An Heir and the Spares: July 2013

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Tucson Beauty

Living in Tucson has it's challenges: the heat, lack of water, brown landscape, rattlesnakes, and crazy drivers. It also has it's beauty and shining moments: flowering succulents, wildlife, a variety of extremely good food, stunning sunsets, and abundant shopping. I have learned to embrace the good and forget about the bad. After living in Hawaii, it's hard to think anywhere is quite as nice, but Tucson could definitely be worse.

I took these photos one day last Spring and really couldn't believe how beautiful the cactus were. My favorite are the prickly pear. They have an array of colorful flowers and the fruit can be juiced and used in things like lemonade, margaritas, and popsicles. Last year I did a little tutorial on how to juice them by hand if you are feeling ambitious. I know what you're thinking, "Is it worth it?" Totally.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Hey, I'm the heir

I guess I'm the heir, but don't worry, there's plenty of room for those other two. Currently I live in Pohang, South Korea, a town known for dried squid and steel, with my wife. We're currently teachers working on our fourth year in South Korea. Unbelievable that we've been here that long, but we like it a little bit more every day.

Introductions over, on to my first post. This weekend was the Pohang International Fireworks Festival. I took my camera down to snap some shots and here are a few of my favorites. You can see a few more, if you like, at 10picturesinpohang.com.

Alright family, who's next to post? I guess it's a challenge to go do cool stuff and write about.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Newborn Photography Session in Tucson

While my brother Zach was in Tucson, he took some amazing pictures of the family. Cody, Arlo, and I were so lucky that he even took some of just us. They turned out beautifully. We love them. We would have easily paid a few hundred dollars for photos that most likely wouldn't have been as good. I put together a few collages in Lightroom that I thought really captured the best poses, perspectives, and us as a family.

This is one I would love to print onto a big canvas and hang above our bed. It is so simple all in black and white and makes me smile just looking at it.

This one can be used as a facebook timeline page cover. I think these would look great for his business page. What do you think? There are a lot of pictures of me on it, but you get the idea.

These are some of the best poses to me. They really capture the feeling of our little family and show off our new arrival. These are definitely something we will keep forever and show off to friends and family for years to come. Who took the photos? Check him out at www.10picturesinpohang.com. He does engagement style shots, family portraits, landscape, and business photography too. His blog is so much fun to read through. Korea never looked so beautiful than through his lens this past year.

Monday, July 22, 2013

Home for a little while

Tammy and I loved visiting family in Tacoma and Tucson, but now we are thrilled to be back home in Hawaii until the end of August. We have been here a little over a week, mostly enjoying the weather and relaxing with my dad. Here are a few highlights from our holiday so far:

Here is a photo of my dad on the beach in Kaneohe playing with a new friend.

We did a tour of I'olani Palace last week and it was really fun. I hadn't been there since 2002, so most of the tour felt brand new. We managed to catch a free Kama'aina day, so the price was just about right. This was the King's bed. A bit smaller than you would imagine for a royal bed, but it looked comfortable enough.

We also headed up to Puu Ualakaa Park on Tantalus for some awesome views of town.

Tammy and I headed up to the Hale'iwa Art Festival last Saturday to see what was new in the local art scene and to hear some live music. The Hawaii Celtic Drums and Pipes group opened with some great Celtic music, but mostly I enjoyed this woman's bagpipe set-up. She had taxidermic goat's head bling on her pipes. Very cool. After getting over the goat head, we checked out some art and my favorite artist of the day was Colin Redican.

http://www.colinredicanart.com/

He does really dramatic scenes with ahi and other local marine life. If I had a big wall and a way to travel with a large masterpiece, I would be $1200 poorer right now.

Supporting a new brewery on island, not my scene, but drinkable.

We headed down to Waikiki on Sunday for the Honolulu Ukulele festival and some people watching. We saw ukulele groups from Korea, Australia, Japan, and Hawaii. An Australian group did a really eerie cover of "Under the Milky Way" which I can't find online, but I would love to listen to again. The beach was packed and the surf was 1-2 feet, so plenty of surfers were out vying for waves. I miss walking around and hearing all of the different languages being spoken around Waikiki and seeing all of the people having a blast on their holidays.

No trip to town would be complete without my favorite local grinds, South Shore Grill's caprese sandwich. Macadamia nut pesto, fresh mozz, and grilled ciabatta. This is certainly not on the menu in Iraq. Trying my hardest to indulge in all of the food that doesn't get imported to the Middle East. Loving every bite.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Visit to Arizona

The whole family came out to Tucson to meet our new baby Arlo. We had so much fun and now Arlo is missing his Aunts and Uncles AND Grandpa of course. He wants to be played with non-stop and held. Thanks guys... I think he misses the pool time with everyone the most.