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.