December 31, 2008
It’s been quite a while since I’ve written anything here. It’s not that I’ve stopped being social online; rather I’ve been using Twitter so much that writing a full-on blog post has seemed both time-consuming and unnecessary.
So what’s been going on? Three things mostly: work, xbox gaming, and Ruby on Rails programming. I’m happy to say I’ve finally got RoR pretty well figured out, and have created some pretty neat stuff with it so far (mostly around xbox social networking). My long-term goal is to use it the next time I re-design the Lab Rescue web site.
I’m off work this week, and it’s nice to relax at home, see family, visit friends, and generally relax.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!
Posted in computing, gaming, misc 
Leave a comment »
October 22, 2008
A week and a half ago I went on a “Washington Photo Safari” — a very early (and very original!) birthday gift from Kathie. The safaris are short (3-hour) practical photography classes in and around Washington DC, usually focusing on a particular aspect of photography. My class was “Monuments at night”. Scott came along as well, and the evening started off great with 1) an impossibly good parking spot 50 feet from Constitution Ave, and 2) nearly perfect weather, considering the time of year.
There were six to eight people in our class, and we started by hearing all about tripod use and shutter speeds. We started at the World War II memorial, where the lighted fountains were a great night subject. We also had the Washington Monument to the East and the Lincoln Memorial to the West to photograph. Next was the Korean War Memorial, 19 haunting statues of soldiers dramatically lit from below, and then we went inside the Lincoln Memorial. The last two stops were the Vietnam Memorial, and the Albert Einstein Memorial.
I had a few technical difficulties through the night (dirt on lens, crooked tripod, problems focusing clearly at night), but still took some pretty nice photos I think. The best of the night are in my gallery here, and a sample is below:
World War II Memorial
Posted in photography 1 Comment »
October 5, 2008
Friday was our last day in Hawaii. It’s amazing how fast 8 days can pass by when you’re on vacation. Since our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 10pm we had one more full day to explore Hawaii. We checked out of our pretty fantastic condo and had one more fling at our favorite breakfast place, Lava Java.
Since our Hilo trip was a bit of a bust, we decided to try it again today. The drive was uneventful and much faster since we didn’t take any scenic detours this time. We stopped for lunch at a Thai place that had gotten good reviews in our Fodor’s book. The food was decent, but not fantastic. After lunch we headed to the two falls right outside of Hilo: Rainbow Falls, and Pe’epe’e Falls.
Rainbow Falls is best seen after a heavy rain, unfortunately we hadn’t gotten much rain while we were there so the falls were pretty tame, but still quite beautiful. The water falls down eighty feet with a cave right behind it. There’s also lots of lush vegetation around the falls and a staircase to see the top of the falls. Unlike a typical river that falls over a cliff, there are huge “bowls” where the water sits until the water gets high enough. There are even some areas that locals use as a swimming hole.
In front of Rainbow Falls
After exploring Rainbow Falls, we drove up a little further to Boiling Pots, a series of cascading pools. The water falls from Pe’epe’e Falls enters Boiling Pots, an area of old lava rocks and tubes. With a heavy rain, the water appears to boil and bubble as it moves downstream. We followed a pathway down towards the pots and watched locals and tourists swimming in one of the “pots” (low water levels makes it much safer) and one of the locals was cliff-jumping into the water. Again another beautiful area. I’d highly recommend bringing a swimsuit and hanging out at either falls if you’re visiting this area.
The Boiling Pots of Pe’epe’e Falls
We went back to Hilo and drove through Banyan Drive, a lane that curves around the waterfront with banyan trees planted by various celebrities like Babe Ruth, Amelia Earhart, and Cecil B. DeMille. Each of the banyan trees has a small plaque in front with the name of the planter. We stopped at Liliuokalani Gardens on Banyan Drive. The garden is the largest formal Japanese garden outside of Tokyo. The garden looks so well-manicured with ponds, pagodas, moon-gate bridges, and little fish. It’s a great place to relax and have a picnic. After our fill of nature, we decided to do the tourist thing and walk around the various shops in Hilo and pick up some souvenirs.
Liliuokalani Gardens
With evening approaching, we made the long drive back to Kailua-Kona, and opted for a simple dinner at… you guessed it, Island Lava Java. Finally, we returned our rental car, and waited at the airport for our 10pm flight back home.
Posted in vacation Leave a comment »
September 30, 2008
We woke up Thursday morning with no real idea of what we wanted to do for the day. We had already seen Kona, travelled north towards Hilo, drove south to the coffee farms and volcano. We had covered pretty much everything that we could do with our little compact car.
Early in the morning, Kathie decided we should go kayaking. On our catamaran snorkeling trip, she noticed a kayak company in the same harbor so she fired up the laptop and found their phone number. We called and they had two spaces available for that morning so we reserved them and got ready. We had time to stop at our favorite morning café, but we only got croissants to go while we headed to the harbor for an early start. Again we had a very small crowd of maybe 12 people and 6 kayaks total. We paddled out of the harbor into Keauhou Bay and into the ocean. The water is quite beautiful with visibility of over 30 feet deep.
We headed south along the cliffs and stopped at Kuamoo Bay and a sea cave also called Dragon’s Throat Sea Cave. The sea cave wasn’t very deep since it’s still pretty new. The guide would take each kayak to the mouth of the entrance and talk about the formation of sea caves and the hawaii shoreline. The cave is called Dragon’s Throat because of the force and spray of water coming from the back of the cave. When the waves come into the cave, there’s a small pocket of air in the back of the cave and with the force of the water, there’s a large booming noise and large spray of water coming back out. It makes kayaking to the entrance of the cave rather exciting since the swells will push us towards then back out of the entrance.
After the sea cave we stopped for some snorkeling and refreshments. The snorkeling was pretty good, not as nice as Kealakekua Bay; however we were lucky to see a pod of dolphins including a mother and baby very close to us. We climbed out of the water for a while to enjoy some snacks, drinks, and great pineapple. For those more adventurous there was a chance to jump off a 23-ft cliff into the water below. Kathie couldn’t resist and tried it pretty quickly but she couldn’t even come close to convincing Mike to make the plunge. Once we finished snorkeling, eating, and jumping we headed back to the Bay.
In Keauhou Bay we were able to get our dog fix. A local comes by every morning with his chocolate retriever Achtung. She’ll retrieve coconuts from the harbor for hours. Kathie had a blast playing with Achtung, especially since the dog would dance in circles waiting for us to throw the coconut into the water. While playing, we got to see a couple of green turtles eating algae at the bottom of the seawall.
We headed back to the condo to shower, clean off, and relax. Since this was nearing the end of our vacation, we wanted to find someplace relatively nice to eat dinner. Using the wonders of the internet we found Don the Beachcomber’s restaurant in Kona that had a lot of great reviews. Mike made the reservation. Kathie enjoyed the seafood, Mike liked the steak, but it wasn’t up to mainland standards in our opinions. After dinner we walked around Kona for a while checking out the various shops, enjoying the weather, and the atmosphere.
Sunset dinner at Don the Beachcomber’s
Posted in vacation Leave a comment »
September 28, 2008
After the very long day driving and walking around Volcano Park, we chose to relax, catch up on blogging, do some laundry, and just hang out at the condo all day Wednesday. For breakfast we headed to our favorite stop, Lava Java and noshed on some more yummy cinnamon pull-aparts. While at Lava Java, we saw a cruise ship had anchored sometime last night/early morning and there were already a fair number of tourists in Kailua-Kona. With all the extra people in town, we knew staying at the condo and relaxing was a good idea for us.
That evening we scheduled a luau at Kona Village Resorts. The reviews we read stated this was the best luau on the Big Island. Again we were lucky and it wasn’t terribly crowded so all the seats had good views of the stage. Before the buffet started, we were all able to watch the cooks remove the pig and turkey from the imu, or underground oven. They explained the entire process of the imu and cooking. A pit is dug into the ground and mesquite wood is placed at the bottom with lava rocks. The wood is set on fire and the rocks are allowed to heat for two to three hours. The pig is placed in a wire mesh (once the pig is cooked, it becomes so tender that it needs to be contained or else it falls apart in the imu). The skin and internal cavity of the pig are rubbed with salt then some of the heated lava rocks are placed inside the pig to ensure it is well-cooked. Since an imu cooks meat with steam, green vegetation is used to provide the steam and prevent scorching to the food. The imu is lined with banana leaves, ti leaves and other types. The pig is placed into the imu and covered with more leaves and a covering material, then the dirt is placed on top to prevent steam from escaping. The food is then allowed to cook for about six hours and removed.
Removing the cooked pig from the imu
After watching the imu process it was time to eat! The buffet was full of pork, turkey, seafood, and vegetables. The food was quite good with the exception of the poi. Poi is a hawaiian staple food made from the taro root. Most first-timers compare poi to wallpaper paste (mostly due to the consistency) and Kathie was no different.
Once everyone finished eating, the show began. The mistress of ceremonies explained the history of hula and how it is divided into two major categories: ancient hula (kahiko) involving chant and traditional instruments, and modern hula (‘auana) accompanied by music and ‘western’ instruments such as guitar and ukulele. Both the men and women dancers were quite good, it’s amazing how the women can move their hips!
Watching some musicians before dinner
Posted in vacation Leave a comment »
Thanks for visiting! Here you'll find my blog on topics such as cancer, photography, dogs, and technology, as well as a variety of other pages and links. Click "About" from the menu above for more detail.
Subscribe by email
Recent Comments