Fri Sep 7th, 2023
I went on a hike to Angel Island recently. It was the first time I’ve been there. You take a ferry to the island, which makes it feel like a special little trip.
We took our time during the hike, which turned out to be very fun, because I didn’t know there would be additional sites to see other than general wilderness. There were plenty of those, as well, to be sure – such as this giant version of what, to me, resembled a huge specimen of the “Dracaena” plant we have in our kitchen!
I had no prior knowledge of this plant before, and because we had just started Pikmin 4 around this time, I could not help relating to the starting parts of the game. When your little alien astronaut friend exclaims, “The plants on this planet are huge!” While you, as the player, cannot help thinking how silly these aliens are – how they are unaware by how they are the tiny ones!
More rambling about the hike and plants in the full post:
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On a meta note, sorry for the unplanned delay at the end of summer! August ended up being much busier than anticipated. September is also looking to be busy. I’m not sure how many pages I will be able to do this month, but I have several page ideas noted down to start! Things should slow down at the start of October, but I’m hoping to have new pages completed before then. We’re so close to 30 pages! (Which honestly isn’t that many, but it is a tiny milestone for me, haha!)
I also experimented with the color for this page. Because the pattern of the Dracaena leaves look distinctive to me, I thought this page might benefit from color. To make it easier for anyone familiar with the plant to identity. The specific variety of Dracaena we have is called a “Dracaena Lemon-Lime,” which perfectly mirrored the giant version we saw on the hike (which I later learned is called a “Caribbean Agave”).
What is a Dracaena?
A Dracaena is a very common type of tropical houseplant. It is often on lists on easy-to-care plants for beginners. We inherited ours from a past roommate a few years back. It seems to be doing well in its little corner in the kitchen!
The size of this giant, wild “Dracaena” was comical to me. It was humorously almost too-large.
Was this a giant Dracaena?
Later on, after our return, I wanted to find out if the plant we saw really was a Dracaena. Or, if it was related to our miniature version. It took me a surprisingly longer time that I thought it would to track it down – but I eventually learned its proper name. It is not a Dracaena, and is called a “Carribbean Aloe.”
A very pretty plant, and since then, I’ve spotted it a few times back on the main coast. It brings me delight every time I see one!
Misc Info about Angel Island
Because Angel Island was sort of the west coast counterpart to Ellis Island on the east coast, there were a number of shrines and preserved, historical landmarks commemorating its past cultural significance. The shrines were dedicated to the immigrants who passed through during the past two centuries, and there were even a few written in Chinese.
Compared to Ellis Island, from the plaques on Angel Island, it looks like the treatment of immigrants was much worse on Angel Island, by comparison. Many of the shrines referenced those hardships faced by people seeking a better life in America.
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