Day: January 5, 2014

More Summer Photos

Our Poinsiana Tree once more


We grew another pretty pineapple

And ate it for breakfast

With Delfi on the trampoline

Madagascar Daygeckos



Leilani used a tool to make spirally flowers

Leilani made the fruit plate all by herself!


Before Sonja Left

Here are some photos that we took before Sonja flew back home, but that she didn’t get time to post herself. Andy quickly resized these and did minimal corrections.

On Monday, we went to the Texas history museum. They have some great exhibits about the people and events that created the Texas you see today. But they are also branching out with an exposition of natural history, entitled “Extreme Mammals” to get people interested. Here is the largest land mammal that ever lived, Indricotherium, about twice as big as an elephant:

Even though the “extreme” name was just to get people in the door, the exhibit was very well made and very interesting. Even the adults learned a lot. The underlying theme was evolution (evolution of other species into mammals, and evolution of mammals into many species in many ecological niches), so basic evolution was presented right away. Remember this is the museum of the history of Texas–I think someone really wanted to sneak evolution into the museum.

More tree-climbing primates:

The adults learned a lot of science as well, for example how specialized teeth are one thing that define mammals:

There was an entire section of the exhibit devoted to horns–it turns out that there are 4 or 5 different kinds of horns in mammals (depending on what they grow from). And I do not believe I had ever seen a narwahl tusk before: it was the holy grail of early scientific collections:

Another mammal that I found fascinating: the glyphodont, which lived at the time of the saber-tooth tigers. This animal essentially evolved into a turtle, with many of the same characteristics: fused vertebrae, bony and keratin-covered shell, retractable head:

After the museum, we dropped Leilani off at Grandma’s and had a date night. After going to see a mostly forgettable movie (The Hobbit 2, which prompted Andy to say “I’m not sure I want to visit NZ, I’d be afraid of the orcs”), we had a beer on 6th Street. But not any beer: (512) brewery’s Pecan Porter–why-oh-why do they not sell this in stores? On a cold Monday of a holiday week, 6th street was mostly empty, but there were still dozens of bars open and many live music acts playing, so it was still loud and had the creepy feeling of a place where people go to get drunk. At least the lights were pretty:

On the way home we stopped to photograph the Texas Capitol all lit up again–they do a very nice job. In Europe, there are prizes for the illumination of buildings, and I think Texas should win:

The LED Christmas tree lights blew a fuse just as we arrived, so I only got a picture of the top of the tree.

On New Year’s Eve, David was flying home, so we foolishly decided to start a game of Settlers of Catan. Of course, we didn’t have time to finish it before he left.

It being almost the new year, I was drawn to some memories of my childhood preserved at my parents’ house. First, I found this drinking glass that was originally a mustard jar, covered in Japanese anime characters from the French children’s show Albator (Captain Harlock in English). My brother and I used to love this show on TV in France. As a kid, I never noticed the cool foreground-background effect on the glass:

Also, there is a box of Smurf (Schtroumpf in French) figures that I collected as a kid in France. Leilani loves Smurfs now too, and squealed with joy when Grandma pulled them out.

For New Year’s at midnight, we tried to light old fireworks that were duds, but then we found some “party poppers” that provided some bang. They also contained silly hats that we had to put on.

On New Year’s day, Sonja was busy packing for her trip home, so the rest of us went for a walk in the Walnut Creek park again. This time, we drove around to the “P” (for parking) and walked down to the creek. Leilani loved running and exploring in the forest here:

She is learning to skip rocks, and we all had fun looking for them and skipping them in the flat pools:

This area used to be an easy trail, but last October’s flood waters eroded the bank and the large limestone slabs fell onto the river bank and trail. There is a new trail over the rocks:

And the one who climbs really had fun:

The broken rocks had tons of fossils. No mammals, only seashells, this one larger than a dinner plate:

On the way to the playground, Leilani had fun running and hiding in a field of native grass. Here she said she was a fairy, peeking between the grass:

When we finally made it to the playground, it wasn’t as good as everybody remembered it. There was no water fountain there either, and we soon got cold and went home.

After Sonja Left

More photos from Andy, for Sonja who hasn’t seen them yet. Again, minimal corrections and resizing.

After taking Sonja to the airport Thursday morning, I had to work all day. But I did take a break to go to the Thursday concerts at the Central Presbyterian Church in Austin with everyone. A trio of teenage girls played piano, violin and cello superbly in the pretty church:

On Friday, I was working again, but Grandma took Leilani to the new children’s museum in Austin. It has a strange name, but seems to be well done:

Inside, Leilani played with water and circuits (but her battery was dead so the circuit didn’t work):

Outside, there was a sculpture of cement pigs, so she jumped on it:

Better yet, there was a big fancy playground with lots to explore. Leilani described it to me before I saw these pictures, and she did a very good job of explaining it. You start by climbing up this net:

Then you can either go down this long tunnel:

And look out this window:

Or go down another tunnel to this area. Here, Leilani said there were a lot of children making it hard to get through, but she was good at climbing above them:

Some more fun things to climb:

And one of the pretty sculptures that moved with the wind and changed colors with the angle of the sun.

After the children’s museum playground closed, Leilani went across the street to play at the municipal playground nearby. She found a group of kids and played with them for a long time:

That night, we finished our game of Settlers, with Grandma taking David’s place, and Leilani taking Sonja’s place. Leilani learned the game very well and managed to win it.

On Saturday, Andy and Leilani went back to the ice skating rink. Leilani had a short lesson and we spent over 2 hours on the ice. Leilani loves skating, she is so happy and excited that she doesn’t get upset when she falls or has to practice a lot.


We may need to get roller-blades for Leilani so she can skate on Kauai–there is even a roller rink in Kapa’a.