Wednesday, Feb 27, 2008

Chinatown in the Morning

This morning, Chelsea, Len and I met at Aloha Tower for coffee before our trip into Chinatown. A little background on my two photography buddies. Chelsea is in the Navy, has been for almost 8 years, and expects to stay in until she can retire. I met her one day when she brought her camera and tripod to Laniakea Beach while I was on Turtle Patrol. We got to talking about, guess what, photography AND turtles. I told her about the MeetUp group I belong to and that day she went home and joined. She was pretty excited to finally have connected with some other photographers who could help her learn more about her hobby.

Len is married and lives on the windward side of the island. They've been here for about 18 months, and they plan on staying for at least 3 1/2 more years. It's part of their "5-year-plan". Len did construction back in Ontario, Canada, and his wife, Andrea, is a nurse. When they moved to Hawaii they applied for green cards, but they haven't received them yet. Andrea is a nurse, so she was able to get a job, but Len can't work till he gets his card. Awww!

I had a hard time trying to settle on just a few images to post, and I wound up with quite a few, so this will be mostly photos, not text.

This is some kind of fruit--looks more like flowers to me.

Okay, as we were walking along the street, I was concentrating on the buildings and the street vendors, mostly looking up in the air to see the architecture. I finally paused and looked for Len and Chelsea, and there was Len taking photos of a stroller, and what I assumed was a cute baby. When I went over to see what was up, I discovered these adorable dogs.

The owner came out of the store while we were going ga-ga over the pups. She was a hoot. She told us she didn't have any children so these were her "babies". When she first got the one with the sunglasses, he would constantly walk into things when she had him outside. After taking him to the vet several times to see if he was blind, the vet said, "maybe it's just too bright for him". So she got him sunglasses and he's been fine ever since. She told us he has many pairs of glasses at home, including a studded pair like Elton John.

She pushes them around in the stroller when they get too tired to walk or the street is too busy.

We kept walking and got to the outskirts of Chinatown. There was a little pond and waterfall as part of the decor outside one of the buildings.

I started taking photos of the people across the street waiting for TheBus. This gentleman was looking around, but when I focused on him, he looked right at me and for once I didn't flinch. I wanted his picture.

Looking at this guy taking a rest, all I could think of was "If it's Wednesday, it must be nap-time" Okay, so it's a pretty pathetic take-off of an old movie title, but I like it.

When I took this one I was a little annoyed that the bus was in the background, but then when I saw it on the computer, I liked it alot, especially since the bus is showing movement.

orange='Alani

dog=Ilio

to cast a reflection=Noho ke aka

good afternoon/good evening= Aloha ahiahi