Yoga in the Park with Keith Sato #YogaHi

On Sunday, July 31, 2011, @Keith_Sato officially started "Yoga in the Park" on Sunday afternoon.  The group meets at 530pm in a little grassy park between Waikiki School and Kapiolani Park.  Most of us that meet, know each other from Twitter, but you do not need to be on Twitter to participate in Yoga in the Park.

View Directions to Yoga in the Park from Kapahulu Avenue 21.268725, -157.815428 in a larger map


That map sort of shows the location of the park.  It is the rectangular grassy park with several trees in the middle of it.  There is usually a lot of free street parking on both sides of the park and because it's a small park, it's easy to keep an eye out on your car while we're all just several yards away.


Yoga in the Park is guided by Keith Sato.  The bunch of us that have attended the 1st couple of sessions are mostly beginners, but there are several that do practice yoga regularly.  It's a perfect balance for us beginners and those that have more experience.  My experience only came from doing yoga with my Wii Fit.  The routine is very similar, but the difference is Keith is there to actually make sure your form is proper.  The Wii Fit doesn't really do that part very well.  


Here are some photos from Yoga in the Park.

Here are some photos by @RickyLi99: Keith Sato's Yoga in the Park.
Here are some photos by @PhotoluluTV: YOGA TWEETUP AT THE PARK.
The official hashtag that Keith's Yoga in the Park group uses is #YogaHI.  If you want to keep track of tweets that may be coming from Yoga in the Park.
@Capsun is part of the group.  He created a YogaHI Twitter List.  This list has most of the people who have attended so far.  Tweet him if you are missing from the list.

Yoga in the Park by Keith Sato is currently planned to take place every Sunday from 530p to 645p in the same park.  There is a requested donation of $5 that Keith will use to provide additional equipment for the group.

Hope to see you there!

The Art of Hawaiian Coffee at Waikiki DFS Galleria

The first Art of Hawaiian Coffee event at the Waikiki DFS Galleria started on August 9th. The event runs through August 16th with complimentary tastings of Hawaiian coffees between 7p-10p. During this week long event, the mall also features all sorts of coffee related art displayed through out the lower level.

I checked out the first night because that is when they had the latte art contest. It began at 8pm with a few demos by Pete Licata then proceeded to the finalists competing.  I took a few videos of Pete doing the demonstrations and explaining to the audience how they would be judging the latte art.  By the way, Pete is the 2011 US Barista Champion and the Runner Up in the World Barista Championships.

In this first video, Pete started with the "easiest" common design for latte art, the heart.


He progressively demonstrated the designs that require more skill.  This video is the rosetta.


After the rosetta, he demonstrated the tulip.


The final level of difficulty that he demonstrated was the multiple rosetta.  In this video he went for three.


I know those weren't the best videos, but oh well.  I was there in person to enjoy the demonstration and just thought having video to share might be cool so I shot it with my phone.

If you get to check out The Art of Hawaiian Coffee, be sure to sample some of Rusty's Red Bourbon.  I had a cup of this when Beach Bum Cafe had a secret stash of it.  This is an award winning batch of coffee and when I saw the Rusty's Coffee booth sampling the Red Bourbon, I had to get a sample cup.  Yum!

Of course, you'll also get to check out some of the art on display and read about coffee at all the displays.  I think some of the displays change daily.  The latte art photos are from the competitors of the contest.

I met up with Melissa Chang, blogger with NONSTOP Honolulu, there.  She wrote about the experience here: The art of Hawaiian coffee.  She also has more photos of the coffee tasting booths and the art that is on display.

We also met up with @S4xton that night.  He also took a few photos and those can be found here: Shots from the Art of Hawaiian Coffee event & Latte Art Contest at DFS Galleria Waikiki.

I hope to get back to The Art of Hawaiian Coffee this weekend so that I can taste the Greenwell Farms coffee.  When we were there, there was nobody at that booth and that was a recommended coffee to sample.  At least I got another few sips of the Rusty's Red Bourbon.  :)

After all this coffee talk, I am definitely going to walk over to Beach Bum Cafe for a delicious cup of micro-brewed Hawaiian coffee after I get out of here this morning.

Went for a ride in a Tesla!

A couple days ago, @S4xton drove me around the block in a Tesla that he had.  This was my first experience in a fully electric street vehicle and it just so happened to be a Tesla.  How will I ever be satisfied when I finally decide to get a Nissan Leaf?  Hehehe.

Anyway, the torque was nice.  I was a little weird-ed out by the silent acceleration that this vehicle is capable of. While I may be used to feeling the type of power and acceleration that this car offer (it's been a while since I've been planted back in my seat while someone drove me around the block) it was sort of scary not hearing the roar of 400 horsepower blowing out of an 80mm exhaust pipe.  I guess I was concerned the other cars wouldn't hear us coming.

It was a great ride and I enjoyed it.  Even considering the majority of the time we were sitting in bumper to bumper traffic in the hot sun.

Here is a little video that I took.  It's not much, but it's what I got.






A few other friends also got to ride in the Tesla.

Here is a video that @RickyLi99 put together and posted.  http://www.vimeo.com/27481184

Here is a blog post about @TokiDote's experience in the green machine!  http://briandote.com/2011/08/09/bolt-of-lightning

Here is a youtube video of @Melissa808 screaming during her ride with @S4xton.