rest of the hawaii photos posted

ah, finally got through the rest of the hawaii vacation photos. albums posted are called:

  • cruising oahu - hitting chinaman's hat and other points of interest
  • luau day - morning began with a hike up [diamond head] then a luau at paradise cove.
  • last day on the island - last minute shopping, packing and...saying aloha.

are your bookmarks social?

you’ve heard of [friendster] right? if you haven’t, friendster is considered a social network. we’ll, if you’ve been using the latest version of [firefox] you might consider social bookmarks, at [del.icio.us]

on del.icio.us you can add, share, and find bookmarks. you can categorize your bookmarks, then add them to firefox as an rss feed so they are live bookmarks. the site looks like it is in pre-beta with some features such as alpha sorting not available. but hey why not give it a try or at least a look-see. you can see what bookmarks you have in common with others.

get lost

our favorite new television show this season has to be [lost] wednesay @ 8pm on abc.

Is this a class picture?

quick shot: plane crashes on a deserted island.  survivors try to figure out where they are, how to contact someone for help, and who they can trust amongst their group.  it’s a dramatic gilligan’s island!

what we like (so far): the story has many mysterious elements surrounding the island as well as passengers on the plane.  when i say ‘so far’, you just never know if the show’s storyline will tank as it moves forward.  the characters not only ‘purtee’ but have some depth.  the writing is strong (again, so far).  this is a show brought to you by the makers of felicity and alias.

what we didn’t like: that it’s only on once a week.  ugh!

russell and marjorie's home

man, it’s october and i’m still talking about our hawaii trip that took place back in august!?!?!?!  well, my memory on specifics is fading (yeah, it comes with age, huh).  this might be the last time i write about the trip.  most of the pictures are posted.  just a few more from the last days we stayed.  anyway, on with the story….

sandy left oahu on saturday afternoon.  for the rest of that day we relaxed.  we picked up jane, then had a late dim sum lunch with ann, who was working.  we might have went to [ala moana], if not that day i’m sure some other days.  but after lunch we did drive to the north shore from shave ice!  some time later that night we went to circut city - i needed to figure out how to download the photos i had since the ipod wasn’t accepting my camera’s connection.  this is where the photo below was taken:

Leaving some DNA behind at Circuit City

uncle johnny and auntie linda treated all of us to sunday breakfast at [anna millers] .  in the afternoon we headed to russell and majorie’s house, in mililani for an late lunch/early dinner.

Russell & Marjorie's beautiful home

russell tried his best to bbq, taking care of most of the food.  when it came to the beef he delegated that task to sim.

onto kauai

the following day, after pali lookout, we went to kauai.  our plane left early in the morning.  funny thing going to kauai, and coming back, was being thoroughly searched.  we did the whole nine yards of getting the metal detector ran over our bodies and having our bags searched. heidi’s back had an extra passenger on the outside, which airport security noticed: a cockroach!  we figured one of our names was a trigger for being searched or our group size.  other way it was a hilarious experience.

with jane’s help, we booked four days and three nights, staying in the [kauai sands hotel].  the kauai sands is a nice little hotel, which if i remember reading correctly, is one of the few family owned hotels left.  our rooms (farrah and i in one, yen, heidi and sandy in the other) where above/below each other.

Farrah throws Yen the aloe vera bottle - damn that sunburn hurts!

the first day on the island was a little rough for me.  for breakfast (most of the days we were there) we ate a place called [eggberts], which was close to the hotel.  i think the jet lag plus the food was catching up to me because i was getting tired pretty quickly driving.  we made a drive to the poipu area of kauai, where there are more resorts and the ocean is calmer then most of the island.  afterward we ate a [puka dog] with the coconut relish.  they were out of the star fruit relish.  oh well.

for day two on kauai we had nothing special planned, just more sight seeing.  we stopped by the visitor’s center in the hotel and asked about boating tours to the napli coast. we decided to take that trip on thursday (the next day).  next, we  did the eggbert’s deal again in the morning. on the walk back to the room we ran across a gecko:

Eek! A Gecko!!!

everyone, including yen, took turns holding the little visitor.  we got in the car and made our way around the eastern part of the island.  the first place we stopped at was the kilauea lighthouse. see all the white dots in the picture below?  those are birds, eh.

Watch out for falling poo!

we then went to the guava farm about 1/2 a mile away.  boy, can the girls shop! they almost bought one of everything in the store.  guava this, guava that. ugh.  we then made our way up north to the princeville resort. huge, lovely, expensive place.  the last place we hit before heading back was hanalei, where we were able to go to a couple of shops in the local center.

thursday rolled around and the big activity that day was the boat trip up the napali coast.  i was going to go with the girls, but after hearing it was going to be rough out there i backed out, preferring to spend four hours by myself at the local mall.  the boat trip started around 3pm, and planned to end around sunset.  from what they describe the trip going up the coast was rough, as the captain sped up there to spend as much time sight seeing as possible.  the trek back down the coast was at a more leisurely pace.

Taking in the sun while heading up the Napli coast

the last day on kauai was short, with our plane taking off early afternoon.  we made a quick trip to the poipu area to grab our last puka dog (no star fruit relish still). we got to the airport and were promptly search before going to the gate.

ah, back on oahu.  so we waited outside for jane to pick us up from the airport.  as we waited i continued to scratch my peeling back.  heidi had an idea to use her lint brush, wondering how much skin would come off.  well, the results are below:

Is that a map of the southern hemisphere?

hellboy

hellboyrating: ** 1/2 out of 5

quick shot: ron perlman  brings hellboy to life, embodying hellboy both physically and emotionally.

what i liked about the film: the look, the story pace, and the comedic elements.

what i didn’t like:  the ending was slightly disappointing,  when it had every opportunity to be stronger.  perhaps a director’s cut of the dvd - which i think is scheduled later this year - will prove to make a better film than the current version.

template changes

made a template change to the weblog page as well as the photos@ page. lmk if there are any problems with the template, as some customization had to be done. also lmk what you think of the template. i like it because

  • it's dark, which hides the tables the enclose the photos
  • it looks cleaner
  • the red is a good contrast to a possible all black look

the style change on the weblog page is meant to partially match the dark look on the photos page.

pali lookout and around oahu

the day after hanauma bay, we went did more driving around oahu, specifically toward pali lookout.  we could have gone the day before, but after six hours in the sun it was difficult to muster any energy.

the drive to pali lookout isn’t that long.  in fact, driving to anywhere on the island doesn’t take too long.  pali lookout overlooks the kloolau mountain range.  it sort of reminds me of twin peaks in city with the wind and view.

A View from Pali Lookout

after pali lookout we drove further on the highway, stopping for lunch at a local thai restaurant.  we then made our way further around the island, stopping along the coast to see manana island (aka rabbit island) and the blow hole also.  picture are located in the pali lookout album.

who's cadi???

who’s new cadillac is this?

caddy-03caddy-04caddy-02

well, let’s ask the car who she belongs to:

caddy-05

yes, farrah’s dad, as of this weekend, is the proud owner of a silver smoke cadillac cts.  sweet huh? it’s a pretty smooth ride. six cylinders, sun/moon roof, leather interior, am/fm/cd/xm satellite radio.  a very nice car to take on a trip.

hanauma bay

well, time to write more about the hawaii trip, since i have some time on my hands.  it’s a hot one here today in sunnyvale.  i’m not sure if it’s hotter than it was at hanauma bay, but it’s pretty close.

Hanauma Bay

on my first full day on oahu we went to hanauma bay.  it was a sunday and the bay was fairly crowded.  some things have chanced at the bay.  it’s five dollars to get in (the same, i think).  before being let loose on the bay you are required to watch a film about the habitat and rules about the reef.  the film is about nine minutes long.

the trek down to the bay wasn’t as long as i remember it when farrah and i went back in ‘97.  you can still snorkel in the bay, but you can’t feed the fishes any longer.  we spent sixhours at the bay.  needless to say most of us paid for it with a nice sunburn, especially me.  my whole backside and most of my frontside was sunburned.  the only one to escape this fate was farrah.  [see hanauma bayphotos]

later that same evening, we had a bbq at auntie’s house.  oysters, korean bbq, and plenty more to be eaten that night.

Enjoying the Warm Evening in Aiea

after the bbq we rested for more site seeing around oahu.