Thank God for a good day in the Big Apple Oct 18-19 (Day 1 and 2)

Aloha folks.  I just came back from my trip and I had to work already. Anyhow, here is my latest adventure whom God protected me from harm. It was a good experience and I finally was able to take a bite of the Big Apple (New York City) and it was also my first time in the east coast. Let's get started.

Oct 18, 2016

I caught a red eye flight from Hawaii 3:00PM Pacific time. Arrived next day in John F. Kennedy airport at 6:05AM on the 19th, Oct 2016.

Oct 19, 2016

I caught a cab though my fare came out pretty costly heading to my airbnb place in Flatbush, Brooklyn. I had to take a pic of the sun while in the cab. 

My room wasn't gonna be ready until after 9:30AM, so I dropped my bags and I caught a subway train to Franklin Ave to meet up with my respiratory classmate Liz. After some stumbling we finally met up in Brooklyn Library, chilled, and talked story a bit. We also took pics surrounding the area such as Grand Army Plaza and on our way back to Park Slope. I kept calling GAP "Seven Nation Army" for an odd reason. Lol. 

Liz caught me off guard on my SLR, so I thought fast.

 

Joes's Pizza (Brooklyn) and the view from Liz's Park slope apt:

 

What can I say? She had a nice apt view of the Manhattan skyline and you can see the Statue of Liberty from her place though I never had good zoom lenses for my camera so it was tough to get a good pic. As for Joe's Pizza, this was not the original for the original location for the Spider-man 2 movie closed by Washington Square Park in Manhattan. However, the Brooklyn branch pays tribute by posting some still frame pics on their wall. Not to mention, very affordable Pizza.

Brooklyn Bridge 

 

We decided to burn off some calories by walking the entire Brooklyn Bridge. It was actually a nice and warm day. Remember that there is a bike lane and walk lane, but tell that to the tourists that want to get a pic anywhere they can. 

Crossing the Bridge

Immediately I recognized a famous movie shooting location. I had to snap dozens of pics to get the right angle and such. The first pic is from the Ghostbusters movie where the GB are approved by the mayor to fight Gozer in the final scene. Bill Murray's character literally says "Cmon, let's run some red lights" while the song Saving the day plays. We ended having beer and burgers in Shake Shack. Yep, we were really hungry I guess.

Return home

 

We ended up calling the day sort of early because of my jetlag. I ended going back to Liz's apt to walk Brock (her and her partner Erica's dog) for Ice Cream at Ample Hills Creamery. Yep, dessert time!

Saying goodbye. 

It was time for me to go home to Flatbush and meet my hosts ( I didn't take a pic of them but they are super nice people). 

 


From Park Slope, I had to transfer trains. I ended getting the transfer by the Barclay Center where the Brooklyn Nets play though I met no famous figure unless you count the statue of Captain America, which I thought was cool.

I came to my AirBnB destination and I was so groggy that I caved in early. I was able to meet my host Zach who told me about the house and it's utilities. His wife Christa I did not meet till the next day because she has her own business so she is often busy. Thank you and be back for the subsequent days. Thank you lord Jesus for a good and safe day in Brooklyn, New York.

Takara Tomy Transformers Legends Shockwave and Cancer LG24 review! Guest starring Unite Warriors Bruticus!

Due to fan request (wow, I actually got some, thank you folks), I finally decide to pop open Transformers LG-24 Shockwave and Cancer. It took me sometime because I am prepping for a trip and I had to get a new camera (my old Nikon got splashed). So I finally got a DSLR and I was mainly shooting in Aperture priority or learning how. I am still learning how to shoot better pics with a DSLR so some of the pics came out blurry, so forgive me for I will try to improve, but in the mean time enjoy the pics and review.

Boxing and packaging.

 

 

 

 

 

What I didn't shoot here was the instructions manual which is behind his stat paper. No biggie, Shockwave is easy to transform or play with. The manual is there regardless on whether you need it or not. Comes with a two page comic though I have no idea what is going on for the most part. Click on the link below for the tfwiki explanation of the comic. The link also tells you who Cancer is as well. I have no idea who Cancer was prior to reading the TFwiki site.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Cancer_(Masterforce)

Thank God for Koko Head stone (rock) bridge hike! 10/5/16

Finally got a chance to do this one. This can be a fairly long hike depending on how fast you can find the route to the bridge. I brought my friend Kevin who was vacationing from Spokane. It was our first time doing this hike so we backtracked alot. There are two ways in entering this area, though be warned, it is considered government property and there are security guards, but they really don't care if you enter this area. I knew this because some hikers posted this a while back. But if you want to play it safe, then simply don't continue reading. Even though I did this hike, I do not encourage anyone to do so if you feel like this hike is illegal.

The first way in: Upon entering Hanauma Bay entrance where the cars are steering in, look to your right of the bus stop and you will see a gate that will tell you to stop and all that government speech. Just enter. This was the route me and Kevin took. Walk up the paved road. If the guard does decide to stop you then you are not out of luck yet.

2nd way: By Nawiliwili st where we parked (lots of street parking by the way), as you make your way around the corner that leads to the main road and towards Hanauma Bay, you will see two  yellow poles that are chained to each other: Look to the bush left before the chained poles, you can enter a trail that leads you to the paved road of the hike. Some people prefer this method and not deal with the guards. It is also a short cut. I was lucky to not get stopped by the guards. They just simply didn't care when we walked in. Lucky us.

Regardless, which route you choose, you will end up in the afformentioned paved road heading upwards. This can kill your legs if you aren't in shape. Take your time and bring water for it does get hot up here and there is barely any shade in this hike.

As for the hike, I didn't take much pics so I can't offer the route how to get there really, but if you see this pic (2nd radio tower), then you ventured a little too far. But don't despair, you can go down Ocean side at this point. It's a little steep so be careful. This is a loop trail so we took this route instead of the one early on ( there is one that will lead you to the rock bridge actually quicker early on, but where is the fun in that?)

Your path should start to look like this.

 

On the 2nd pic right above, hike to that smaller forest green area closest to the Ocean ( just head North basically). It should be roughly 20-30 mins at this point. Remember to be careful because it's a little steep. You will come eventually come across two pathways but keep to your left until you enter the "North" area.


Once you get there, it gets a little tricky from here because you can't see over the edges, but never fear just keep going and it will be another 5 min steep rocky areas going down. Just take your time because you are there. You will see a marker at this point.

 

If you are in the right place before going down to the rocky area, this is your view of Hanauma Bay. Also, to your left (not pictured), this is the quicker route I talked about earlier. This is pretty much where you will make your way back to the paved road. It is an up slope so it will be some workout for your legs I kid you not.

The Rock bridge and it's surroundings:

A Fisherman memorial.

Mini Puka.

Kevin

Me again doing another shaka.

A fisherman supposedly was swept away to sea back in 1934. This memorial marker was dedicated to him. The Rock bridge is to your right when you touch down here. There are various pukas around here, so have fun doing what you wanna do with them. I did not get close to the bridge because the tide was super high today, so trust me and other hikers when we say that it's not worth a picture on the bridge to lose your life. 

Tidepools and the Cave

 

The cave and water spots on my lenses.

Sadly, at this point the waves peaked over this rock (last pic) and splashed me, Kevin, and my camera. I was able to take a pic of the cave before my camera lost it's visual playback ability; my camera can still take pics but I can't see the display anymore :( Oh well, better invest in another one and I guess I gotta be more cautious next time. The waves on this part actually took me and Kevin by surprise. 

All pau. Had to climb back up the rocks and the "earlier" path I mentioned. We took the 2nd way back down and drove to Ala Moana to have lunch at the Shirokiya walk and juice at Pressed Juicery. Thank God nobody was hurt and that our hiking mission was a success even if my camera sustained damage. Laters.

What I am feeling at the moment.

Credit goes to the original video composer. I am using this for non-profit purposes.

Computron is coming and along with a few goodies though it may be some time I may be doing a review on it. Later folks.

Takara Tomy Unite Warriors Menasor UW-02 review revisited.

Revisiting all the goodies prior to the site change and and the upcoming Computron release.

Click on the links for a blast to the past! (Well, a year or so ago that is)

http://iamterenceho.blogspot.com/2015/09/takara-tomy-unite-warriors-uw-02.html

http://iamterenceho.blogspot.com/2015/09/takara-tomy-unite-warriors-uw-02_10.html

Here are some samples, click on the links above for more pics.

 

 

 

 

  

Takara Tomy Unite Warriors Superion UW-01 review revisited.

Just revisiting the first combiner that started everything.

http://iamterenceho.blogspot.com/2015/07/takara-tomy-unite-warriors-uw-01.html

http://iamterenceho.blogspot.com/2015/07/takara-tomy-unite-warriors-uw-01_21.html


Click on the links. It is work safe. TY folks and hope to get to Titans Return Galvatron and Unite Warriors Computron soon.