three day weekend with the homegirl Dana. We use to live on St. Louis Heights in Waialae together.
Portland. Good city to visit. Will return in the winter to see if it’s just a miserable as Seattle’s winter.
This was also the weekend before I broke my toe. Mobility already is so nostalgic. Look, I use to be able to walk.

From San Antonio to South Padre on the Texas 100 you cannot miss Bobz World.
On a long road with not much scenery you cannot miss the building-sized seahorse, King Kong, and brontosaurus that line the building that Bob’s world appears to be in. They almost pop out of nowhere and unexpectedly that you question if dinosaurs and giant mutant sea animals are really in existence in this small town.
My cousins’ kids and I decided to stop by on the way back to San Antonio.
It was another gift shop lined with the many cliche and repeat tourist items covered in shells or neon wording in a Costco size way (because everything in Texas really is bigger). And for $7, you can see their exhibit.

The most random things put together, ever.
From a sword collection, scenes from places in the world, to celebrities, in-case-you-didn’t-know-what-an-alien-looks-like exhibit and this is what baby Jesus and the Civil War looked like type stuff. It was the: if you aren’t sure what these things are, well here it is exhibit.
I know some folks really don’t travel and not desire to. And some really never know what’s outside of their TV and don’t desire to. This was for those folks made by folks just like that. It was entertaining but also an interesting and slightly melancholy reality to look into.

Bruce Lee isn’t Japanese or a ninja, native Hawaiians are not white nor do tucans wander the streets and I doubt that Ray Charles was that small.
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There and on the way to South Padre, there are tons of tourist shops all filled with the same seashell picture frames, screen print neon shirts and flashing lighters next to the rack of postcards.
But all of them have some special unique gimmick . OR try to.
This one shop in the town of Port Isabel, the last town before you hit the bridge to get to South Padre Islands, had hermit crabs. Not anything unique but the incredibly interesting ones were the poor crabs who looked like they were forced into handpainted homes on their backs covered with images of Hello Kitty and Spider man. The best part, there wasn’t a price difference between the “normal ones” and what appeared to be an attempt at “designer ones.” I am pretty sure that wasn’t a Marvel Comic artist who drew that Spiderman. It was all based on the type of “crab condo” you bought and the size of the crab.
(click on image to open gallery)

Is about ten miles north of the Mexican Boarder and about a five hour drive from the city of San Antonio, Texas.

I was there for the hottest day of the year.

Would I recommend it? Only if you have never seen or grown up on a Hawaiian Beach.

Got fireworks on a Friday night just like Waikiki. People party like it’s a small Cancun.

And it’s too damn hot to walk anywhere.

Fourth one.

Plenty ono food.

808/206-ers

Small kine jam session.

Many Alohas.

‘Nuff Said

Thursday, May 19th 2011, the Smugglers Tour came thru at Volume in Seattle’s Pioneer Square.
Locals acts such as Fatal Lucciano, Khingz and Grynch opened for the LA-based emcee Bambu and ones-and-twos mater DJ Phatrick. Prometheus Brown got on stage for the track “Slow Down” on Bambu’s EP “Paper Cuts” which dropped last year (which, by the way, is one of my favorite EPs to listen to cover to cover).

It turned out to be a really dope show with a good turn out of homies that came thru as well.

Watching Bam and Phat on stage never seems to get old. It was good to some of the homies, enjoy their music, throw a few back and meet some new folks.

Enjoy the photos if you didn’t make it! Includes the stage, the backstage, the homies, myself and the afterwards eats.

Jahoo’s 2nd birthday at Lakewood park.

These are the kids who are going to be able to utilize this:

I was told that Spring wouldn’t just hit. It would be gradual and one day I would be walking outside and realize that I don’t need a jacket. Well, I have been keeping tabs of sunny days, every day the sun sets a little later and every day that I don’t need to wear leggings under my jeans.
So I actually took these photos yesterday. The most recent and updated post, ever.
Yesterday, the forecast told me it was going to snow. It didn’t snow on Beacon Hill or in West Seattle, it was cold but mainly, it was sunny!
A classmate and I went to Seward Park partake in Maruta’s Bentos we picked up on the way. We went for a short walk and snapped a couple of flicks. I am not too sure what the history of Seward park is but I know that last summer, it was hella hyphy.

No jokes folks, people here really like the sun.

On the way back from NYC in September was the last time I took flight. The longest non-flying period time it has been in two years. Eric’s mom was laying over in LA where Eric’s sister and aunt live so we decided to take a weekend trip. We did our magic on the airlines again and got hella cheap tickets.
Originally, I knew my mood and feelings were changing but I didn’t attribute much to the weather. In the past month when I realized I hadn’t seen any sun*shine* or blue in the sky. I thought maybe there is such a thing as the lack of sunlight really making people feel SAD. Being in LA’s 70+ degree weather with sunny skies confirmed it.
Born in East LA’s ghettos, a good number of layovers in LAX and one trip where I was basically in a hotel room the whole time had been my previous experiences with Los Angeles. So in two days, I got to check out Hermosa Beach and Venice Beach as the most fully dressed I have ever been at a beach. No matter how bird shit covered the sand was and how thick the view of the smog of LA was, I was just stoked to be close to the familiar smell of ocean. We got to check out the LA convention center that was having an International Art show, walked Venice beach very interesting strip of shops, pot doc shops and people (in shorts, might I add!)
Great to hang out with family, feel the connection of generations and hear the stories and feel the love. Sun made a huge difference in my life for the weekend. Confirmed the case of lack-of-sunlight, recharged me, made me more excited to go back home to Hawai’i and now I am trying to ride the happier-than-I-was-before-weekend-in-LA train for as long as I can.

Click any photo to view gallery. This time the photos are in order. And I also cannot take photo credit since Eric took almost all of these.

School has taken over my life in exactly how I wanted it too. So now I continue to share older pictures to keep the regulars of this page entertained. I kinda of know who you are, well, at least where you are via google analytics.

I joked with Bam and Phat that since they were in Hawaii a couple of weeks before we were going to move to Seattle and they were going to open for the Blue Scholars sold-out double feature the weekend we got there, it was like a goodbye and welcome home show. It helped to see so many friends and familiar faces who now (9 month later) are closer than before. The rules of proximity. Here are a few snaps from the night one and night three (the added show after the first two sold out). It’s weird to be reminiscing about this weekend and living in a Travelodge hotel room where I found someone else’s super large false lashes stuck to the bottom of my bare foot. Time flies.