Hawaii: Kauai and Maui

Just as many couples do, we ventured to Hawaii for our honeymoon!  The islands certainly lived up to the hype.  The most ordinary things on the islands are incredibly beautiful.  During our stay, we island hopped from Kauai to Maui, and back to Kauai.  

There were waterfalls all over the place, all of them unique and very beautiful.  

Wailua Falls

When we arrived at Waimea Canyon, the sky began dumping rain on us.  We waited it out for just 15 minutes and the sky cleared up for us to view the beautiful canyon!  

Waimea Canyon

Waimea Canyon

History repeats itself, even in the short term.  We ran into a ton of rain when we arrived at this beautiful vista shown below.  Decidedly, we went back to our car to wait it out and before we even reached our car, the sky cleared up!  We learned something that day: rain is very brief on Hawaii.  Below are some lovely views we enjoyed at Kilauea Lookout in Kokee State Park.

Kilauea Lookout to the Napali Coast

Kilauea Lookout

Kilauea Lookout

Kilauea Lookout

Taro Fields in Hanalei Valley

The sky was very kind to us come sunset.  We enjoyed all 14 sunsets Hawaii offered us, whether we had time to stop or just enjoy them from the car!

Sunset near Kilauea Lighthouse

Holo Holo Charters took us on a great voyage of the sea, and out to the gorgeous Napali Coast.  Some playful spinner dolphins approached our boat and did some leaps out of the water for us!

Spinner Dolphin

Napali Coast

Napali Coast

Poipu Beach was a great place to stay.  Fantastic snorkeling, great restaurants nearby and short trips to great attractions.

Spouting Horn Park near Poipu Beach.

Spouting Horn Park.

Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree

By chance we discovered a rock bridge that had been carved out by the sea. This was located just a minute down the coast from the Glass Beach in Hanapepe. 

Shortly after arriving in Maui, we moseyed over to the steep rock peak, Iao Valley Needle.   

We woke up at 4 AM to watch the sunrise at Haleaka National Park, but instead we slept in our car for three hours atop of the crater, while waiting for the rain and fog to clear. Gratefully it did!

Haleakala Crater

Waterfalls near Garden of Eden Arboretum

Keopuka Rock, near the Garden of Eden Arboretum, where a scene from Jurassic Park was filmed

View from the Road to Hana

On our venture to Molokini Crater just off the southwest coast of Maui, we were able to enjoy some more great aquatic life!

Pilot Whale

Sea Turtle

I hope you enjoyed the photos from our voyage.  Hawaii is certainly a gorgeous place and I would highly recommend it.  Next blog up to bat: 2012 Fall Colors!  Skol and mahalo!

City of Lakes Loppet

The City of Lakes Loppet that is put on in Minneapolis during early February, is one of the most gorgeous displays that the city will see at any time during the year.  Due to the severe lack of winter this year, the loppet was moved to Theodore Wirth Park, instead of Lake of the Isles.  Although, no harm, no foul.  

With all of its stunning luminaries made of ice and candles, the loppet drew thousands of visitors to enjoy the displays.  As you can see below, the 2012 loppet had plenty of gorgeous scenery, even without the charm of a lake.  The enchanted forest, which wasn't available at the previous location, added a fantastic and whimsical display.  My friends and I felt as though we were immersed in a Walt Disney animation!

This year we arrived a tad too late to catch the cross-country skiing on the man-made snow, but that's not necessarily the reason to attend.  The skiing is just the icing on the cake.  The real attractions are the creative displays of ice and snow, fire performers, bonfires, free hot cocoa, and let's not forget about the delicious SURLY beer.

I hope that you enjoyed the photos and I certainly hope to see you out at the City of Lakes Loppet in 2013!  Skol!  

- Joseph

Fall Colors

Greetings and welcome to my photography blog! I am Joseph W. Anderson, a photographer, full of Nordic pride, from the Minneapolis area.  You will discover in future posts the amount of love I have for this region of the Midwest.  Minneapolis is great place to live, it is incredibly photogenic, and the same goes for the North Shore on Lake Superior, as well as many other areas in the state.  To start, I would like to show a few shots that were taken this fall in Minnesota.  As comical as it is to say the word "Mountain" in the same breath as Minnesota, the first three photos shown below were taken at beautiful Oberg Mountain on the North Shore.  Oberg is the pinnacle of North Shore fall colors tourism and it has the some of the most breathtaking views in the area. 

Taken from Oberg Mountain with views of Oberg Lake. 

The next batch of autumn photos shown below were taken in various parks in our beloved Minneapolis and Bloomington park systems.  The cities in the surrounding Minneapolis metro area do a great job of preserving a number of park and nature areas, which makes it easy on any local photographer.  The first three photos were taken at Hyland Park Reserve in Bloomington, a gorgeous labyrinth of biking and walking paths with fantastic wildlife all over the place. 

  

These next three photographs were taken along the Mississippi River.  Once fall hits, the paths along the Ol' Man River become unavoidable.  The color variety along the river is certainly splendid, you have my recommendation to pay the river a visit next fall.  

I hope you've enjoyed today's photos, as well the introductory look into a couple great areas that Minnesota has to offer. I look forward to sharing more with you soon.  Skol!

- Joseph