fruit!” She told me. “This is the kind of cactus that produces Dragon fruit.”
Then we both looked, but we didn’t find any. Later I asked Amoeba about it. He said the chances of the Hylocereus undatus creating fruit were slim because there weren’t many fruit bats on Kona to pollinate the plants. I told him the plants were full of bees and asked why they couldn’t do the job.
Amoeba explained that the pollen is actually too far away from the stamen, which the bees never go near because they have no reason to. If Ella and I had known that, we probably would have hung out on the mountainside caressing flowers and tickling stamens — and I likely would have gotten stung for my trouble. Since I am allergic, it is probably best we didn’t know.
