Lights Out

We had a major power outage last night. Almost the entire island of Oahu lost power around 6:30 pm. Power came on for us around 6:00 am this morning.

We're not sure how it happened. Initial news reports mentioned several major transmission lines that went down, perhaps from the strong winds we've been having. This, like most other Hawaii blackouts, caused the power stations to trip off one after another as a precaution. Once the generators are down, it takes several hours to put them back on line.

Lucky for us, we were at home at the time. We heard that traffic was really bad, with all the people leaving the shopping malls all at once without any traffic lights to guide them. There were some grocery stores open and for some reason people felt that they really really needed to get some food or supplies (probably toilet paper). In any case, lines were out the door, just to get into the store. Here is pic that a friend of mine (thx Russ) took at the Times Supermarket in Kahala.



A lot of people in Palolo valley took the black out as an opportunity to set off their illegal fireworks. I wish I got some photos of those since the lights from the fireworks lit up the entire valley. I was pretty cool.
We spent the rest of the evening listening to the crazy people calling into the radio stations and just relaxing.....or suffering, as my son says, with only Game Boys, PSP, and iPods to entertain us.
Oh, and if you were wondering....the Obamas (who are vacationing in Kailua right now) are fine.

Injured Reserved

Blake is on the IR again. His elbow has been sore for the past couple of weeks so we took him to an Orthopedic. After looking at the XRays, the doc said that he would need to rest his arm for at least 4 weeks. He has a small fracture somewhere around the elbow area. I think they call it Little Leaguers elbow.
The good news is that if it heals well after the 4 weeks, he can go back to doing whatever he was doing before. So he should be ready to go when the season actually starts.

Koko Crater Hike

This past weekend, we decided to go hiking. Since we were heading out toward Hawaii Kai, we thought we'd try out the Koko Crater stairway hike. We've been to the park right at the trail head so often and we always say that we should hike it. Well, that day has finally come.



The crater looks pretty high from ground level, but we always see a bunch of people going up and down, so we figured...what the heck, we can do that.

The trail actually follows railroad tracks all the way to the top. There is an old military lookout post up there and they used rail cars to haul supplies to the top. Nowadays, the railroad ties make for handy steps. The trail can sort of be broken down into three sections. The first part is a fairly steep, but not too bad, incline that ends in what looks like a leveling off area. We were hoping that this area was a flat stretch where we could rest a bit, but it turned out to be just a not as steep slope. Stupid illusions....beh.
The next section is a bridge that goes over a shallow (maybe 12 foot) gorge. Sounds pretty tame but with the incline and the fact that you are pretty high up, it can cause you a little bit of concern. We saw a bunch of people climbing up on all fours.





We took a short breather at the bottom of the bridge section. Some of us made the decision to stay right were they were. If you look carefully at the photo above, you can see the third and final section. It's basically a super steep incline to the top. Blake and I were determined to get to the top so we pressed on.




And made it....Yay!!!! The view up there was awesome and well worth the climb. You get a great view of Hawaii Kai, Hanauma Bay, and the Sandy Beach area.





The hike back down was actually much more harder than the climb up. I think if we ran/jogged down, it would have been a lot less rough on our knees and lower thighs...but the incline and the thought of tumbling all the way down stopped us from trying.



At the bridge, we met up with Michelle. She made friends with some of the other hikers and they showed her a secret path to bypass the bridge. You basically climb down and hike around it. There she is in the gorge, showing us the way.



The hike was awesome and we had a great time. Blake is finally at an age where he is physically able to do these hikes and can also appreciate the scenic views, nature stuff, and family time during the hike.

Here We Go Again

Looks like we are going to Disney one more time.













hahahha...just kidding...
Just a little fun stuff from the Internets

Disneyland 2008

Hi everyone, we are back after spending Thanksgiving at Disneyland with the Teruyas. We had a great time and had loads of fun.

First of all, I need to talk about the crowds....or the lack thereof. I read someplace that Thanksgiving weekend was one of the most crowded times at Disneyland. I'm not sure if it was the threat of rain or the declining economy, but the park was totally empty. I think the only line longer than 30 minutes was at the Matterhorn and the new-ish Toy Story 4D ride. All the other rides, we were in line for 10-15 minutes tops. It was totally amazing.....great for us, but possibly a very ominous indicator of the national economy.

This picture was taken around 9:00 AM on Saturday. Totally empty. We managed to ride Buzz Lightyear, Star Tours, Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, and the Haunted Mansion in less than an hour.

On the first day we just hung around Anaheim and took care of some business. Mainly getting our In-N-Out burger fix and doing the Omiyagi thing at Trader Joe's. We also found this pretty cool bowling alley at the Anaheim Garden Walk. Nothing is more fun than neon ultra bowling to get you in the mood for Disney.



After that, it was 4 days straight of Disneyland. Actually we did do a couple of other things in between but I'll save that for a future post. I did want to mention that we managed to eat at the Big Wok, which Brandon and Sharis introduced us to. I totally love that place....we need one of those in Hawaii.







And one last note. I totally love my new camera. For the most part, it took great pictures. I'm sure the pics would have all turned out good if I knew how to use it better. One of the best things about the camera was the very fast startup time and the great battery. During the 6 days of shooting, I only charged the battery once and I must have taken well over 800 pictures.