Rick's BLOG about anything!: February 2010

Saturday, February 27, 2010

1225p waters off Kahala now cover reef. 15 minutes after. #hitsunami

The reef is now fully covered. Pretty quickly since they were all exposed 15 minutes prior.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from ricknakama's posterous

The waters off Kahala recede again @ 1210p #hitsunami

Still looks calm, I am noticing the tide rising & falling. These are photos after the water has rised at least once. Lots of reef exposed, but not too different from a low tide scene.

It is awfully quiet around here!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from ricknakama's posterous

A last photo toward Hilton Hawaiian Village...

... before we bail from Waikiki.

Looks calm & peaceful as the ships & boats head out for safety.

2nd photo is from St. Louis Heights. More sailboats & ships can be seen heading out from here. Can't see the beach from here.

Heading up to the Waialae Nui Ridge mountain house to watch what happens to Kahala beach area if the Tsunami is BIG!

Sent via Nexus One mobile.
Rick Nakama R GRI 808-382-6761

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from ricknakama's posterous

Friday, February 26, 2010

3rd try: Sunset skies behind Hilton Hawaiian Village.

OK let's try this a 3rd time... :-p

Sent via Nexus One mobile.
Rick Nakama R GRI 808-382-6761

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Rick Nakama, R GRI" <ricknakama@gmail.com>
Date: Feb 26, 2010 6:47 PM
Subject: 2nd try: Sunset skies behind Hilton Hawaiian Village.
To: "Posterous All" <Post@posterous.com>

The photo did not get attached the 1st time for some reason...

Sent via Nexus One mobile.
Rick Nakama R GRI 808-382-6761

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Rick Nakama, R GRI" <ricknakama@gmail.com>
Date: Feb 26, 2010 6:41 PM
Subject: Sunset skies behind Hilton Hawaiian Village.
To: "Posterous All" <Post@posterous.com>
I decided to give Posterous a try since Ed from HTTP://World-Wide-Ed.com mentioned how it was helping him keep his various social networking sites updated.

This is just my test to see if all the updating is working as it's supposed to.

HAPPY ALOHA FRIDAY!

Sent via Nexus One mobile.
Rick Nakama R GRI 808-382-6761

Posted via email from ricknakama's posterous

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Our room at the Fremont.

This is my first time staying in Downtown Las Vegas & my first time at the Fremont. The room looks decent with a contemporary modern look to most of the decor. The general areas of the room look & feel clean. The beds feel clean & comfortable as well as the bath. I think they could have or should have spent another $300 & put a small LCD flat panel TV in here to get rid of this TV that looks 20 years old. It's not even a flat screen tube!

Anyway, some things in the room aren't as clean as I would prefer. The sitting chair has a stain on it that keeps me from sitting in it so I am typing this sitting on the 2nd bed. The accessories & corners have excessive dust accumulation. There is a badly stained ironing board that I wouldn't use to iron my clothes. The AC vents have a lot of dust balls.

Back when I worked at the Outrigger Reef, if I did a room inspection on a room in this condition, it wouldn't pass. I can tell you that if the average Outrigger Reef guest checked into a room of this cleanliness, they'll be back down to the front desk complaining in minutes upon their arrival.

Anyway, this is a FREE trip so what can I say?? I am happy that the beds & bath look & feel clean! :-)

I wish Blogaway supported multiple photo posting. Since it doesn't, I'm using the email post method for this post.

On a positive note, the Vacations Hawaii escorts are very friendly & again, we won this trip to Las Vegas!! Whooowhooo!!!!

Associated photos below...

Sent via Nexus One mobile.
Rick Nakama R GRI 808-382-6761

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Posting photos with Blogaway.

While mid-flight, we were pleasantly surprised to hear that lunch was going to be served. Kelli didn't believe that there would be food served on this Omni flight!

Anyway, the choice was between warm Ham & cheese sandwich on an "Arby's" style bun or an "Angus Steak" Cheeseburger each served with chips & a Hershey Milk Chocolate bar. I thought it was strange of the flight attendant to describe the two sandwiches like that. At first I was tempted to get the Ham sandwich to see what exactly an "Arby's style bun" was, I saw Kelli's & it looked pretty plain. I went for the "Angus Steak" cheeseburger. It was pretty good considering it came out of a plastic wrapper.

Anyway while using Blogaway, I tried to add another photo to the other blog I was writing. The application kept force closing so it appears that Blogaway is only capable of posting one photo per post.

By the way, this is one of the most turbulent flights I've ever flown. Keep those water cups covered!

Location : Las Vegas, NV 89119,

And we're off to Las Vegas!

Last Friday we won the 'Pack Your Bags' vacation giveaway to Las Vegas when Kelli managed to be the lucky 7th caller.

We couldn't believe that we actually won. It seems like we never even get through when they announce during the KHON2 Morning News that it's time to call.

It's our first time flying to Las Vegas on this chartered Vacations Hawaii Omni Air flight & it's going to be my first time staying in Downtown at the Fremont Casino.

I also decided to go the whole trip without my laptop! Our last trip I realized that it was too difficult to get a decent & convenient Wi-Fi spot so I barely used the computer. I'm going to have to last until Sunday afternoon with only my trusty Nexus One!

So here I am flying over the Pacific Ocean typing out this blog while my phone is in airplane mode. I am at the same time testing this new blogging application that I just downloaded yesterday. It's called Blogaway & so far it seems to be a much better blogging tool than that other one I tried. This seems to have almost full function for Blogger.

Anyway, I'll be posting this as soon as this plane lands. I'll post again when we win the Mega Bucks later tonight! ;-)

Location : E Patrick Ln, Las Vegas, NV 89119,

Monday, February 1, 2010

Sing Cheong Yuan Bakery - 1027 Maunakea Street, Chinatown, Honolulu

1027 Maunakea Street was listed for sale a little over a year ago by my partner and me. Rather than securing a buyer, a promising tenant was found. Sing Cheong Yuan Bakery leased the building, renovated it and opened this popular Chinese bakery and candy shop.

As you can see by this photo, it is a highly trafficked street (by foot & car). Their location is directly across the entrance & exit of the Maunakea Street Municipal Parking Lot so there is lots of convenient and affordable parking.

I usually stop by and pick up some candied fruits or brittle whenever I'm visiting Chinatown. They have candied strawberries, lotus root, coconut, pineapple, melon, kumquat, carrot & some others. It is sold by weight and runs just a little under $7 a pound. My favorites are the kumquats, strawberries, lotus root and melon! They make great treats and they are REAL FRUITS!

This is after all a bakery so they also have baked goods here. They have a variety of cookies and brittles. A very popular Chinese cookie is the Almond Cookie which they bake and sell here. The have several different brittles including the popular peanuts & macadamia nuts.

They also sell fresh made Gao (Chinese Sweet Mochi Rice) and some other baked goods like hot dog rolls and Bao.

Chinese New Year Celebrations are coming up. Couple of events are scheduled for this weekend. Check out the calendar at http://chinatownhi.com/. If you visit Chinatown, stop by and pick up a snack! Let me know what your favorites are so I can try some next time I visit!

Happy Garden Inc - 1113 Maunakea Street #101, Chinatown, Honolulu

www.RickNakama.com Happy Garden Inc Chinese Restaurant Dim Sum Maunakea Street Phone 808-538-1088

Early 2009, I was introduced to Dim Sum at Happy Garden. It's a small Dim Sum restaurant located at 1113 Maunakea Street that can seat about 20 people. They also provide take-out service.

One of the main reasons why I have made this my favorite Dim Sum restaurant is because of the small size. This keeps the restaurant rather active and the orders of Dim Sum rotating. They serve Dim Sum all day (7a-9p) unlike other larger restaurants that only serve Dim Sum during the breakfast hours. The prices here are also very affordable for the quality and freshness of the food. Most of the Dim Sum selections are $2.00. All these pictured here totals just over $10! (Mochi Rice in Leaf, Half Moon, Beef with Bean Curd Ball, Chicken Mushroom Bun & Steamed Char Siu Buns)

Due to the size of this restaurant, rather than the traditional carting around of the Dim Sum in the steamers, their steamer sits stationary near the entry of the restaurant. If you aren't familiar with the items and prefer to look at what you select, you can just walk up and point them out. This also makes take-out orders very simple. The servers here are also much friendlier than most Dim Sum restaurant servers around town.

Reasonable parking rates are available just a block down on the right at the Maunakea Municipal Parking Lot. You can also get some fresh produce at the various grocers as you walk up the block.