Train ride

After flying into Orange County airport in California, spent the night in nearby Costa Mesa. The next day I needed to travel to LAX as I was on call for another day. Not being in a hurry decided to take the train up to downtown Los Angeles.

I went back to SNA on the hotel van and caught a shuttle to the Santa Ana train station where I purchased a ticket for fifteen dollars. After waiting for about 15 minutes a train arrived. The upper deck had plenty of open seats that were comfortable and provided a great view of the areas that we passed through. The storage areas above the seats were a bit on the thin side so a thick or overstuffed bag wouldn't fit. No one was seated next to me so I left my bag on the floor.

The train accelerated smoothly and was very quiet. The ride was fairly soft and pleasant. It may not have been as comfortable.if the train had been full but today we had plenty of room. The station announcements were easy to understand so it would be hard to miss your station unless you were sound asleep.

The bus from Union station to LAX was seven dollars and took less than a half an hour. The trip took longer than the shuttle van would have but we didn't have to sit in rush hour traffic nor did we have to go through security as on a plane. In the past I had taken a United Express flight but no flights were available today and I don't know if the route is being flown anymore.

Diving Kauai

For our first vacation of 2010 we traveled to the Hawaiian Island of Kauai. We did our diving with Fathom Five Dive Shop in Koloa. It's very close to Poipu beach where we had rented a condo.

We did a shore dive at Koloa Landing to start as we had my cousin's teenage son who wanted to do a padi discovery dive. Our instructor James did a great job and we all had a great time. We couldn't get too deep on the discovery dive but the area was very interesting in the shallow water. We got to see a dragon moray eel, a scorpion fish and other very beautiful animals such as Hawaiian sea turtles.

We would like to do this dive again as there's much to see and Fathom Five is a great dive shop.

Sea Turtles in Hawaii

I'm amazed at how many turtles we see when snorkeling at Waikoloa on the Island of Hawaii. They are supposed to be left alone but they seem to be everywhere and will sometimes swim up to you to say hi.

At home when paddling Black Canyon from Hoover Dam the birds and land animals are the most interesting with the large herd of big horn sheep that are commonly seen.

In Hawaii being in the water is really fun at there are lots of interesting fish, turtles, and whales.

Snorkeling in Maui, came upon a leatherback sea turtle sleeping on the bottom and left it alone. I was impressed by the size sea turtle and later read that they can reach 2,000 pounds.

The above image is of a Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle.

Japanese Food in Waikiki

There are many great Japanese places to eat in Waikiki.

Today I had a great katstu-curry at Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin at 255 Beach Walk. Their phone number is 808-926-8082. I heard both English and Japanese spoken there.

Tonkatsu is a breaded deep fried pork cutlet, very popular in Japan.

The restaurant is very beautifully decorated looking like it could be in Japan. The tonkatsu was as good as the best that I've eaten at in Japan. I really love tonkatsu, when in Japan, my uncle Mamoru and I seek out the best places to have tonkatsu for lunch.