I recently received this picture from Jeremy, our new friend who we met while exploring the volcano. The funny thing as I look at this picture is remembering the way in which I was able to get the pictures in the previous post.
I knew it would be tough to get a good picture - using the zoom lens at its full 300mm length and having no real tripod. Luckily, I had my tabletop tripod in the bag. However, the length of the lens made the whole setup wobbly, especially with the wind blowing. At some point after complaining several thousand times about the camera shaking, Jeremy came up w/the great idea of putting a water bottle under the end of the lens to stabilize it. Amazingly, it worked perfectly. So again, big thanks to Jeremy for this picture and any good pictures I got that day from my own camera.
J
Wifey and I made a trip to the Big Island this week. One of our goals was to hike out on the volcano and get up-close and personal with some lava. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any surface lava flows, but after a “short” 3.5 mile hike across the lava field, we were treated to some spectacular views of new land being created as red hot lava poured into the ocean. And of course, after our viewing was complete, we got to make the 3.5 mile return trip to the car. The terrain was rough and slow going and was even more difficult in the dark.
We met up with Jeremy at our viewing area - he was visiting from Ohio. Thanks for keeping us company and leading the way back to the car. Click on the pictures below for the full-size version. Each picture is ~1.5 MBytes.
J
Another food story…imagine that. When I was a kid, Shakey’s Pizza was the place to be. Our Shakey’s was awesome. The best place to eat your pizza was in the “cartoon room.” They would play Looney Toons and the Three Stooges. Way too funny. Of course, on Monday night, they would show football. That’s where I saw Tony Dorsett run for his record-setting 99.something yard touchdown run from scrimmage.
The gameroom? It was insane. It used to be modest, but then they added on to the restaurant and the game room became as big (if not bigger) than the restaurant itself. We used to get free tokens for good grades on our report cards. Some of my favorite games were Donkey Kong, Moon Patrol, Time Pilot and the Cactus Jack pinball machine.
Later in life, Shakey’s transitioned to the must-go place after Friday night football games and the same held true for Saturday football games in college. Somewhere in there was the addition of the all-you-can-eat buffet. It was awesome!
Like all good things, Shakey’s too came to an end. I don’t remember if it was before I graduated from college or shortly after, but the Shakey’s closed. Last I checked, there was some kind of buffet place there now.
Well, I just got back from a trip to Long Beach, CA. My good friend Tom told me (the last time I went out there) to check for Shakey’s. What do you know!!! They have them out there!! On my last trip, I found one and went inside. It was in LA somewhere. The neighborhood was OK, but the clientelle inside was a little scary. I got it to go.
On this trip, I found one in the Los Alamitos area. It was a great location with not-so-scary customers. I ordered the mushroom-pepperoni pizza and Mojo potatoes. Of course, growing up in Texas, they were called Rojo potatoes. Side story: we used to play the Odessa Permian Panthers (the team from Friday Night Lights). Their battle cry was “Mojo.” Yeah, don’t ask me…anyway, there was no way our Shakey’s could have “Mojos” on the menu. So, they changed the name to Rojos.
When the pizza came out, I took a slice out of the pan. A mushroom fell off, so I ate it first. Even the mushroom tasted just the way I remembered it. I know, it sounds weird, but I’m serious. It was an awesome pizza experience. I went back the last night I was there. I have another trip planned back there in January…I can’t wait to have more pizza.
J
