Hawaii trip

Luke and I recently took our honeymoon trip to Hawaii in January. We got married back in August, but being in the thick of the wedding season we weren't able to take a vacation until winter. We spent three weeks on Oahu, Kauai and the Big Island. Luke and I had lots of lounging beach days, but we also took a week to do one of the most exhilarating and challenging hikes out there, the 11 mile Kalalau trail on the rugged Napali coast in Kauai. Heres a video Luke put together of some of the adventures we went on, from an amazing helicopter tour, backpacking the Kalalau trail, to snorkeling and swimming with dolphins. We cant wait to get back!

highlights from our trip:

- eating some of the freshest fish and best sushi we have ever had!!
- finishing the Kalalau trail, 4 days and 24 miles later!
- first beer and meal after the Kalalau trail (amazing)
- snorkeling with 19 dolphins! off two step on the Big Island
- checking out a Kona coffee plantation Greenwell Farms, that sells to Sweet Marias
- snorkeling with sea turtles at Richardson Park, Big Island
- Kona Brewing, enjoying some of their beers you can't get here on the mainland
- seeing whales breach off of Kauai (Hawaiian humpbacks)
- Luke cracking open a coconut for the first time with his new hatchet
- finding ripe papayas 5 for $1 at a farmers market, what?!
- Pamela not using a blowdryer for three weeks= awesome!

 

 

 

 

 

Travelling. Flight. Noise Canceling Headphones.

I don't get to travel as much as I'd like to, but I do end up flying four to five times throughout the year.  I flew to Japan last spring and during that trip I found out what a pleasure noise canceling headphones can be.  At first glance, they seem like a great solution to tune out talkative adults and (more likely) crying infants on the flight, but after many uses I have found them to solve a few other issues.  Jetlag being the largest.  I noticed that when I fly with these on, I feel far less groggy, disorientated and fatigued.  I believe (however not backed up by any science whatsoever!) that tuning out all of the external noise and the loud roar of the engines creates this less stressful flying experience.

I have a pair of noise canceling headphones from Sony.  I found them to be the best buy for the price.  These headphones can get fairly expensive, some nearly the cost of a new computer.  This pair has functioned very well, the battery life is long and they are relatively compact.

I can't fly without them anymore.  We are constantly bombarded by noise in our daily lives, and flying is a social overload.  These could also be used at the office, or at home, to tune out unwanted distractions in our daily lives.  (I once used them while they were jack-hammering the concrete next door!)

Noise canceling headphones work in two ways: First, the simple part; most of them are closed ear design, meaning they physically block the sound by covering your entire ear..  The manufacturers even use special sound-obsorbing foam to keep out even more external noise.

The second half of canceling noise is a little more high tech.  A small microphone and speaker mimic the exact sound coming from outside the headphones.  Two identical sound-waves that point towards each other cancel each other out!

Overall, this makes for a much more tolerable flight experience.  Give it a try next time you fly.  Head over to your local bestbuy or fry's, pick out a pair, use it on a trip, and if you don't like the result, return them- my bet?  You won't take want to take them back.

Japan.

Japan was quite an adventure.  I didn't take the time to blog while in Japan as my internet access was limited.

My first night, we stayed in a capsule hotel.  It was pretty interesting, I am extremely supprised that these don`t exist in the US.

The Japanese culture absolutely fascinates me.  I had some of the best food I have ever tasted.

To round it up, some of the things I tasted;

-Chicken Sashimi (raw chicken)  My friend Aya took me to an amazing chicken restaurant.  Raw chicken has an amazing texture, similar to Maguro (tuna).
-Octopus, squid,
-Traditional Japanese breakfast; raw egg, nato (fermented soybeans), over rice.
-Beef sashimi (and a few other raw red meats I wont mention)
-Tons of curry (infinately delicious).
-Fish.  Sushi.  Sashimi. and more fish.  We visited a fish restaraunt where the owner had worked as a fisherman for decades.  He had great connections to get excellent fish.  I must have ate ten different parts/kinds of fish in that restaraunt alone.

I will be posting more photos and explaining a few things we did in detail.  I believe I may have actually shot more video than photos!  Kind of crazy.  I am SO jetlagged, so It may take me a couple days to start feeling normal again.

I plan to attempt to learn more Japanese over the next year and return to visit again.  Thanks a ton to my cousin Nate who showed me everything there was to see, and got me there.

A still life from the chicken restaurant.

One night we stayed in a great suite after a poker game with my cousins friends (view from the balcony pictured at night and morning).

Always chasing pretty light.

My cousin Nathan, myself and my cousin Mike

Chicken Sashimi, wonderful.

TOKYO!

In less than a week, I'll be flying to Tokyo Japan.  I've dreamed about going to Japan since I was about 5 years old.  I absolutely can't wait!  If anyone has heard anything specific I should see while I'm there, let me know.  Packing tips?  I found a fantastic small-ish camera backpack to use as a day pack while i'm there.

I'm going to take a bajillion (that's a word right?) photos while i'm there, and a bunch of HD video.

...I'm kind of obsessive about packing...I keep packing, then rethinking what I'm bringing....

Been too long...

It has been far to long since my last post.  I had more computer issues recently, now resolved.  I returned back to California from my trip to Minnesota about a week and a half ago.  I'm currently going through several thousand photos I shot on the trip.

More later.

Sunsets in northern Minnesota are beautiful.