Thursday, September 29, 2011

Hawaii Trip Day 4 l Schaffer Photography

Beach Photos!! Finally!!

We went with our friends Steve and Supriya to Waimea (Why-may-ah) Bay.  Waimea Bay was voted one of the best beaches in the world!!  Being the daredevils that we are, we just had to jump off of the cliffs.  The locals do it all the time!  It was so much fun and, trust me, it feels much higher than it looks when you're jumping off!!


That's me jumping!!
 
Stephen jumping!!
 

The fields above Waimea Bay
 There is a great Shave Ice war debate on the island of Oahu.  Aoki's vs. Matsumoto's.  We chose Aoki's and it was great!  I can't speak for the quality of Matsumoto...  Stephen got azuki beans in the bottom of his shave ice :)

Double fisting it!

 

In the photo below, what you see in my hand is the magical food Musubi (Moo-soo-bee).  Musubi is fried Spam, rolled in sticky rice and wrapped in seaweed.  Yes, it's like Spam sushi and frown if you want, but it tastes amazing.  I was a little hesitant at first.  I mean, its Spam!!  But I will try and food once and once I tried it, I loved it :)  Musubi is a common beach food and was being handed out this day by a church group to locals, so we grabbed some!



Calling all Lost fans!  I have never watched the show, but below are the photos from the beach, Mokule'i'a (Moe-koo-lay-ee-ah), where Lost was filmed.  I thought that was pretty cool!








Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Bentley and Gus Pet Portraits l Roanoke VA Photographer Schaffer Photography

Bentley and Gus were as different in personality as two dogs could get.  Bentley, the grey Chihuahua, was sweet, shy and eager to be affectionate and give kisses.  Gus, on the other hand, took a little longer to warm up.  I am proud to say that Gus and I became friends after many, many treats! 

It's so funny for me to compare these little dogs to my much larger dogs, a lab mix and pit bull.  I can't help but laugh when I think that my dogs weighed more than either Gus or Bentley when they were only weeks old :)  I had a great time getting to know both Bentley and Gus and their moms too!






Layla Pet Portraits l Roanoke VA Photographer Schaffer Photography

Layla was a ball of energy when I met her and her owners this past Saturday for a pet portrait session to benefit the SPCA.  She is not quite a year old and is a silver lab- something I had neve heard of!  She had a beautiful grey and silver coat with bright blue eyes.  She was so cute!!  We all had a great time- especially Layla!  She found quite a few good smells to roll in, a water fountain to play with and lots of treats to eat.  Layla was a real sweetie who loved to play and smile as you can see in her photos!  Enjoy :)









Saturday, September 24, 2011

Jackson Baby Portraits l Roanoke VA Photographer, Schaffer Photography

I took Jackson's newborn photos so I was so excited to see how much he had grown since I had seen him 8 months ago.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw just how big he had gotten!  Jackson had the prettiest blue eyes- mom and dad better watch out when he gets older!!






"Chaos" Pet Photography l Roanoke VA Photographer, Schaffer Photography

"Chaos" had his photo taken for the SPCA Pet Photography project!  Chaos was such a good boy :)  And how could you ignore those striking blue eyes?  He has some of the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen!!





Sunday, September 18, 2011

2011 Marine Mud Run






This was the first year in 7 years that I have not ran in the Marine Mud Run 5K race.  My husband decided to run on a all mens team from his martial arts academy and so I happily obliged to just take photos this year and capture all of the fun that is the Marine Mud Run.  I hope you enjoy looking at the photos as much as I enjoyed watching all of the muddy mess!








 










Sunday, September 4, 2011

Hawaii Trip Day 3, Schaffer Photography (Roanoke, VA photographer)


Day three of our  Hawaii trip!  We got up that morning and headed out at 9 am to Pearl City to go to see Pearl Harbor.  I have to admit, this is a very touristy thing to do.  But Pearl Harbor is one of the most historically significant events in the history of the United States.  

If you don’t know much about Pearl Harbor, I will briefly explain what happened and why it has been so important to our history.  The attack on Pearl Harbor began on the island of Oahu early in the morning on December 7, 1941 by the Japanese Imperial navy.  Pearl Harbor was attacked with over 350 airplanes carrying bombs and torpedoes that eventually sank four and damaged four U.S. Battleships.  When the attack began, most of the soldiers actually thought that it was a drill.  The attack was such a huge surprise not only to the soldiers stationed on Oahu but to everyone in America.  The attack on Pearl Harbor marked the entry of the United States into World War II where we declared war on Japan. 

My husband and I got to Pearl Harbor around 9:30 am, but our tour wasn’t until 1:00 pm that afternoon.  There were lots of people there that morning!  So, this left us with a lot of time to walk around many of the interesting Pearl Harbor museums before we took our tour of one of the sunken battleships, the U.S.S Arizona, which still remains underwater at Pearl Harbor.  But more about the U.S.S Arizona later.








Torpedo on the USS Bowfin
 
The first tour we went on was the submarine, the U.S.S Bowfin.  It was neat to walk through the Bowfin.  It was remarkably small inside and I can’t believe that soldiers lived in there for weeks at a time.  Every time I went through a doorway, I had to duck and I’m short!  I can’t imagine how it must have felt to be a tall guy walking though the submarine hallways.  All of the bunks were stacked one on top of the other with only about 3 feet of space in each bedroom to move around.  It was cool to be able to see the torpedo tubes and look up the periscope.  Once we finished the tour of the inside of the submarine, we headed for the deck.  On top of the deck was a massive anti-aircraft gun.  If you look down the barrel of the gun, you see a proud and waving American flag at the end of the deck.  Simply amazing.  

Torpedo recovered from the Pearl Harbor attacks



Poster some of the sailors kept onboard the USS Bowfin
Control pannel inside the USS Bowfin
At one of the museums there was a photography display!  Cool old camera equipment!!

My husband and I at Pearl Harbor

Palm tree!

After several hours of walking though museums, we finally got to go on the tour of the U.S.S Arizona.  Yay!  It was hot and I was ready for some air conditioning!  As I said above, this battleship was sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Tragically, 1,177 men were still on board and died when it sank.   After the movie about Pearl Harbor, we got on a ferry and were taken out the memorial site in the water that is built right over the sunken ship.  Once we were on the memorial site, I could look straight down and see the sunken ship below me.  I could see the rusted remains of the ship that now has a rainbow of colored algae growing on it now.   I stared in awe realizing that over 1,000 soldiers gave their lives for my freedom right where I was standing and their bodies were still underwater, right below where I was standing.  It is eerily quiet while you are on the memorial.  We also got to see the giant marble wall with all of the names of the men that died etched in the stone.  It’s a very powerful sight to see an entire wall etched with all of the names of the heroic men that passed away that day.  

Part of the sunken ship USS Arizona


Part of the sunken ship USS Arizona

View up from the Arizona Memorial




After we left the memorial of Pearl Harbor, we headed back to the house.  We were excited for the cookout that night.  The cookout was to welcome back our friends Steve and Supriya who were arriving from the mainland that afternoon and to say goodbye to several friends of pastor Frank who had been staying with him. 

Me and Supriya


My handsome husband at the cookout

The food at this cookout was amazing!  This was my first of my many experiences eating poke (pr. Poe-kay)!  Poke is amazing.  It is raw Ahi Tuna covered in various spices and herbs.  My favorite poke was Wasabi Poke that was topped with rho.  If you love sushi, you would love poke!  We also got to try and traditional Hawaiian dish called Pipi Kaula (pee-pee-ka-oo-la).  Pipi kaula is a beef dish that is marinated in vinegar and onions.  It has a jerky like consistency and has a very strong and savory flavor.  I loved pipi kaula and ate so much of it!  I had such a great time at this cookout, meeting everyone at the church and kicking the soccer ball around! 


Poke!

Pipi Kaula

Stay tuned for day 4 and beach pictures!!