My camera...it is fun

Or...

Beware of falling meatballs.

And feral fowl...Finally, after about a six week hiatus, Ross and I hit the trails again. This time we explored the area above my neighborhood...Makiki Heights. The trail head started at the Makiki Recreation Area...a cute little park with ample parking. Wednesday's trail was a loop consisting of three: Kanealole trail, Makiki Valley trail and Muanalaha trail. All in all the loop runs about 2.5 miles. We were dying after 20 minutes.

Yeah, it's been a while.
The trail itself is not that strenuous. But keep in mind we are in the early days of September. The afternoons are warm, the air is heavy, swarms of fruit flies are thick above fallen rotting fruit and the vog is making an appearance again. Had we gotten started earlier in the day it may not have been as bad. But all struggle and wheezing aside, after that first 20 minutes we found our pace (and our breathe) and plugged along.The Makiki Valley Loop isn't anything spectacular compared to say Manoa Valley. You do get fairly high up the side of the valley, with some great views of diamond head and downtown.
Foliage is pretty run of the mill, nothing really stands out after the beauty of some of the other trails we've been on. And while this trail, like most of the others, roughly follows a stream, we were not treated to any waterfalls, short of a few small trickles over a boulder or two.It was refreshing to get out and about again. On a more ambitious day we'll take the Maunalaha leg up to Manoa Cliff trail where there are supposedly some great views through the mountains to Kaneohe. On another day...we're looking at about an 8 mile loop when we tackle that route. Next week I think we're hitting Judd. Any Lost fans out there?

After the trail we drove a bit higher up the mountain, winding this way at that among the pricey secluded houses...just to see where the road would take us. Well, it took us to the top and looped right back down to where we started. But along the way we discovered a little lookout where I was able to play with a previously untouched feature on my new camera...the panoramic.

It's a brilliant function really. It is essentially a series of three photos taken left to right. However after you take the first one, a strip of the last image appears on the left of screen
allowing you to match up the photos. After the third shot is taken the camera will "stitch" the images together to make one long continuous photo. And it stitches it in such a way that as long as you were reasonably close to lining up the images, it will make the corrections for you, creating a seamless match. Go head...try to find the seams below...
And I found a fun log too....I love textures.