I made the suggestion of going hiking a bit too carelessly, and 7 other family members called my bluff.  So there we were, woke up at 6am and hiked up Echo Mountain, just north of Pasadena.  I wasn't too concerned about myself, since this is my third time here, but I wasn't sure if my 5 years old son could make it.  Luckily, he's a good trooper and hiked up without too much complaining.  It took us about 2.5 hours to hike to the ruins, the remains of a burnt down hotel, and about 1 hour to hike down.  All in all, not a bad way to spend a morning!

Here are some selected shots, and you can see the full set [HERE].

Finally packaged up my app and submitted to Google to see they'll allow it for general release.  For the submission process, I have created a page for the app, as you can see from the site menu.  If anything, it was a good practice in android programming, and at least it'll be very useful for myself :)

A friend invited us for a weekend getaway in Palm Springs.  Normally, a no brainer, right?  Now consider the 105+ degree heat!  Well, how can you say no to a vacation home with this backyard?  I got up early the first day to catch the sun rise, then I just took some shots around the pool with the 90'MEM.  I also shot a couple of rolls with the Rolleiflex SL66, but I'll have to wait a few weeks to get that processed to share.  You can see the full set from this weekend [HERE].

We have this dangerously tall pine tree in our backyard.  I suspect it's been there for 40+ years, planted by the first owner of our house.  We enjoyed its look and shades, but it's starting to cause concerns.  Its roots are lifting the ground causing cracks in the brick planter walls and the block walls between us and our neighbor in the back.  Also, it's naturally leaning toward the house, so whenever there are strong winds, we're afraid that it will one day crash into the house.  Yesterday, a landscape company came and removed it for us.  One guy start off by trimming all the branches as he climbs higher and higher, then he finally start chopping the main trunk from the top in pieces.  Finally, they bring in the root grinder, a heavy machinery, to grind out the bottom trunk and roots about a foot into the ground.  Our yard looks bigger and brighter now, but I do miss the tree.

My wife brought this home today from Costco... We're hoping to find a good place for it in our backyard so it can thrive and grow to be the beautiful tree that we know it can.  The crimson leaves should also bring a nice variation to the almost all green trees we have