PDX is calling me…..

candybowl

So another highlight of the recent Hawaii trip last week was a visit to the Foster Botanical Garden in downtown Honolulu. While unfortunately all the pics I took were way overexposed if not just garbage (memo to me: read the camera manual next time or just use the stupid ‘smart’ phone) – the garden has a lot of HUGE, exotic trees from all over the world, besides just some big native examples. And the outdoor butterfly garden is cool, although I only saw a couple. I saw a couple parrots in a tree near the end too, which was also exciting.

here’s some sites that give you an idea of what it’s like – DEFINITELY worth a visit, takes at least an hour or more to walk the grounds and see everything.

Map of the garden

Yelp reviews of FBG

To-Hawaii.com‘s FBG site with pics

Recent walk-around videos of FBG from YouTube

candybowl

So we were lucky enough to go to Oahu, Hawai’i this past week, related to a kerewin work trip. On Friday, I was able to visit the Foster Botanical Gardens (post forthcoming) and Diamond Head State Monument.

So I had seen a bit of Oahu recently via Marvel’s Inhumans (the show has since been cancelled) and I think at least some of the Jurassic Park movie(s) have been filmed on Oahu, too – but all of that is showbiz. But there was a scene in Inhumans where they show Diamond Head from the air, and that you can drive into it via a tunnel – pretty cool – and hike to the top of one of the rim(s), also cool.

So I took the bus to a nearby stop Friday afternoon the 15th, and started walking. You can walk all the way in, pay your $1 (cars, buses and taxis pay more) and pretty much start hiking, which is largely what I did. I would equate the hike to about 2-3x the hike up the back side of Smith Rock in central Oregon, which we’ve done a couple times in the past when visiting relatives over there, near Madras.

There are a couple good staircases, but most of it is switchbacks. Also near the top, as I hate heights for the most part, I didn’t do the very tippy top exposed staircases, but I was still pleased with the hike nonetheless, got up to almost the top in about 20 min.

the video linked here below gives you an idea of the hike – enjoy! Very cool, beautiful views and scenery, and an inexpensive way to get some exercise, to be sure.

candybowl

hilarious – highlights include ‘The Riker Maneuver’, ‘Worf getting his ass kicked’ and ‘acting’ 🙂

candybowl

PS – if you see a T-Mob-lame ad on this clip, F T-Mob-LAME!

How fun!

BaT Auction Success Story: Family Adventures in a 2003 Volkswagen Eurovan Weekender

candybowl

Hmmm…again more of the same – we have (very, grudgingly one might argue) incremental progress in the “Search for Spock” but have at least one ‘save the world’ scenario along the way. No offense, but I think we need to get things back on track, everyone. At least last year we had Malfoy and the Klingon war/back story as a common thread, but they aren’t doing enough to push the Spock story forward, IMHO.

I like the fact that they are (yet again) drawing out Section 31, but at the same time, it begins to risk credibility when it seems like S31 has all the great toys and tech that could have won the war with the Klingons – then why was the Federation on its knees at the time? This was a minor problem in DS9 days too – hard to know….

Time will tell..

candybowl

candybowl

I think this episode was an improvement over the last one – some good unexpected stuff happening, they broaden the story to not just be about ‘the search for Spock’ – although there’s more than a bit about that, too – and some good action too….they are pushing the envelope a bit (not completely in a good way) with the Section 31 stuff, but i’ll remain in check on that one for now…

candybowl

candybowl

Finally, it’s restarted. After the craziness of last year which saw Captain ‘Malfoy’ (Lorca) disintegrated into a Klingon ‘battlestar’ and Capt. Georgiou (sp?) come back in ‘evil’ format – what craziness awaits this season?

So far, so good. While they re-introduce (indirectly) Mr Spock, and (directly) Capt. Pike – it works for me so far. Because Burnham is still the backbone of the show, as she should be. But they finally give others (besides Burnham and Saru) on the bridge >actual things to do, and dialog – keep it up!

I also thought Capt. Pike looked familiar in a small way – and courtesy of IMDB …he was Black Bolt in the short-lived Inhumans series from a year or two ago – got it.