11-29-10 Chillin and Grillin

Sorry it's been so long. I'm working like crazy. Took the time off to grill tonight though!

11-22-10 Holiday Spirit in Hawai'i

11-21-10 Sunsent

Nice picture from Saturday that I saved

11-20-10 UH Game

UH Warrior football game!

11-19-10 Rooster

Yeah. There was just a rooster walking around downtown Honolulu. There isn't much more to say.

11-18-10 Sunrise from the Balcony

Purple

While everything is getting gray in the northeast, we're enjoying the bright colors of this island. Particularly purple.

These are the purple and yellow flowers that John brought me on Monday evening. They looked pretty nice in the morning light flooding our apartment, which faces east.

And here is my purple bike! It's made transportation much more efficient. Although it doesn't help with grocery shopping as much as I expected-- a gallon of milk on my back and bags hanging from each handlebar is not that fun to travel with. You'll also notice my helmet. For some crazy reason, I seem to be one of the few people in Honolulu who actually wears one!

Sending lots of sunshine and bright colors to you all!

-Raquel

11-16-2010 Guest Post

Hi everyone! John is letting me post today. On my way home from yoga this afternoon, I rode past the Iolani Palace, as I always do. Except today it was festooned with Hawaii State flags and banners, and the Royal Band was playing. It was a celebration commemorating the birthday of King Kalakaua, who reigned from 1891 to 1894, according to Google.

Members of a heritage organization walked off the porch after the event ended, including two descendants of the royal family.

Afterward, I went to Goodwill to pick up some things we needed for our apartment. The sign behind the counter was funny.

Saludos,

Raquel

11-15-10

The view from my office

11-13-10

I hate to do the same pictures again, but these are much larger pictures from my balcony. You can see the clouds rolling down from Manoa Valley

11-12-10

Sorry I missed a day. I hope the double rainbow (*DOUBLE RAINBOW*) I saw on the way to work today makes up for it! These rainbows never get old.

11-10-10 My Work

The last leg of my walk. The courthouse is the brown cement-y looking building on the left

11-9-10 Night and Day Walk to Work

Starting my third week here in Honolulu, I am still amazed at how aesthetically interesting (and I think pleasing) this city is. These are two apartment buildings that I walk past on my way to work. They feature prominently in skyline shots on the television show Hawaii 5-0. The top picture was taken at 7:45 on my walk to work this morning, the bottom at 6:30 on my walk home.

11-8-10 Route to Work

Today was my first day at work, so I didn't really have the chance to take a good picture outside. I decided instead to share with you guys my walking route to work! I promise I'll find a good one tomorrow!

11-7-10 Beer prices

This was too crazy not to make the picture of the day. To the far left is bud light, which is the same price as the coors and millers. This is at the gas station near our apartment. I guess Foster's will be my cheap beer of choice while I live here!

11-6-10 Surfing

So I wanted to try surfing before I started work on Monday and today was the day. I managed to stand up each time (except once) that I caught a wave, including the first one I caught! What you don't realize about surfing is that you only spend 1/100th of the time actually surfing. The rest of the time you spend paddling, which is a lot like rowing a boat except you're on your stomach and don't have oars. Not helping the paddling situation is the fact that the board is the size of a Manhattan studio apartment. It was completely exhausting. Still, I had a lot of fun. The one mess up was the second to last wave when the instructor asked if I was ready to try a "big one." I said yes, got on the wave, and crashed immediately. So I got on the next "big one" and rode it as far as I could from the reef back to the shore. It was great.


Thanks to Raquel for taking the pictures and remember, you can click on the pics to see the larger version of the image.

11-5-10 Celebration Hawaiian Style

As many of you know, New York Bar Exam results were leaked and then released today. So most of the morning was devoting to whether I passed the bar. After determining I had, we decided to go to Waikiki to celebrate. After a day on the beach we went to Tropics, right off the beach, at sunset to celebrate and drink Hawaiian drinks. These are the pictures.

11-4-10 Koko Head and Hanauma Bay

My legs feel like lead. Today Raquel and I hiked up Koko head. The second furthest east mountain on Oahu. Behind Raquel and I is the furthest east mountain. Over Raquel's left shoulder is Hanauma Bay - a picturesque bay with some of the most diverse marine life in the world. Our plan was to hike Koko head and then go snorkeling. We were too exhausted after the hike to do anything other than sit on the beach at Hanauma Bay.


This is the mountain itself. If you can see that little dusty line going up from the light towards the top of the mountain. That was the path we followed.

This is the path itself. It is an old rail track that is no longer in use. It is also hell on earth to walk up. There are 1,048 wooden planks and you really feel each one of them. At its summit, Koko Head is 1,208 feet high. So you go from sea level to that height in 1,048 steps. This is one of those things where it is a whole hell of a lot harder than it looks. I think the following terrible video really sums it up

It was painful. Of course after the hike up and back down we got to relax under palm trees on the beach at Hanauma Bay. Not so bad.


Yes those are my feet. The final shot is one of Koko head from Hanauma Bay.


You can see it past the palm trees.

As a reminder to everyone, you can always click the pictures for a higher resolution look. Also click the name of the blog to go back to old entries.

11-3-10 Manoa Falls

So we're trying videos today. Raquel and I today decided to hike up to Manoa Falls. After all, what better way of seeing a rain forest than in the rain? We got completely soaked in the process and had to wade through pretty much ankle deep water to get to the falls. But we had a great time and the falls were unbelievable, as you can see. I'm sure Raquel will have her pictures from the hike up on facebook shortly.

11-2-10 Diamondhead

Today Raquel and I got internet at our apartment. After that (and after uploading the last two pictures of the day posts) we went out to Diamondhead, an old volcanic crater that overlooks Waikiki on the southwest tip of the island of Oahu. You may remember it from an earlier post - it was in the background of a beach picture. We did the (brief) hike to the top and were stunned by the views.

11-1-10 Pearl Harbor

Yesterday we had the privilege of seeing Pearl Harbor. We visited the Arizona, the Utah, and the Pacific Aviation Museum. It was surreal and very moving. I didn't feel particularly comfortable taking up close pictures of the Arizona. I did, however, take a picture of an diesel oil slick slowly drifting away from the sunken battleship. The Arizona was sunk on Dec 7, 1941. Now, nearly 70 years later, it is still leaking oil at a rate of 4 quarts a day. Below are a few more pictures from Pearl Harbor


The entrance to Pearl Harbor.

A memorial to each of the submarines that were sunk in WW2. Very somber to read about. Most of them seemed to be sunk by Japanese mines.

The Missouri on the left and the Arizona memorial on the right. The Iowa-class Missouri was the last commissioned Battleship in the United States Navy. The Japanese signed the unconditional surrender on its bridge in Tokyo bay.

Raquel and I underneath a B-25, the type of plane that was used in Doolittle's raid over Japan's mainland. It was not one that was actually used in the raid as most of those crash landed in Japanese controlled China.

This final picture I wasn't sure whether to take or not or to post. It is a picture of the USS Utah. It was not anchored in Battleship row but instead North of Ford Island. It was also sunk on Dec 7 1941. Many of the seamen were rescued from the Utah, but over 60 still perished. The memorial was on the north of Ford Island and was difficult to get to without a military pass. It was completely empty when we got there. There were literally thousands of people going to see the Arizona and none going to the Utah. That didn't seem right to me somehow so despite my discomfort at taking a picture of such hallowed ground I took it anyway so that I could share the Utah with all of you. Like the Arizona, parts of it remain above water today

10-31-10 Dedication

1:00 PM EST kickoffs = 7 AM kickoffs in Honolulu. The only place with free internet near our apartment was McDonalds. I was there for the second quarter.