its almost that time!!

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!!!!!!!

thats right, its official, the count down to the start of the football season is on! 14 days until preseason begins! oh i cant wait! im really hoping that the san diego chargers will take the super bowl title this year! anyway, im supper excited - i even have tickets for the august 12th preseason game, field level, row 3 baby!

the chargers are playing the seahawks and it should be a good game - seattles record last season was 9-7, and the chargers was 14-2...

check out this video slideshow...

some wedding photos...

ok, so i have not yet finished editing all the photos from fridays wedding, but i promised a preview of some photos, and i cannot dissapoint. here are a few of my favorites. i will hopefully be finishing them all tomorrow, so if you check back late tomorrow night or tuesday morning, there will be a few more.

a special blend of coffee the bride and groom had made...
the card reads, "David and Jen, The Perfect Blend, July 27, 2007"

the isle...

the groom, david...

the bride, and my cousin, jen with her father...

at the alter together...

thats all for now, like i said, check back soon for some more photos...

my cousins wedding

so i was a guest at my cousin jens wedding on friday, and, being the guys who always has a camera in his hand, i had to take some photos, plus its great practice. the wedding was at an anaheim hills golf course country club, and was outside over-looking the course. over all it was a beautiful day, beautiful place and was a great wedding! i am in the middle of processing the photos right now, but check back tonight (sunday) and i will post some of my favorites from the day.

slideshow...

here is a photo slideshow of some of the pics i took in maui...enjoy.

hawaiian adventure recap

wow, been a few days since i last blogged...so long in fact that i forgot my username and password! (sad i know...)

so we are all home safely from hawaii now, and i have actually finished editing all of the photos that i took while there. i didnt take nearly as many as i did 2 years ago, i guess mostly because i figured you can only have so many of the same photo. two years ago i took 2500 + photos, this year - 600. after editing the photos, i ended up with 510 "keepers" - not a bad turn out...

i have some of them posted online, but they are currently in a private gallery until i can finish uploading the rest...or at least some of the remaining...i dont think i will upload all 510 of them. once i get a few more uploaded, check back here and see a sweet slide show of them all!

thats all for now...

our final day

well today is our final day here on the island, and we plan to spend it relaxing at the beach, pool, and here in the condo. looking back on this years visit to maui, i can honestly say that it has been one the best trip so far to the island, but i am ready to depart and return to my own bed and a room that i dont have to share. our flight tomorrow departs at 1215 pm and we return to lax at 815 pm.

so, what did we do yesterday as the final family still on the island? we traveled to the west side of the island, a part that we had never before seen. though we didnt travel completely around the west end (we wernt quite ready for another windy road experience after our hana trip last week...one windy road is enough for a few months), we did travel the the 'iao valley... a place that we had never been before. it was really cool, and very pretty. the valley is famous for its 'iao needle which served as a watch tower for the native hawaiians back in the day. today, its a park with lots of visitors and locals alike. what made the park great was that there was very little walking involved to see the needle. i had always pictured the needle as being in a remote location that was only accessible via a long hike... but after a few thundered feet of walking down a paved path, we were there.

the 'iao needle...


looking back down the valley...the airport in at the
low point of the two mountains...

after we left the valley, we traveled down a coastal road into some previously uncharted areas of maui for us. we stopped to take this photo before we decided we didnt want to venture down a windy road.



overall it was about a 3 hour excursion, with a few stops along the way. when we got back to the condo i took a nap and then we headed back out around 5 o'clock our time (8 o'clock for all you so cal readers). we ended up back in the same area that we had traveled to earlier that morning...we went to a mall by the airport that was way nicer than the mall that we had gone to the other night (sunday) to see "license to wed". our mission, to grab a pizza at costco, and see the new fantastic 4. it was a very entertaining movie and was overall a good evening. we returned around 930 and i turned in around 10.

well, so that it! today is just a chill day of relaxing and putting the final touches on my tan (ha!). see everyone back in the oc soon!

Aloha!

drawing to a close

so our stay here in maui is drawing to a close. we are the last family that hasnt been voted off the island, and have two full days left. not sure whats on the schedule for activities, but here is whats has been up for the past few days...

on wednesday, a few of us went down to Ahi'hi bay - a small bay that has some excellent snorkeling. our origional intent was to travel to the "fishbowl" which has been claimed to be some of the best snorkeling period. we never made it there however because we had to park in a parking lot about 20 minutes walk down the road from the trail, and then the trail was about another 30 minute walk through the south maui lava fields...so we decided to try Ahi'hi bay. It was actually very cool...i think we saw nearly 20 different species of fish and all sorts of colorful coral. it was a brief trip, and we were back in the condo around 2 pm or so - just in time for a quick nap. wednesday night we had dinner at a little local place popular for their fish and chips. the foods was nothing great, but it filled us up.

thursday morning the fick's departed the island, leaving the ferdig's and us. everyone but sara, her mom diane, and myself we back to the snorkeling place we visited on wednesday. sara and i ventured down to the tide pools on our beach hoping to find fun things to poke, but were unsuccessful. thursday afternoon diane, sara, my mom and myself all traveled back up to lahaina for something to do, and for last minute gifts from the old whaling port. for dinner, the 4 parents went out, and the rest of us stay back and bbq'd some burgers and watched oceans 12. finally, around 930 or so we went out crab hunting. apparently there are some rather large crabs that come up onto the beach at night, and we discovered that you can see them all over with a flashlight. we saw dozens of them from very small to quite large...i took some photos of them on saras camera, and will get them later to post.

today, friday, the ferdig's departed the island for home leaving just us. im not sure what we are planing to do today, but i think we are going to travel to the other side of the island and find some hiking trails.

photos...

some artistic photos from lahaina...

Ahi'hi bay...

the lava fields of south maui at Ahi'hi bay...

another artistic photo from lahaina...

Aloha!

the old lahaina luau

so our trip is half over now, and we leave for the mainland on sunday, but the adventures and activities are still continuing. on monday, and after two days of having to be up and out early in the morning, we all decided to relax and rest up here at the condo. after a morning at the beach, a few of us headed down to wailea which is just about 5 minutes south of our condo. they have all sorts of shops there in an outdoor, classy, mall so it was more shopping for all. (dont worry, i was just along for the ride and the company) monday night we bbg'd out on the grass, and had a birthday cake for my b-day. all in all it was a supper relaxing and great day!

tuesday morning the tree climbers were here. they guys strap metal spikes to their shoes and scale the palm trees here along the beach so they can trim them up. i think it looks like to much fun, i was very tempted to ask them if i could try.

tree climbers trimming the palms...

on tuesday, we decided to shake things up a bit and spend the day at a different beach than our usual, so we traveled south the the "big beach". according to the guide book we have, this beach was famous among the hippies back in the day, and is considered one of the best beaches here on maui so we had to check it out. the sweet thing about this beach was the shore break...the waves here at this beach were the largest i have seen on the island...some were up to 7 feet tall im sure. it was a great time boggy boarding, and body surfing though i had some pretty nasty wipe outs! big beach is over a 1/2 mile long, thus the name, however i wasnt able to get a photo of the whole beach. click here for the whole beach photo.

big beach...

after big beach, we came back to the condos, showered and got ready for the luau that night. the old lahaina luau is the best rated luau on the island and wouldnt you know it, we sat in the front row on my birthday...i thought for sure that i would be dancing on stage - not voluntarily mid you - by the end of the night, but all they did was wish me a happy birthday hawaiian style. the food was awesome, the disserts were amazing and the show was very well done. they story-boarded it, giving the history of the island incorporating all the traditional hawaiian dances. they only bummer was there was no fire dancers. (apparently the show was all traditional dance, and fire dancing is not considered traditional...im thinking "who cares, give us fire dancers")

the old lahaina luau...

the group...

the group...(at the other table)

some traditional dance...

family photo...

all the boys with me and 2 of the dancers...

aloha!

molokini trip

on sunday morning, at 615 am we departed for a small harbor about 20 minutes up the road where we caught a boat out to the small volcanic island of molokini. molokini is no more than a half moon shaped island that was created from the eruption of a volcano, and it is a natural preserve because of its crystal clear water, and reef life.

a photo that i barrowed from a website...

anyway, the water was, like i said, crystal clear. when our boat docked, the water was 25 feet deep and you could clearly see to the bottom from the boat. this fish were also very numerous, and swam in small schools all around us. oh and we saw a sweet eel between the coral , but no sharks...which is a good thing, but i still would have like to have seen one.

we were in the water at our first stop for about 30 minutes, then we moved on to "turtle town", which was more like "turtle village" because we only saw maybe 3 or 4 turtles. (to me, town implies a lot of turtles...not so) the turtles were small to large, with the largest being about 4 feet across and we were only about 4 feet from them as they swam near the surface. i wanted to reach out and touch them, but didnt feel prepared to pay the 10,000 dollar fine for turtle contact, so i passed.

after turtle "town" we had luch on board the boat and traveled south to the lava flows that project off the southern coast of the island of maui then we headed back to the harbor. over all it was about a 5 hour ride, and was probably the coolest thing that i have done yet on the island. i think we could have cruised around on the boat for hours more.

sorry no photos...i didnt bring by camera because of the water and because of the size of my camera. there were people in our group that did get photos, so i will try and get them and post them later.

aloha!

more catch-up

wow, ok, sorry to dissapoint again!! now i understand the time involved in posting a new blog everyday, and i gotta say, its not easy - even when there is nothing going on. so, again sorry to all my loyal fans.

ok, some blogging catch-up...

friday, the day after our journey to hana, we mostly just relaxed here at our condo, bbq'd some chicken for dinnah, and just hung out. since we didnt go anywhere, i decided not to post any photos from that day because i mean come on, how many sunset photos can you take and post?

saturday, we did the volcano bike ride...its like a 40 mile ride, but its all down hill so its no sweet. we started in the town of paia, traveld via 14-passanger van towards the top of the volcano (an elevation of about 6500 feet) and then they unloaded the bikes and sent us on our way. its actually a way cool ride because they give us the bikes for the whole day (until 4) so we traveled down the mountain to a small fruit stand, had a break, and then traveled to the small cowboy town of macawo. there we had lunch at one of the only mexican restaurants on the island, relaxed and then continued on our journey.

here are some photos from the ride...

here is the shot from the top looking down over maui...

group photo of all the guys...look i made it in another photo...

pollis mexican restaurant...

last shot on the way down...

saturday evening we traveled to lahaina and had dinner at bubba gumps...the food was great and the weather was perfect...

group shot of us at dinner...

ok, so i will blog about todays adventures at a later point...right now its time for a kona bean shake...

aloha!

some blogging catch-up

well, i first off must apologize to all of my avid blog-reading fans (based on the comments...it all three of you ;-) because i was unable to post yesterday, so todays blog will be playing a little catch-up. oh and a belated happy 4th of july to all!

yesterday, the 4th, we woke up and went for our usual swim and snorkel out here on the beach in front of our condo. it was a fun, relaxing morning, and a great way to kick off the 4th. around 1 we left kiehe and traveled to lahaina - the old whaling port on maui. lahaina is on the western side of the island, and is only about 20 miles from our condo, but with the easy-going, laid back traffic patterns of maui, its a good 40 minute drive. lahaina has all sorts of shops and stores as well as a ton of places to eat, so we shopped, shopped, and then eat a late lunch/early dinner at cheeseburger in paradise. after lunch/dinner, we came back to the condo, and rested up for the big fireworks display of the evening. oh and bonus, there was a party going on at the condos next to ours so we had some free entertainment to watch until it got dark.

once it was dark, the beach was covered with hundreds of peps all lighting fireworks...it was a little insane, but made it all the more fun! (sorry the firework photo is not too great...its really hard to photograph the small sparkling fountains that only project 3 feet in the air when there is no wind to blow the smoke away)

photos from the 4th...

an old flag in a window that i saw in lahaina...

1/2 the peps eating at cheeseburger in paradise...

a little firework action on the beach...

ok so today, thursday the 5th we traveled to hana, maui. hana is on the east end of the island and is the tropical rain forest that you would picture when you think of hawaii. its only about a 60 mile drive, but it takes well over 2 hours to get there...almost 3 hours if not more. the drive is supper pretty on the way there, but gets rather mundane and sickening on the way back (at least it was for me).

once in hana, its only a few more miles to the state park where the seven sacred pools are (though they are not at all sacred...it was just a name to get people to come there...and believe me it works!). once we arrived at the park, we went on the 1.8 mile hike to the waimoku falls which are over 400 feet tall. the trail twists and turn through an amazing bamboo forest, cross the stream a couple of times, and then dead-ends into the falls. its an easy hike (when your sandals dont rub and give you blisters...i knew i should have worn the rainbows), and one of the most interesting trails that i have ever done. though it was a bummer that it didnt rain at all while we were there...yep, in a place that gets over 300 inches of rain a year, not one drop today- what a drag.

here are some photos...

the drive to hana...

south wailua falls along the drive there...

group photo of us all under the large banyan tree...yes im actually in a photo...

the bamboo trail...

and the 400 foot, end-of-the-trail, ultimate-granddaddy-of-the-maui-falls, waimoku falls...

dont know what tomorrow has in store yet, but ill be sure to post...aloha!

relaxing...

day 1 here in maui -

this morning we woke up, i went for a quick run (no gym so i gotta do some physical activity) and then we hung out at the beach for most of the morning. we went snorkling out by the reef located just outside the condo complex. although the water wasnt super clear, i did see the hawaii state fish - the humahumanukanuaapa'a a.k.a. the reef tigerfish - a small eel and a green sea turtle.

after a few hours down at the beach, we ate lunch at maui tacos - a small mexican place - and then sat down on the grass for a while. after a quick swim in the afternoon to cool off it was off to start the burgers we were making for dinner.

tomorrow i think we are planing to hang out at the beach in the morning, then we will travel to lahina for some lunch and shopping for all the ladies. the owner of the condos is getting married tomorrow at dusk and she has invited all the guests to attend a laui dinner after the ceremony...and you know that i can never pass up a free meal! oh and then we get to light up all our fireworks...so check back for some more pics tomorrow.

here are todays photos...

cooking up the food...

hanging out...waiting for the sunset...

and the sunset begins...

here is the long shot of the beach that we are staying at...our condos are at the end...

the sunset...

have a happy and safe 4th!!

aloha from maui!

we made it to the beautiful island of maui this morning...or afternoon for all you back home in ca. first stop, costco for pizza and fireworks, lots of fireworks.

after costco (what a way to start out a vacation right?) we arrived at our condo around 130, unpacked and headed down to the beach for an afternoon swim in the ocean. the water temperature is perfect and the air is about ninety with a strong afternoon breeze, oh and the water is much saltier than i remember. today was a laid back and relaxing day since we travled so far, woke up at 3 am, and had only 3 hours sleep so we just relaxed down on the beach, swam, played a little frisbee, and watched the sun set. about 8 o'clock hawaii time we ventured across the street for an uber good hawaiian dinner.

well, im tired after todays travels so its off to catch up on some much needed zzzzz's. not sure what tomorrow holds, but im sure it will be great.

here are some photos of the sunset...



here are the fireworks that we got...the tall box box is about 18 inches wide and about 5 feet tall...