Memories of home...

How I miss Hawaii. It's been 5 years... 5 years of changes ... 5 years in Las Vegas... Funny thing is I still ask myself from time to time, how the hell did I get here... Saw this picture taken from Round top in a travel slide show, this is the place where I grew up, the laughter, the tears, high school shinanigans, first love, college, sorority, then finally the heartbreaking passing of him. Can't believe it's seems so long ago... only loving memories left... Guess I should count myself one of the lucky ones.





This is my memory of Hanauma Bay, 7 years old, feeding the fishes with bread pieces and cutting my big toe on the coral. Now, the place is so commercialized and packed with people ...




Why does this picture makes me feel like it is mirroring my feelings at times?

These pictures were taken by another photographer visiting the Grand Canyon. The following are his comments

I was simply stunned seeing this guy standing on this solitary rock in the Grand Canyon.
The canyon's depth is 900 meters (2953 feet, nearly 6/10 mile) here. The rock on the right is next to the canyon and safe.
Watching this guy wearing flip flop sandals, with a camera and a tripod I asked myself 3 questions:

1. How did he climb that rock?
2. Why not take that sunset picture from that rock to the right, which is perfectly safe?
3. How will he get back?

After the sun set behind the canyon's horizon he packed his things (having only one hand available) and prepared himself for the jump. This took about 2 minutes. At that point he had the full attention of the crowd.

This is the point of no return. After that, he jumped in his flip flops...



Now you can see that the adjacent rock is higher so he tried to land lower, which is quite steep and tried to use his one hand to grab the rock.


Look carefully at the photographer. He has a camera, a tripod, and also a plastic bag, all on his shoulder or in his left hand. Only his right hand is available to grab the rock and the weight of his stuff is a problem. He lands low on his flip flops, both his right hand and right foot slip away...At that moment I take this shot. He pushes his body against the rock. He waits for a few seconds, throws his stuff on the rock, climbs and walks away, presumably to a bathroom to change his shorts. I know I had to change mine and I was just watching.