Senator Fong's Plantation and Gardens

I took the 1:00 tour of the Senator's gardens but it was more like a jungle. The Senator bought the property in 1950 and spent the subsequent 50 years planting anything and everything until he died in 2004. Grant, one of the gardeners, led the tour. He has worked for the Senator or his family on and off since he was 12 years old.




This is called a cannonball tree for obvious reasons. The fruit or nut or whatever it is is very heavy and, according to Grant, has no real use other than as a ball in a rousing game of lawn bowling.









The mountains in the distance were very hazy due to vog conditions. Once the tradewinds stop blowing, the immense amounts of ash and sulfur being spewed from the volcano on the big island settle around the entire island chain. It's been like this for a couple of days now and some portions of the population are reporting respiratory problems. The winds are supposed to pick up again tomorrow or the next day and all should be well. Unless, of course, this is a precursor for the big one, and Hawaii is about to become the Pompeii of 2008.