Uploads from /\ltus, tagged dmclx5, with geodata

Don't Snowboard Much...

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:36:03 -0800

/\ltus posted a photo:

...these days. While I prefer snowboarding over skiing, I've become spoiled over the years with Niseko powder (see previous shots in my photostream) that boarding on anything other than knee-deep powder in the backcountry just isn't worth the effort anymore. Living in Southern California just isn't conducive for those kind of conditions ;-)

So...I've relegated myself to putting on the short trick skis and going down the groomed slopes with the boys. Still a lot of fun in its own way and well worth the effort (only 1.5 hours door-to-slopes!). Both boys want to snowboard, but I'm having them become better skiers first, then will let them move on to boarding (that and I'd rather they learn in softer conditions).

Non-HDR shot of me lounging on a huge boulder about 1/2 down the slopes just off the trail while the boys have a snowball fight behind me :-)

Snow Valley, California.

Palms in Paradise

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:37:36 -0800

/\ltus posted a photo:

We were on the way to a formal function and were afforded this view of some light-studded palm trees at dusk.

1xp shot of yet another picture-perfect beautiful (and warm-ish!) California pastel sky at sunset.

South Coast Plaza, California.

Pool Twilight

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 10:05:48 -0800

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Another Water Polo shot. Travus moved to a more active club recently; thus has more games to attend. This one taken last weekend of a local tournament hosted by his club (Northwood).

Lights at the pool didn't come on until 5:30pm (no way to manually turn them on) so the kids had to play in the twilight for about 30min, which made for an interesting game as it was hard to see where everyone was!

Irvine, California.

Ski Day

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 09:04:50 -0800

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Took the boys up again on Dec 31, so that they could end the year on the slopes.

Pic taken below the lower lift at Snow Valley.

Running Springs, California

Snow Valley

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 11:40:26 -0800

/\ltus posted a photo:

A few days ago I took the boys skiing for the first time in over a year. While Chizuko and I went a few times last season, we didn't take the boys as we were still settling in to living here. Both boys were *most, most* upset with us for doing that to them (skiing without them while they were in school!).

So, I finally got all their ski gear unpacked a few months back so that we could hit the slopes once snow coverage was good enough. This was their first time skiing in the US as well.

1xp shot of me and the boys atop the Snow Valley ski resort, which is about 90 minutes from where we live. It was around 32F/0C here, while it was 63F/17C back home, and coverage was pretty good. Truly surreal being so close to some decent slopes while its t-shirt weather at home.

Snow Valley Ski resort in Running Springs, California.

Southern California

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 11:37:47 -0800

/\ltus posted a photo:

First and foremost: MERRY CHRISTMAS Y'ALL!!

Before actually going to LA, I envisioned a sprawling metropolis as far as the eye could see to the end of the horizon in all directions. What I didn't know or expect was mountains, *big* mountains encircling the entire LA basin (highest peaks are around 11,500ft/3,500m).

This makes for spectacular scenery made surreal by the fact that I can be wearing shorts and t-shirt in December (because its warm due to the proximity to the beaches) and view snow capped mountains in the distance; knowing that I'm just 2-hours away from some decent skiing.

1-exposure shot (while in shorts and t-shirt ;-) I took of the snow-capped mountains while doing some Christmas shopping at South Coast Plaza Shopping Mall, which is about 15 minutes away from the beach.

Southern California.

Hiking

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:40:10 -0800

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1xp RAW HDR shot taken of the boys and some friends of theirs on a hike we did yesterday just a few minutes from home.

Perfect weather as always.

Irvine, California.

Blimp Hangar

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 17:48:19 -0800

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A few miles from where we live lies the decommissioned Marine Corps Air Station Tustin (closed in 1999).

Easy to find, as it is home to two *massive* blimp hangars that were built during WWII.

I believe one hanger is being used for private commercial purposes now, and the other for storage.

1xp RAW shot taken as I was biking back home from the shopping center adjacent the hangars (The District).

Tustin, California.

Wet Morning

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 21:29:23 -0800

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As I've mentioned many times, a big plus of living in Irvine are the *hundreds* of miles of walking/biking paths.

1xp RAW HDR shot taken of one such path that runs along San Diego Creek/Aqueduct.

Two things you'll notice odd in this pic are the clouds and the wet ground from the rain! Neither of which we see much of around here ;-)

Irvine, California.

Clouds!

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:38:27 -0700

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Was lucky to have something we don't see a lot of a few mornings back: Lots-of-clouds.

Decided to stop during our morning walk and snap a pic of the clouds in the background with the lake in the foreground. Got most lucky because a gaggle of Geese came in for a landing right in front of me while I was shooting!

1xp RAW HDR shot taken with my trusty point-n-shoot Lumix LX5.

Irvine, California.

Jump!

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 10:46:27 -0700

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Boys jumping for joy after completing their Scout Aquanaut pin at one of the local pools.

Irvine, California.

No Game for Old Men

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 22:17:15 -0700

/\ltus posted a photo:

This is Travus' second season playing Water Polo. Last year he played in the 10U League (10U = 10 years and younger) and had his work cut out for him as he was in the water with players that mostly had 1-3 seasons of experience.

A combination of us being in Texas for Summer Camp, and the team having enough players (though Coach said he'd make room for Travus) meant we missed out on him going to Nationals...and guess what...his team placed FIRST! FIRST PLACE!! (I'm still kicking myself for not taking Coach's offer). While we're bummed he missed out on playing Nationals (I take *ALL* the blame due to his camp scheduling, and not taking Coach up on his offer), it's quite the rush though knowing he's playing and practicing with the very best!

This year, Travus moves from the deep-end-of-the-pool to Deep-Ocean, as he is now in the 12U (12 and under) League. Note that he's still 10 and doesn't turn 11 until next Spring! US Water Polo rules use an August 1st date for their team determinations, and since he'll be 11 by next August, he must play in the 12U's.

Thankfully he's on the 12U 'B Team'. However he practices with the 12U and **14U** 'A' teams (the club obviously has high hopes for it's younger 12U players). It is quite the sight to see him play against the older kids. I've seen him 'check' (the basketball equivalent of doing an underwater 'body check' i.e. grab, pull, kick, etc..) on kids almost 3 years older than him. I say it's quite the sight, because Travus is the kind of kid that would apologise as he does it (meaning he's timid, and Water Polo is *not* a sport for timid kids!!) I even saw him say 'sorry' to a teammate playing on the other side during a weeknight scrimmage when he stole the ball away ;-)

1-exposure shot taken of Travus on the sidelines taking a much-deserved-break during a game he had against a local club a few weeks back.

Southern California, USA.

It's a Lifestyle

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 20:23:45 -0700

/\ltus posted a photo:

Around 3pm one Saturday afternoon, a few weeks back, I asked the boys: "What do you want to do now?". Most of the time the answer is: "Pool!", or "Go to friends house.". This particular time however Travus answered: "Hiking.". So...at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon with (as always) picture-perfect SoCal weather, the two of us jumped in the Truck, drove about 20min from our house towards Laguna Beach and hiked in a public area called: Crystal Cove. Try doing *that* from Tokyo on a Saturday afternoon!

Towards the end of our hike, Chizuko called and said that Austin and her were at an impromptu pool-party and that they were gonna order Pizza delivered to the pool for dinner and asked if we wanted to join them after our hike. Hiked back to the truck...stopped off at home to pick up our swim trunks, and were at the pool everyone was at within 45 minutes after receiving the call. This is life in Southern California (or America for that matter). Given how much we love the outdoors it really is a dream come true in terms of lifestyle!

1-exposure shot of Travus posing in the middle of the trail we hiked. That's the ocean in the background, and if you look a bit closer you can see Catalina Island to the right.

Crystal Cove Park, California.

Tomorrowland

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 08:40:14 -0700

/\ltus posted a photo:

Bit the bullet and bought Disneyland Annual Passes for the family. Note that this was not an easy or cheap decision to make. Inflation may be muted in the US CPI numbers, but *not* for Disneyland annual passes (checkout their prices to see what I mean). Given that we live just 20min away from the World's preeminent theme park I figured we'll go often enough to get (somewhat) of our money's worth.

1-exposure shot of Travus looking out towards 'Tomorrowland' at Disneyland as we made our way to Space Mountain.

Anaheim, California

Sunburst!

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 14:04:39 -0700

/\ltus posted a photo:

The drive to Texas from California was a 2-day sprint, thus the dearth of pics from those two days. The drive back was a more leisure 4 days with a few extra pics to follow.

Wish I could take credit for this shot, but I was busy driving at 75mph (posted speed limit) down a country backroad in New Mexico between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. I saw this to my right while driving, handed my trusty Lumix LX5 to Chizuko, and asked her to shoot away, as I was *not* about to attempt photography at 75mph with one hand on the wheel and another on the camera outstretched across the passenger seat ;-)

1xp shot taken by my lovely wife at 75mph with the window down somewhere in rural New Mexico.

Texas Sunset

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 20:03:29 -0700

/\ltus posted a photo:

As mentioned earlier, me and the boys drove to Texas. Chizuko decided to hang back in Irvine and enjoy the markedly cooler weather for about a week before heading out to Texas herself.

She then flew to Houston to visit a friend of hers that had recently moved there from Japan with her husband and two children. I went a few days later to pick her up and return back to Camp together. On the way back we decided to stay in a hotel on the West side of Houston and were afforded a typical beautiful Texas sunset.

Have to say it was most depressing seeing the size of the houses people live in there in Texas. Her friend lives in a 3,500 sqft, 5bd/4ba home that rents for about the same as our 1,500sqft 3br/2ba place here in Irvine. Place sells for about 1/4 the price of a similarly sized home here in California too, with the difference being that their place is new and the home in California would be at least 20 years old...ugh.

Shot of the sunset and the Hyatt Hotel we stayed at in Sugar Land, Texas.

God Bless America

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 20:47:46 -0700

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I find myself saying this 2-3 times a day when either looking at the scenery, situations, or watching the family really *live* in the environment we've chosen ;-)

While there are many who will decry the problems this Country faces, I'd counter that while things may not be so rosy, we still have a good thing going. Granted we're on a downtrend at the moment, but this Country has repeatedly shown that it can bounce back from times of trouble/crisis even stronger/better than before.

I can't help but pinch myself every morning I wake up and give thanks that we've been lucky to finally make the move to America so that my wife and kids can finally experience what it means to be American...and boy, do they *love* it!!

Non-HDR shot taken underneath a large American Flag that a Cub Scout Den was carrying during a parade we participated in July 4th in the Woodbridge area of Irvine.

Irvine, California.

Hiking Irvine

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 08:52:29 -0700

/\ltus posted a photo:

School is over for the boys as of two weeks ago. Since then we've been sending them to a UCI (University of California Irvine) Summer School program for kids that should give them a bit of a head start for next year. Also will keep them somewhat studious until we make our trek out to Texas next week. Because of this, we've had to drive them to another part of Irvine in order to attend.

As mentioned several times: Irvine is replete with trails for walking, biking, and hiking (even horseback in some areas!), so Chizuko and I have been taking advantage of this. We drop the boys off, leave the car in the parking lot at the school, then proceed to hike up into the hills around the area.

Non-HDR shot of Chizuko looking out over Irvine from one of the trails we hiked...just minutes from where the boys were attending class. Gotta love Irvine!

Irvine, California.

Scout Camporee

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 21:48:50 -0700

/\ltus posted a photo:

Travus and I went to a Scout Camporee last weekend.

Was a *lot* of fun. Travus' patrol placed top-3 in a lot of events (First Aid, Compass Course, Knot tying, etc...).

Event was held at the Firestone Boy Scout Reservation. Can't tell from the photos that we were right in the middle of the greater LA area. Was truly amazing given the abundance of nature surrounding us. Be sure to checkout where this is on the map to the right.

1xp non-HDR shot taken just after Sunset of the tents at the Camporee. Over 600 scouts attended, thus was quite the production.

Los Angeles, California.

Ready For Launch

nobody@flickr.com (/\ltus) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:22:48 -0700

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A trip to Joshua Tree would not have been complete without launching some rockets! Even Chizuko got to launch one!

Non-HDR shot of Travus connecting the ignition wires to his Estes Rocket.

Just outside Joshua Tree National Park, California