Month: January 2011

Last Sunday, Jan 16th, we went to Carson Falls near Mt. Tam with Kelby and Belen and their parents. The weather was a bit foggy and cold to start, but within 1/2 hour it turned beautiful. The kids were happy, and so were the adults.

I think I reached this waterfall the first time I hiked in the area in 1998, a friend of a friend guiding the hike, but never managed to find it again. I guess because I thought we had actually been on Mt Tam that time. Anyway, now I have Andy, and Andy has a GPS and a great memory for hikes. And if the memory should fail we have documented it on the blog now… just need to enter Mt. Tam waterfall in the search box…

Oops… fingerprint on the lens. But the photo was so happy I posted it anyway.

At the top of the waterfall, you look down on some beautiful pools:

Then you cross the bridge over the stream. The bridge was really artsy, the Marin Water District maintains their trails very well.

At the middle of the falls, there is a nice view:

We had lunch on this beautiful rock, right next to the waterfall.

Then you can hike further down, where the falls go straight down against a rock. But there’s no place to sit and the trees block the view. Looking back up:

On the hike back up:

We stopped to play here, the kids had fun kicking and throwing rocks:

Afterward we went to the Scoop in Fairfax. Really good organic ice cream, some very interesting flavors (vanilla-honey-lavender) and combinations (chocolate and vanilla swirl, called I Have a Dream–for MLK day). And the portions are HUGE. Unfortunately that made me eat too much…

The lines are long, so the girls drew while we waited:

Leilani liked the breakfast fruitplate so much that she had to photograph it.

Still riding Cherokee. I have a lot of footage, I hope to post a movie soon.

Leilani is not the only artsy person in the family – Andy’s art. Is there such a thing as photo-post-impressionist?

After a few weeks of cold and rainy weather the trampoline went down, right before Andy and Leilani used it one last time. Right after the weather turned nice…

Leilani loves cats. She draws them, feeds then, carries them around and writes about them.

Cats are sweet and very lovely. That’s why we pet them. I love cats, and they love us.

Playground in Millbrae

Coloring

In San Bruno Park with Liselle and Einstein

Leilani’s art photo of the week…

On Jan. 11th we went to Henry Cowell Redwoods Park with Lisa.

This was the most interesting mushroom I found, right at the parking lot. I call it a club mushroom, but it’s real name is Clavariadelphus:

We hiked along the Pipeline trail, an old paved road:



Leilani found this stick and first it was her antlers, but became steering wheel, handle bar, a saddle to ride on and many other things during that hike. She carried it most of the way (except when Andy carried Leilani AND the stick)

The California Bay tree is very hardy, often growing two or three twisted trunks from an old stump. In this case, the fallen tree sprouted numerous vertical new trunks:

Under the railroad trestle. I still like Orbs a lot, these were especially pretty

It was cold all day in the forest, but we stayed warm walking 3 miles to the outlook bench. You could see all the way to the Santa Cruz boardwalk. We had our lunch in the sun, but it got cold really soon after and we headed back.

On the way back Andy discovered a log bridge that Leilani could walk across:

We invited ourselves to Lisa’s kitchen and had dinner there, and then watched dogtricks

and trained the kid

and let them play

On New Years Day we beat the jet-lag with a brisk, cold, foggy city hike up to Twin Peaks. Unfortunately we mistook the parking lot on top for one of the peaks, and were so cold that nobody listened to Andy who wanted to climb the real peak(s)…

Andy says: this first picture where Leilani stole my gloves reminds me of one of the first camping trips we did in California to Pinnacles National Monument. Coincidentally, this hike had most of the same people from that trip over 2 years ago, the first time we’ve all gotten together again.

I have the heaviest umbrella you’ll ever find, also the cutest:

We hiked a lot with this group of friends before we moved to Kauai

Leilani is rarely the youngest child around anymore.

Today 1/15 I posted:
Peninsula Christmas Lights
Christmas Cards
Oahu 2nd day
Iphone Art
MNS Christmas Party
I updated: Mixed Photos – November 2010
I put a few older photos into various posts, just for completeness. Nothing great. I’m going to stop and call it current now :-)

On 1/13 I posted:
Last Day on Kauai
Oahu

Yesterday
Kauai – beach
Kauai – Jaya
Kauai – BD
I also updated
Austin – New Years Eve

On 1/11 I posted
Fairyland

I added photos to
Mixed, Nov.

On 1/10 I posted:

Beautiful Skies
MNS November 2nd
Halloween
Jay’s Visit
Green Faire
Leilani’s Drawings Fall – Summer 2010

On 1/5/2011 I posted the following:

Andy and Leilani in SF
Leilani’s Artsy SF Photos
Leilani’s Art Photos Fall 2010