Family shots...

My family was here for Christmas and New Years.  This means I had my tripod in tow and had my picture taken more times that I'd have liked.  Thus, it has left me with a bunch of 'group' shots from various places around this island.  Here are a few...plus a couple other pictures from their circle island tour.

Christmas Eve around the Charlie Brown Tree.

Christmas Day in Waikiki after church.

Jerry, Laura and Beth on the lava flow rocks (Spitting Cave of Portlock).

Their picture with the cave below...can you see them way over there?

Laura and the Spitting Cave

Laura found a coconut!  She was very excited.

Sunrise at Kailua.

Sunrise at Kailua.

Us all posing with Chinaman's Hat Island (The politically correct name of the
island is Mokoli'i, but no one in this state is politically correct).

Shave ice at the famous North Shore shop, Matsumoto's

Sunset at Kaena Point

Mahalo for visiting.

Olomana Hike

Crazy hike...potentially hazardous...variable weather conditions...people fall off on a regular basis?    Sounds great!  Where do I sign up?

The Olomana Trail.  It is also known on island as The Three Peaks since you hike up to the peak of three skinny mountains and along their ridges.  I use the work 'hiking' loosely since quite often I was rock climbing, but that just made it more thrilling, and we all know I love a good adrenaline rush.  It's known as one of the more deadly hikes on O'ahu, and I figured out why along the way.

First destination: Peak 1

...messed up my white balance so it's a B/W shot.

FL: 18mm SS:200 f/6.3 ISO:100

Dave is about to join me on top of the ridge.  It was foggy on one side of the mountain.  

FL: 18mm SS:250 f/4.0 ISO:100

The weather was not very clear the first part of the day.  This is a neat shot because you can see the air condensing to a cloud as it goes over peak 3 on the right side (peak two is on the left).  On the coast side it was more clear with high level clouds, but on the island side it was dense with low clouds, fog and rain.

FL: 18mm SS:100 f/8.0 ISO:100

Here is a view of the island side.  Close to cloud level.  In the background is the Ko'olahu Mountain Range that splits the island into Windward and Leeward halves.  You can even see a small little could that is lower than me on the left.

FL: 18mm SS:250 f/4.5 ISO:100

We are now on the second peak and here is where it becomes a little wild.  In this picture you see our third destination: Peak 3!  The line down the middle is the ridge that we will hike up, but first we have to get to the bottom.  Dave is examining the 100 foot drop down the back side of Peak 2 which will put us on the trail to Peak 3's ridge line.  I was the devil on his shoulder saying "don't worry Dave, just hold on to that rope by your feet and drop off the edge."  He would then reply "but do you realize it is raining and that the rope is shredded half way down and the rocks are slippery."  We decided he would go first...

FL: 18mm SS:25 f/9.0 ISO:100

Peak 3

FL: 48mm SS:180 f/8.0 ISO:100

So two pictures ago, Peak's 3 ridge line looked like a straight shot up.  

Once there, it was a different story......around the mountain we go!  

(Don't look down Dave...those tree tops are really far down)

FL: 20mm SS:50 f/8.0 ISO:100

The sky is starting to clear up a little over the Ocean

FL: 18mm SS:320 f/7.1 ISO:100

A shot of the ground/ledge/don't-move-3-inches-either-way.  I'm headed for the end of that blue rope in order to go down and around.  Exciting, right?

FL: 18mm SS:30 f/8.0 ISO:100

Dave on top of Peak 3.

FL: 18mm SS:250 f/9.0 ISO:100

Made it to the third peak.  Here is a shot looking back at the first two.  

Peak one is the tallest point; peak two is to the right.

FL: 18mm SS:40 f/9.0 ISO:100

It stopped raining for the trip back so I could take more pictures.  

Down the ridge of peak 3 we go.

FL: 18mm SS:30 f/8.0 ISO:100

FL: 24mm SS:50 f/19 ISO:200 hole

Up the backside of peak two we go.  See Dave's butt up there?  

FL: 21mm SS:30 f/13 ISO:200

FL: 18mm SS:250 f/9.0 ISO:100

To the left is the slope we are traversing up.  It doesn't look much better from here, 

but at the time it sure seemed like it was straight up.

FL: 18mm SS:150 f/10 ISO:100

FL: 18mm SS:25 f/10 ISO:100

Peaks 2 and 3 again.

FL: 18mm SS:60 f/10 ISO:100

The city of Kane'ohe from Peak 1.

FL: 18mm SS:320 f/8.0 ISO:100

Dolphin Lake (this is where I go paddleboarding)

FL: 70mm SS:160 f/13 ISO:100

Found some lil' Army guys in the woods

FL: 52mm SS:200 f/5.6 ISO:800

Last but not least: A 180 degree, stitched panoramic from atop Peak 3.  

Thanks for reading/looking.  Remember you can always click on the picture to make it bigger on your screen.  Tell me what you think.  I always enjoy comments.  Then I know at least someone is looking (even if all you have to say it 'hi').  Mahalo!

Sorry, sorry, sorry...

Ok, ok.  Sorry I have not posted in a while.  Many of my loyal readers have notified me about their annoyance in the long gap since my last post.  So I figured I would give you all a quick update on life as I currently know it:

Overall, everything is good.  Work is going well.  I was in charge of opening up a new clinic for my company this past week while also running a clinic that I've already been running.  I'm slightly annoyed with work since it has put a damper on Hawaii-fun-time!  The apartment is well (and has furnishing now).  Dave is well.  I saw a rainbow on the way to work every morning this week so that was fantastic; I'm trying not to take them for granted.  And on and on and on...  Last weekend I went to Kailua, a beautiful costal town on the windward side.  I was excited to take pictures because I've received some great tips/constructive criticism from Sends (I'm new to this DSLR camera thing), and was ready to improve my skills.  The plan was to do some hiking and then explore the costal park and beach.  I was hiking up the Pillbox hike (goes up a ridge along the windward coast that has a couple WW2 bunkers on it), and I'm snapping pictures with new and improved settings only to eventually discover that I did not have my SD card in.  Bummer, right!  I left it at home.  So I had to give up on pictures for the day.

It was still an awesome day though.  "Why exactly" you ask?  Because, I've found my new love: Kite Boarding!  Adrenaline rush here I come!  I'm so excited about this.  Basically, you attach yourself to a giant kite and then ride the water like you're on a snowboard.  The people doing it were all over the place.  The kites were beautiful to watch.  I was mesmerized.  The really good riders were ramping off waves while simultaneously maneuvering their kite to give them lift; often climbing 20-30 feet in the air before splashing back down.  It looked like they were flying.  I'm sure its technically complicated (and looks exhausting; every person doing it was very in-shape).  I'm hoping my water skiing, snow skiing, snowboarding, and endurance/triathlon training will help me out when the day comes.   Anyone who listens to me on a daily basis is probably annoyed because I've talked about this ALL week.

Here are a couple pictures I got off the internet so you get the idea of it.  Don't worry.  I'll eventually be in one that is very similar!

I'll have a more exciting post up soon.  I am doing a trail run race tomorrow (Saturday), then surfing on Sunday and SUP'ing next weekend (SUP = Stand-up Paddle Boarding).  Kite boarding isn't in my list yet, but it will be soon.  Unfortunately, lessons are crazy expensive and it's probably a good idea to know what you are doing since you are supposed to wear helmets and "impact chest vests" during the sport.  Anything that requires "impact chest vests" is completely up my ally!


Oh yeah, and go see Dave's Blog:  Dave's Blog.  He has several posts up lately and I'm in some of them.  -Mahalo!