First New Video From Hawaii, #67

Local Kids At Windy Nuuanu Pali Lookout, Oahu, Hawaii, October '08, artistic view, click to enlarge, map.

Last time we wrote a blog, it was about the early state of Wall Street troubles. Things did not look all that bad at that time, but started to look truly awful in the coming days and weeks. “Meltdown” were newspaper titles, followed by even deeper downturns in the following days. How much smaller are your 401k, 403b or other retirement accounts, quite a bit? How much longer this slide is going to continue like that? Nobody knows, but one thing is certain, we do not like to see new records being broken on the downside anymore! Warren Buffett is saying, “It’s time to buy”, will you?

Aloha.
So, we arrived in Honolulu on a sunny day. We didn’t know that at the time, but all of our days would be mostly sunny with hardly any rain. After a good night’s sleep, actually it was only a B-grade sleep because of time difference, and temperature plus humidity changes. In addition, setting the right room temperature takes at least two days. And, did you remember to hang that “Do Not Disturb” card outside your door? And, we hope nobody towed our car! Leaving hotel’s parking garage remains a challenge, perhaps a life-long challenge. Taking a Pali Highway will get you from the west side to the east side of Oahu. You are going to drive near the Pali lookout, and it is always a good idea to stop there. Usually it is very windy there, something you notice while looking at your photos and videos shot on top. The east side of Oahu is visible for miles along with the Pacific Coast. Hills and tall trees obscure the west side. There are usually many people there, and easily recognizable big tour busses. Sometimes the strong wind and light rain make that place quite cold, so be prepared.

Several miles down the road, and you are in Kailua. If you follow first the Pali Highway, then 61, then go about a mile forward up to the last light stop, you will find yourself near the Ocean and feel that. Turn right, this road will take you to Kailua Beach Park, which is quite nice in itself. Actually, there is little reason to go anywhere else in our opinion; the water is near still, just enjoy it. The only reason I went forward, was because of the beach name – Lanikai, that ended up in the title of my first video shot in Hawaii in the early October. So, we are going forward, reading signs, and now trying to find a good place to park our rental car. In October, this is no problem; in summer months some parking space hunting techniques learned on the mainland may have to be enforced! We are not about to disclose those, will keep those to ourselves, though!

So, we are at the Lanikai Beach, taking some pictures – one or two may end up on twitter, swimming for two hours, sitting and walking around the beach, and then shooting the video. Slight cloud interruptions need to be taken into consideration. Should have swum for no longer than an hour, and should have started filming an hour earlier – crosses our mind. However, it is too late for that. Will have to work with the available light, too late to change anything. We could come back again on a different day, but this changes the mood of the video, unless today’s session is all thrown out. Let us work with what we got, and turn it into yet another masterpiece; it is the final decision. Tomorrow we are going to be in another spectacular place.

Mahalo everyone.
(As always, I did spell checking on this blog, accidentally the above words “Mahalo everyone” were replaced with “Maalox everyone”. Funny, but no thanks!)

YouTube videos: youtube.com/Vatsek .
On twitter: twitter.com/Vatsek .
Flickr photos: flickr.com/photos/25951201@N07/ .