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.

Playoff Game 2

Sorry, I took a long time to post this. The Falcons lost the second playoff game. Booo!!!

They played a good game but came up just short. The Highland Colts QB ran two long touchdowns and they returned an interception for a TD as well. The Falcons were doing well, but lost their main offensive weapon and key defensive player due to an injury at half-time.

The final score was 13 - 21.


Blake had a really good game. He made some great tackles and even got to play several downs at Wide Receiver.
Here are some pics of some of the tackles I managed to take. I'm still getting used to the camera so I sort of missed his biggest hit. It's the last picture and he's sort of cut off at the top.




So anyway, that's the end of our football season. Most of the team will be playing this weekend in a tournament in Maui and also in a tournament the following weekend. We couldn't play because we will be going off on vacation this week.

Guess where we are going. Yep, you guessed it.....Disneyland......again.

This time we are traveling with the Teruyas.
I'll try to post pics during the week. See you all from the Happiest Place on Earth.

Playoff Game 1

I'll cut to the end...we won our first game against the Kahaluu Broncos!!!
We play again this Sunday against the Highland Colts. Highland is probably the best team remaining in our divisional playoffs and if we can beat them, we have a pretty good chance of taking the championship. The last time we played them we won 13-12. So it'll be a good game this weekend.



So a recap of the Kahaluu game. The first quarter started out pretty good. Our team moved the ball on the ground really well. 10+ yards on virtually every play. But a bunch of penalties and an interception stopped our scoring drives. Blake played a great first quarter. He had several tackles and shut down any outside runs on his side of the field and defended the pass really well. The defense in general did a really good job.





At the end of the quarter Blake came out of the game with a hand injury. At the time, we didn't really know what was going on. Michelle went down to the field and his right hand was pretty swollen. A friend of ours had a relative at the game that was a doctor, so he looked at his hand and said that there might be a fracture. So the league official pulled Blake out for the rest of the game. Blake wanted to stay in and in fact, he stayed on the field for the rest of the defensive series before he told the coaches about his hand. Poor Blake had to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines.



At the half, the score was 8-6. I think Kahaluu scored on a short field due to another interception. We scored on a short run by Tyler after another good drive down the field by the Falcons. The third quarter went by really quickly since Kahaluu ran the ball a lot and ate up the clock. The fourth quarter was dominated by Kalani. The Kahaluu QB fumbled the ball at the line of scrimmage and one of our linebackers picked up the ball and some how got out of the scramble for the ball at the line and ran the ball back for a touchdown. Kahaluu then started to panic a bit and switched from their up the middle run offense (which was doing pretty well) to some trick plays, passes and outside runs. Our linebackers and defensive backs are smart and fast, so they were able to shut Kahaluu down. Kalani's final score came from an amazing run by Tyler. This was after he ran the ball up the middle, broke a couple of tackles and scored a 25 yard touchdown. That one was called back because of a penalty. The scoring play came from a run around the left side. As he neared the endzone, a tackler was on Tyler and he was about to be pushed out of bounds. Tyler then leaped back in and stretched out for the endzone pylon (ala ESPN Top Plays) and scored. It was totally awesome.

After the game, we took Blake to the emergency room to get x-rays. 4 long hours later, the doctors said that it didn't look like a fracture....but they weren't sure. So we'd have to wait for the Radiologist and Blake's Pediatrician to look at it. Turns out that it's not a fracture (whew!) and probably just a bad bruise or sprain.



The doctor cleared him to practice this week so hopefully he'll be fully healed by Sunday. He's already out of the splint and is back at practice .... and catching lizards (?? don't ask, we have no idea).




BTW, we used the new camera to take these pictures. The camera worked great and once Michelle figures out how to use the burst mode, we should have some nice action shots. So far she's managed to take a huge series of photos of the pile up after the play is over.

Panasonic FZ28

Got my new camera yesterday. Been trying to figure out how to use it. So far, I've been playing with all of the default settings. I think it'll take me a while to make the most out of the camera. The main reason I chose this camera was so that I could take better pictures of Blake's sporting events. I also seem to like to take scenic pictures and close up macro shots so I'm going to try to figure out how to best do those first. I'm learning about Aperture and Shutter Speed and ISO...who would have thought it would be so complicated. Anyway, here are some pics of the new camera.



Here are a couple of shots from Diamond Head lookout this morning. The two smaller pictures on the bottom are of a surfer. The one on the top is at 1X and the one on under it is at the maximum 18X zoom. Pretty good zoom...although I may need a tripod.









And finally, here is a comparison of the Macro shots. My old camera is on the top and the Panasonic is under it. It's a little dark because I was so close...but if you click on the image, you'll see that Boba needs some dusting.





So anyway, going to experiment with the new camera. Blake will be playing Sunday at Aloha Stadium and I'm hoping to get some good pics there.

Perfect

Blake's last regular season game was this past weekend. They won the game and finished with a perfect 8-0 record.
Blake has been doing pretty good so far. He's played his position well, making tackles when plays are run toward him. He's also been put into the Wide Receiver rotation during the last couple of games. He has 1 reception so far...a 4th and 5 play inside the 20 yard line. He caught the pass for a first down. Tyler scored on the next play.

Next up is the playoffs. They will be held in Aloha Stadium, so that should be a really great experience for the kids. I've heard that they will be able to use the locker rooms and get the whole football experience at the stadium.

GO FALCONS!!!!