Baby, 12/31/10 and Happy New Year, 1/1/11

I am so happy for my friends who just had a baby 12 days ago. She is so cute!!!

Here is the happy family.
Luckily, daddy can cook. We enjoyed a delicious lunch. Hee hee this is an aerial shot. I needed to stand on their chair to get this.
Later that night, I met up with Ruth, Alan and Dennis at Murphy's Bar and Grill. The desserts were yummy and I really liked this adorned light fixture. Sure got me in the mood to celebrate New Year's.

The following pics were taken with my Panasonic ZS3 - only the first 2 have been edited - especially the second one for noise/grain.

We wanted to take pictures of the fireworks from Aloha Tower Market Place, however we did not want to pay $20.00 to get in. So we moved on.

Star of Honolulu also had New Year's festivities but about 1/2 hour before midnight moved out to allow everyone to see the fireworks from a better place.
So where did we take these fireworks? We sat on the rocks along the shore fronting the parking lot. I was going to edit these pics and thought it would be better to show what the scene mode: fireworks, can do.







I always find it difficult to take fireworks shots, within the 10 minutes so many fireworks are shot up that I can't figure when to take the pics. When too many are up, my pictures get blown out.

Since 1985 - Honolulu City Lights, 12/29/10

For the past 26 years, it is fun to see Santa and Mrs. Clause (Hawaiian style) sit outside our city hall. Each year we look forward to this Christmas delight and any additions. I haven't actually kept up with this, however it is definitely worth coming to. Isn't this penguin cute?

Also what is cool is this tree. Notice not many people, that is because we came after Christmas. (much better)

I totally photoshopped this.
My favorite display is this area.


Did I say photoshop?

I did a second curtain flash. Huh?

I did not take any pictures inside the courtyard of our Honolulu Hale (hale means house - it houses our Mayor and other city departments). There are a lot of Christmas displays which make the children giggle with delight. I also did not take any pictures of the other displays on this huge block. OMG, I basically stayed in one area.

After this our photo club, Hawaii Photographic Society, got together for a late dinner.

Tis New Year's Eve. May everyone have a wonderful 2011, full of good health, happiness and prosperity.

Hanapa'a Christmas sharing and earlier that day, 12/25/10

Erick and I finally found this place. Hee hee, I am not a good map reader. In my blog about Candy Cane Lane, I mentioned how disappointed we were in not finding this place.

This is what we came for, this is a tree made of Heineken bottles. The tree lights up in sync with the Christmas music - so cool!!! There is even a train track.


This idea of using bottles came about because friends and family were trying to recycle the bottles but for some reason the recycling center was not ready for bottles - so guess what they put these bottles to good use. When asked how many bottles, they were not sure perhaps close to 3,000.
It was hard to capture this wonderful cul-de-sac, many Christmas displays.

This area lights were also in sync with the Heineken tree.


Erick and I were lucky to get any shots. It rained alot. One of the homes had elves and due to rain were put away, in fact if you look at the home with Merry Christmas in large blocks it was covered with a clear plastic and there some displays covered with black plastic.

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I have to share how my Christmas morning began. At 7 a.m., I met Ruth and her sister at their parents home in Manoa for a walk. OMG she directly heads up these stairs, I hope I captured how steep it was.

I couldn't help myself from taking pictures of these cool homes.

and other scenes.
Ruth mentioned how this company concentrates on one project at a time. Good thing the job gets done quicker.
These are papayas that the Thailand people use in their green papaya salad.

Tonight I also blogged about "Hilton Hawaiian Village Again, 12/26/10"

Hilton Hawaiian Village Again, 12/26/10

I met Derek, Milton S., Roger and Renee at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. I recognized the artist, Thomas Deir, who did this mural. He has one at Hanauma Bay. He does wonderful works.

I titled this blog as Hilton Hawaiian Village Again because I posted a visit on 12/21/10. There are so many things to see. Milton mentioned this is a peacock fish. Although, I wanted to see the penguins, I did not a good pic of them.
I topazed this.
black and white

Also at my last visit, I had stiched 2 pics together for a panorama pic. From this pic, you can see that both the Aloha Ukulele store and elevators are one dimension. However check out the panorama that I created, the first section is curved. I think I must have shifted my angle when I took the second part.





This is the first time I have seen this lagoon being enjoyed by many.