March 28, 2012

Manoa Falls

Well, I have been here for one week.  Hawaii is, of course, known for its beaches, but I hear the hiking is amazing as well.  I wanted a quintessential Hawaii hike.  I have this great app for hiking, Every Trail, on my phone, and I finally decided on Manoa Falls.  It fulfilled my dreams of rain forests, cascading waterfalls and picturesque streams.  Manoa falls is described as the tallest "accessible" waterfall on Oahu (whatever that means?), and it's over 100' tall.  Several films have been shot along the trail and at the waterfall itself, including scenes from the movie Jurassic Park and the TV show LOST.  The place was beautiful and I spend 5 hours on the trails, most of it just frozen in awe!

...oh and as a side bonus: today I officially accepted a job AND signed a lease on an apartment.  Things are moving right along.  The only thing missing is my roommate who is still in NKY: DL, it's like you are never going to get here!  Look at what you are missing!  (don't worry, I can't wait to do it again!)

The trail toward Manoa Falls.  (T3i, manual mode/focus, FL 18 mm, SS 1/40, f-stop 5.6, ISO 1600, WB Shade)

Picturesque Stream along the way.     (T3i, manual mode/focus, FL 39 mm, SS 1/25, f-stop 5.0, ISO 400, WB Shade)

Self pic to prove I was there!     (iPhone)

Manoa Falls in all its Glory.     (T3i, manual mode/focus, FL 37 mm, SS 1/13, f-stop 22.0, ISO 100, WB Daylight)

Manoa Falls.     (T3i, manual mode/focus, FL 18 mm, SS 1/250, f-stop 5.0, ISO 400, WB Daylight)      

Basin at the bottom.  Someone was praying at the base of the falls.     (T3i, manual mode/focus, FL 18 mm, SS 1/50, f-stop 9.0, ISO 800, WB Daylight)

(T3i, manual mode/focus, FL 18 mm, SS 0.6, f-stop 22.0, ISO 100, WB Daylight)    





March 26, 2012

Circle Island


Aloha!  By Thursday I was finished temporarily with all my job interviews.  L. had a rare day that was mostly free.  She was hosted on the radio in regards to her research (congrats!) so we planned to meet up after that.  I took the bus from the leeward (east) side into Honolulu.  I had no idea what we were going to be doing, but was really excited that I’d be testing out my new camera (bear with me on the pictures…I’m still learning how to use this thing).  Before I knew it we were off on my very own ‘Circle Island” tour!  First stop was the Pali lookout.  Pali overlooks Oahu’s windward side, and town of Kailua.  (I think you can click on pictures to expand them?)
Pali Lookout.     (All Pictures: Cannon T3i, Lens EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II, Manual Mode/Focus w/ UV filter and circular polarizer;  This picture: SS 1/2500, f-stop 5.0, ISO 800, WB Tungsten….Sends I know you’ll be disappointed that I forgot to change the WB…oops.  I won’t let it happen again, I was just soooo excited!)
Pali Lookout.     (SS 1/2000, f-stop 5.0, ISO 800, WB Tungsten)
Warning: History Lesson Time!  In the 1700’s Kamehameha I sought to unite all the Hawaiian Islands under one leader.  The Pali lookout was the site of the battle of Kaleleka’anae (which means “leaping fish” and refers to the 400 soldiers that were forced off the edge of the cliff).  Kamehameha I became the first King of the Islands after this battle. 

After this we made a quick stop further up the windward coast at a Macadamia nut farm where I sampled about 10 different flavors (the cinnamon and kona coffee flavored were my two favorites) and had some kona-macadamia coffee (probably the best coffee ever!).   Then we stopped in north east Oahu at Sharks Cove to do some snorkeling and play on the beach.  Unfortunately, the water was too rough to go beyond the rock barrier, but I still saw a few neat fish. 
Shark Cove.  I'm standing on a hill, to get an idea of how big it is, there is a person in the middle of the water.  Can you see him?     (SS 1/2000, f-stop 5.0, ISO 400, WB Daylight)
Shark Cove Beach. (SS 1/60, f-stop 22.0, ISO 400, WB Daylight)
We then had lunch at a food truck across the street (this truck was in the paper the next day as one of the best local places to eat, so L. knew what she was doing!).  Ahi Tuna pan-seared skewers: the best fish I’ve ever had!  (L. made me promise to eat whatever she put in front of me for the day; that was the deal I made, being as I like most things, I was agreeable).

Then we headed toward the north shore.  Suddenly we were stopping quickly at a beach and I was trying to gather beach stuff.  L. told me to stop and just bring my camera.  I was confused but complient.  We get to the beach and I see a sign about how to interact with turtles and I something like: “Uhhh….are we going to see….(and then I suddenly see it)….oh my gosh, oh my gosh, there’s a TURTLE!”  It was an awesome surprise and after doing a happy dance I started taking pictures.  The first 50 I took were horrible since I was so excited I forgot that the camera doesn’t focus/adjust itself when in manual mode, so I had to calm down and refocus on my photography efforts.  Here’s two of the 100 turtle pictures I took.
Turtle Beach. Turtle’s name is Missy (Hawaiian name: Kauila) and she is a 30 y/o female.     (FL: 55mm, SS 1/500, f-stop 5.6, ISO 200, WB Daylight)
Turtle Beach.  Turtle’s name is Olivia-Dawn (Hawaiian name: Ipo) and she is a 35-40 y/o female.  Her claim to fame is in 2004 she made a 1000mi round trip to mate/nest and has performed a 400’ dive; apparently the turtles have GPS!  (FL: 32mm, SS 1/200, f-stop 14.0, ISO 400, WB Daylight)
Well, I didn’t think the day could get much better, but thus it continues:  L. then took me to the Matsumoto Shave Ice in North Oahu’s town of Haleiwa.  Here we had shave ice (there is no ‘d’ on the end of ‘shave’ here in Hawaii).  L. told me I must have beans in it and ordered it with an Azuki bean.  Now I thought this was some kind of seek-and-find within my shave ice, however, to my surprise it wasn’t just one bean, but lots of beans in the bottom.  They were the shape and consistency of kidney beans but much sweeter in taste (thankfully).  Very odd compared to back home.
   (FL: 18mm, SS 1/160, f-stop 5.6, ISO 400, WB Daylight)
Beans in my shave ice!  What are they doing in there?    (FL: 33mm, SS 1/50, f-stop 4.5, ISO 200, WB Daylight)
After this we headed inland from the north, L. said we were now headed up “Pineapple Hill” and I quickly knew we were headed toward the Dole Plantation.  She had particular amusement as I was looking for all the pineapple trees.  She let me struggle for a couple minutes, then finally told me we were currently surrounded by the pineapple PLANTS!  When did I miss that memo growing up?  They grow as a plant?
Dole Building.     (FL: 18mm, SS 1/1000, f-stop 5.6, ISO 400, WB Daylight)
a young pineapple plant.     (FL: 21mm, SS 1/640, f-stop 5.6, ISO 400, WB Daylight)
Then we headed back to the north shore.  We picked up dinner at the grocery store (tuna poke and fresh pineapple), and set off for Sunset Beach for a picnic Hawaiian style!  Before sunset I even grabbed a few pictures of a surfer.
Surfer at Sunset Beach. (FL: 55mm, SS 1/250, f-stop 5.6, ISO 200, WB Cloudy)
Sunset at Sunset Beach…its not just a clever name!     (FL: 55mm, SS 1/250, f-stop 5.6, ISO 200, WB Daylight)
It gets dark in a hurry here after sunset; then we watched the stars come out.  Venus and Jupiter are really bright currently so they were easy to find too.

L. was so gracious to show me around the island.  I was blessed to have the ‘non-tourist-edition.’  It was fantastic and probably the most jam-packed day of excitement I’ve ever had.  

Sorry for the ‘uber’ long post, but several people wanted “lots of pictures.”  I promise they won’t be as long in the future!  (and I’m not sure I could ever accomplish this many things in one day again…I even left a few things out!)  Aloha back home, and a special shout out to my bro and sis:  Happy Birthday to the other 2/3rds of the trio!

March 21, 2012

Aloha Hawaii


Well after weeks of preparation and sad good bye’s (including a rather pathetic one on my part when I dropped Sage off to my sister’s).  Watch out Hawaii.  Here I come.  Welcome to my blog.  I hope this will be a good medium to keep in touch a little better back home.  I hope you enjoy reading and I’ll try to post something weekly.  Intermittent pictures are possible too (still figuring that out, so stay tuned).  

I have received many text/email/calls wondering how my trip went, so that’s what my first post is going to be about. 

Dad took me to the Dayton airport at 4:30 AM Tuesday morning (Thanks Daddio).  From there it was a short jaunt over to Minneapolis/St. Paul.  Upon arriving they were asking for volunteers to take a later flight to my next layover, Seattle.  I had a 6 hour layover in Seattle anyway, so I volunteered.  Delta gave me $400.  Now I only paid $350 out of pocket, and once I include my baggage fees and food for the trip (totaling $80), the grand total for my trip here will essentially be 30 bucks.  Not to shabby, right?  Well, it got better because Delta put me in first class out to Seattle; a pleasant surprise.  I complain about Delta’s stronghold over Cincinnati/NKY airport all the time, but currently I am singing Delta’s praises.  God has sent me so many signs that I have made the right decisions (albeit crazy ones!) about coming here, so I just took this as one more blessing.  I guess I’ll keep following His path and see where it leads.

Unfortunately, for my 6.5 hour flight (Seattle to Honolulu) I was back in peasant-county, and I learned (in case you were curious) that it is actually possible for a toddler to cry for about 5.5 hours straight.  I guess God needed to keep me humbled.  On the flight to Honolulu, I changed seats since there was a 3 seat row with only one person, so I joined him instead of my crammed seat.  Turns out my 'row-partner' is a surf instructor and owns a surf shop (yeah, this only happens to me, right?).  He was great.  He was a transplant from Kansas 8 years ago, so he gave me all kinds of great tips.  I have decided he will be my newest Hawaii friend.  He has brought this on himself since he gave me his information and encouraged me to email.  He has no idea what is coming.

Finally landing at 9 PM Hawaii time (that’s 3 AM KY time) I had completed my journey 23 hours after waking up for the day.  It was off to baggage claim, then a shuttle to the rental car company.  I stopped at my a friend’s house.  We had tuna poke.  Poke (pron: poo-kei; is raw fish usually served as an appetizer in Hawaiian cuisine) tasted awesome and was a great first thing to eat here.  While it wasn't technically sushi, all you sushi-lovers out there would love it!  Then I headed across the island to stay with a different friend (Thanks for having me so far K!).  

Bed at 1 AM Hawaii time and then I woke at 6 AM to a beautiful symphony of birds, breeze and geckos.   One interview down (I had two job offers at that place!) and a few more interviews to go for the rest of the day.  

Send up some more prayers for me that the job/place to live aspects go well.

Mahalo!
Hawaii-Topher

March 11, 2012

Testing 1, 2, 3...

Testing 1, 2, 3...

So, I think I will start a blog for my family and friends that want to keep in touch with what I am doing.  Hawaii time is 6 hours ahead (during Daylight Savings Time) of Eastern Standard time.  The time change will make phone/chat/skype/facetime/g-chat communication difficult at times.  So this is a substitute for real communication...  A good substitute?  No, not even hardly so, but at least it is something!

Hawaii here I come.  Adventures to be had!