Gladiator Rock ‘N Run Photoblog

30 Wednesday May 2012

Tags

gladiator rock n run, Music, photography

Last week Them Rude Boys performed the San Jose Gladiator Rock ‘N Run and Justin asked me to take a phew photos and video for them.

If you don’t know what Gladiator Rock ‘N Run is, it’s a 5 kilometer long, 17-obstacle course:

Dan Clark aka “Nitro” from the American Gladiators brings you the most insane one day event on the planet – The Gladiator Rock’n Run™.

The course challenges all participants to conquer extreme obstacles and harsh terrain, then to celebrate their conquests with a bad-ass post race party filled with music, beer and food.

Kevin on vocals and guitar:

BF Justin on drums:

Frank on bass and vocals:

The participants before the course:

during…

And after! Covered in mud!

They had a few fun activities for participants in the spirit of American Gladiator

Dirty shoes were donated to fight autism (buy the end of the second day this pile was HUGE)

Part of the course:

They also had a costume contest

The very last obstacle was called “The Wall of Fame/The Wall of Shame.” If you couldn’t climb up with ropes, you had to walk around it instead.

Participants also had to jump over fire:

It was quite a fun filled weekend… I don’t think I could try the course myself… I’d probably collapse halfway!

♥ E&I

Our day trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea

23 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by elle & ish in buddy, photography, Travel

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

beach, biking, buddy, carmel, monterey, Vacation

Life has been quite busy lately so a relaxing day trip was in order.

As Buddy gets older I want to take him to fun places to explore… Carmel Beach is a leash free beach and Carmel-by-the-sea, CA is one of the most dog friendly towns in the US!

Buddy snoozing on the way to Carmel:

The beach!

Looking at this photos I realize I really need to give Buddy a haircut. He ran more than I have ever seen him do before! We’ll have to come again soon.

Very tired with lots of sand on his nose:

Biking along the Monterey Bay Coastal trail:

We also stopped by the Monterey Fisherman’s Wharf to eat some clam chowda! ;D

Justin and I had a really great time.. hopefully Buddy did too.

♥ E&I

Them Rude Boys music video shoot photoblog

03 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by elle & ish in photography

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Music, photography, rock

Justin had a video shoot last week for his new band and I was asked to take some candids! This was my first time shooting at night. Night photography is definitely not easy!

All photos taken with my trusty Lumix GF1 with G 20mm f/1.7 Aspherical Lens.

Thanks for reading

♥ E&I

Hawaii 2011 – Oahu Part 3 pic heavy

01 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by elle & ish in Hawaii, photography, Travel

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

hawaii, oahu, photography, travel, waikiki

On October 12th we spotted this HUGE line at Victoria’s Secret.. it turns out Alessandra Ambrosio came to Hawaii for their store opening! We first saw the line in the morning and it ended up lasting until the end of the day! It would have been nice to see her in person but I don’t think I could wait all day for that

Kalakaua Avenue early in the morning… this is the main touristy street near the beach where people are walking around at all hours of the day and night… similar to ‘the strip’ in SoCal

Being cheesy at the Chanel store at the end of Kalakaua Avenue! We did go inside once (honestly I had never gone inside a Chanel store before) and Justin balked at the price of a crocodile flap for $6850! hahah

The first freestanding YSL store I’ve ever seen! Since I have a little baby green-teal besace I have to show some love I find it funny that YSL and Chanel were pushed SO far towards the end of the ‘strip’ while other less coveted fashion houses are in the middle of Kalakaua.

My Hawaii uniform! Super slouchy tanks, bikini underneath, beach shorts and some Havaiana sandals. Unfortunately these sandals broke on a rocky beach hike so I had to trash them.

Yellow hibiscus:

Having fun with the tanks and guns at the US Army museum of Hawaii at Waikiki:

Waikiki beach in the morning

Japanese tourists learning hula on Waikiki beach:

Disney’s latest resort.. Aulani in Ko Olina! I love Disney and I had to check it out because it is still very new!

They have a pretty little manmade cove right off the beach

As always, Disney does not disappoint! The resort is beautiful.

You can see a peek of their lazy river here… that ‘mountain’ in the back is a waterslide:

The austere and impressive lobby (the feel of it is similar to the California Adventure hotel):

In a nutshell, the resort is beautiful and great for kids and the elderly, but I think I’d get pretty bored there after a couple days. There isn’t much to do at that end of the island.

Justin loves to geocache so we set off to find one near the rocky beach close to Paradise cove. This is where my Havaianas broke!

Justin located the geocache within this monstrous tree:

The nice thing about geocaching is that they can take you to the most beautiful and untouched places

Luau time at Paradise Cove

My faux tribal tattoo.. the closest I’ll ever get to the real thing

Kalua pork, island fish with macadamia nut cream sauce and poi!

During one night I was SO tired from walking around that I slept for 10 hours..and while I slept Justin surprised me with a LeSportSac wallet! This print is exclusive to Hawaii and Guam. He had a difficult time picking one out for me (“at least 45 minutes!”) because “every print looks different!”

Next on the list of things to do… Waimea Falls

Waimea Valley park is a nice easy hike with pretty sights to see along the way. They have an extensive botanical garden if you happen to love plants and flowers.

Hair of the day:

Waimea falls! The water is actually 30 feet deep!

The twisted roots of this tree (I forgot the name) spiral down from the top of the tree into the ground!

We couldn’t go home without trying Matsumoto’s famous shaved ice!

There’s always a long line to pay:

I bought a mousepad for $4 since I needed one anyway…

Everyone needs to eat RICE!

Malasadas are my favorite dessert in Hawaii! Leonard’s is the BEST

Justin is part Portugese so I insisted he try the food of his people

We had a quick stop at the Ala Moana mall (the largest open-air shopping mall in the world)

There is a jewelry store called Q-Pot that looks like a candy store but they sell food-themed jewelry!

This ‘magical broom’ is actually a ROOMBA! I passed by and saw it gliding along the floor

I also did some damage at Gilly Hicks…I love their undies but its hard to get to for me since there are no stores where I live

And now… my tiny haul from the trip!

Haleiwa tee from a Japanese boutique near my hotel (twitpic of me wearing it here)

and some various girly goodies

So that’s it for my Oahu photos for this trip! I’m a bit sick so I wanted to get this done quick…Time to lie down now!

Thanks for readin’

All posts in this series:

♥ E&I

Hawaii 2011 – Oahu Part 2 pic heavy

27 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by elle & ish in Hawaii, photography, Travel

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Tags

giovanni's, hawaii, oahu, photography, shorebird, waikiki

During our trip we visited Byodo-In Temple in the Valley of the Temples, surrounded by lush green mountains.

This temple is so picturesque!

A closeup of a plant that seems more at home in the ocean than on land! (I can’t seem to find the actual name)

Justin suggested we go here because the birds at the temple are very tame. We arrived early in the morning before the temple shop was even open, but a monk at the temple was kind enough to give us feed for free.

Byodo-In’s resident Calico cat, sleeping in the sunshine (what a life!):

That same day we went to the Dole Plantation in the middle of Oahu. I highly recommend the pineapple ice cream bowl with fresh pineapple

We also did the Dole pineapple maze challenge! This maze was declared the World’s Largest Maze in 2008. If you do plan to visit, make sure to check the free tourism guides around downtown Oahu… you’re likely to find a buy one get one free adult admission ticket for the maze.

The most delicious gummi bears I’ve ever had.. and possibly the most expensive~! Justin bought it for me as surprise and I was shocked at the $7 pricetag! But.. it was so good we were almost tempted to buy another bag.

A pretty hibiscus flower in the maze:

Laniakea Beach aka “Turtle Beach”

I had never seen a wild turtle before this trip! They are so amazingly adorable and majestic at the same time. The turtles come to Laniakea beach to sleep and eat the seaweed growing on the rocks.

These two were “holding hands!” :3

One of our Groupons was for a (Groupon referral here) submersible-scooter ride near Hawaii Kai.

Apparently Kanye West’s secret studio is located off the pier.

We were tethered to the surface so we wouldn’t have to worry about hitting the bottom:

The plastic helmets gave us “shrunken heads”

It was a fun experience… If scuba diving is too expensive and/or too frightening I recommend underwater scooters! An oxygen tank pumps air into the helmet and you have controls to push yourself forward, right or left.

My grown-up version of Shark Boy

Most of the trip we drank POG (passion fruit-orange-guava juice).. I was insistent that we consume as much non-mainland food and drink as possible My local Marukai does have a lot of Hawaiian snacks, drinks and food mixes but its just not the same (and not to mention expensive)