Farmers' Market and Mangosteens

 We are reaching the end of this trip to Hawaii with the last group of visitors (Todd, Jess, Porter) just arriving. We have made multiple visits to farmers' markets throughout the island, but I thought I could offer something unique about this trip. 

The local farmers can't compete with COSTCO, but they have unique produce, and visitors appreciate the opportunity to buy local. You do have to watch out for resellers who offer pineapples and other products from COSTCO. 

The following fruit are Mangosteens. These are considered the "Queen of Fruit" and are very expensive (about $3). You eat them by popping off the cap and removing the small white sections found within that are arranged like the sections of an orange. The sections may or may not contain a pit. Like most unique fruits I have tried here, they must be an acquired taste. I like the apples bananas, tangerines, and oranges. The oranges often look ugly, but taste great if you can handle the high juice content, which makes them messy to eat. 

Back Roads

 We had quite an adventure getting Todd, Jess, and Porter home from the airport. We were driving back and found the road closed, so we had to take a detour. We found out today that there had been a fatality of a moped driver on the main road, and as a consequence, the road was closed for several hours. We guessed that an accident had occurred, as the detour seemed poorly planned and took us over a very narrow, partly gravel road unsuited to the volume of traffic it had to handle. A mile or so short of getting back to the highway, everything in both directions stopped. The road had become very rough, and a car had become stuck in a series of deep potholes. Hundreds of cars are in the middle of nowhere in the dark. Eventually, the car was extricated and one-way movement was initiated. This is not an easy process without direction, and everyone just sat for quite a time. We were only a couple of cars from the trouble spot and someone in the other lane finally stopped so that some cars from our lane could proceed.

There was a full moon so I tried to take some photos as we waited.

Wiamea Canyon

 The Waimea Canyon, sometimes called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, offers several overlooks with spectacular views, a great small rest stop, a waterfall, and hiking trails for those who are so inclined. We visited a couple of weeks ago, and I remembered I intended to write a related post when I saw the photo of our license plate in my photo collection. You have to sign in ($10 per car and $5 per visitor) and get a little pass to place on your dashboard. The pass must include your license number, I suppose, so you cannot pass it on to someone else when you leave. You learn to take a photo of your rental car's license plate before you head to pay, so you don't have to walk back to your car when you are told you need the license plate number. 

Nakita, Preston, & Kaia