Da Keiki Blog

While Grandma was visiting, we parents snuck out for a weekend alone. Actually, we told Leilani about it ahead of time. She didn’t really have a problem with the idea, but I could tell from her questions that she kinda wondered why she couldn’t come along. So we set off on Friday after work.

We always used to stop for sunsets when traveling together. Now we stop when we can, but more often than not, we can’t because of dinner or getting somewhere not too late. So this time, we just pulled over on Hwy 1 and hiked a short ways to the ocean:

We found our little B&B, the Jewel Box, in Capitola. We got lucky getting a room (reserved just the day before) because it just happened to be the wine and art festival weekend. Nothing fancy, but a nice little suite in a little house. One great thing about was being right next to the organic vegetarian restaurant in town.

The next day, we just went walking to coast, down to the pier and beach:

They were renting little fishing boats on the pier, so we just decided to go on a whim. Ahhh, unplanned, unpredictable exploring on our own.

We puttered around, avoiding the kelp (because it gets caught in the propeller, and it hurts the kelp), and eventually saw the dolphins they told us were around:

We also saw this colony of sea-birds, I don’t know what they are nor why they are just floating here. It was rather incredible to see thousands of them just bobbing and squawking:

Two hours later, we were back on land, exploring some more. Right by the beach are some colorful bungalows, the one on the end had a colorful garden. How colorful was it? It was so colorful that Sonja didn’t even need to photoshop this picture:

We finally made it to the wine and art festival. We skipped the wine drinking because of all the lines, and just walked around looking at art. This one was made from maps:

And this one is made from fruit. It’s traditional Thai fruit carving:

Nature’s art (fortunately for me that Sonja found this flower prettier than anything we saw):

Dinner at the vegetarian restaurant again:

Inside the B&B. One of the best parts for us was finding some interesting books about the area and looking through all the DVDs to watch one (Fried Green Tomatoes). Ahh, the luxury of time:

The next day we walked around town again. We found a few garage sales to rummage at, we went back to the art festival for another quick look, but we mostly strolled on the streets of the little town down by the river. This little house reminded me of one on Kaua’i:

I talked Sonja into crossing the abandoned railroad bridge:

And more time to do more hiking: we stopped to see Lisa in Santa Cruz and go for a long walk in the Pogonip forest to the old Lime Kilns:

And then a Falafel dinner before heading back home after dark. In the meantime, Leilani had a fun weekend with Grandma, got to ride the train, go to the park, and do crafts. She was happy to see us again, but I don’t think she really missed us. Thanks Rosemary!

Grandma Rosemary came to visit. Leilani had been excited for a week, and was so happy when she finally arrived. On Thursday we went to San Francisco, Andy dropped us off near the Maritime museum, which was our first stop:

Inside the museum there were beautiful murals and they had a treasure hunt on for children. Leilani loved it and found most of the items. Since she did so well the friendly ranger gave her another booklet to her to find more things and to note sounds and try things…and there was a big reward at the end. She was so happy about this. That photo shows the first treasure hunt:

After we left the museum building we went to see the museum ships. There were pulleys to try.

We visited the most interesting ships and kept filling out the booklet

The big reward at the end. Leilani was sworn in as a junior ranger, to protect the parks and the environment and received a ranger badge. She repeated the long and complicated oath and for hours talked about busting flower pickers and people who feed squirrels in the parks.

Lunch. We don’t know if it was lunch or dinner, but we had severe symptoms the next day. Bad enough that Leilani was actually sent home from school. At least it was really tasty and looked all healthy.

We walked to pier 39 and got tickets for the Bay Cruise,

while we waited Leilani got to ride the carousel.

The weather was even more beautiful than on our first cruise, and we were better prepared for the cold wind.


And Leilani already knew how to get a view.

I prevented her from sticking her head all the way through the hole…

A nice German tourist held her up for a little while so she could look over the railing after a wave made some people stumble dangerously close to where she was lying. But since he was not that sturdy either I was actually glad when he got tired and put her down.

Our next stop was the wax museum, Leilani was scared in several sections, near the horror part you could hear the scary sounds, that did it for her and she left out 40% of the museum. The rest fascinated her, especially Kate Winslet and (even more) Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic, she actually drew a picture of the couple on the ship just before it sinks and made me google the rating (PG13, 8 to go) and wants a picture book of the story…(I did tell her what I remember and she still wants to see it, she is so much into love stories and even the sadness of it doesn’t scare her of)

More age appropriate

Andy met us at Pier 39 and we had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. Too late, too tired, slow service, bad food.

We arrived late on Friday for Labor Day weekend. The campgrounds close to the valley were full and it was almost midnight when we found a spot at Yosemite Creek, down a 4-mile dirt road. We were relieved.

The next morning:

We planned to do the tourist circuit in the valley, see the major sights and do some easy hiking. We slept in and took our time on Saturday, and after a hour of driving, arrived in the valley around noon.

First stop: Bridalveil Falls with a trickle of water left, but just enough.

We played around on the rocks below, but they were too slippery, having been polished by millions of tourist shoes.

So Leilani got her wish, and we stopped to play in the stream further back along the “trail.” You have to look closely at this picture:

We found parking near Curry village and got supplies (the only things we didn’t have in our well-packed car were chocolate ice cream and firewood). Nearby were some very unafraid deer–our first Yosemite “wildlife:”

Andy looked at a map and found an easy afternoon hike to Mirror lake. First we took a shuttle bus (which Leilani loved), then we walked on the old road. As soon as we could, we got on a trail. In the background to the left here is North Dome, but before we knew the name, Leilani said it looked like a volcano (which it did) so Andy called it Volcano Dome. But then Leilani said it looked like a birthday cake (which it didn’t) so she called it Birthday Cake Dome.

Mirror Lake, with the Watkins Pinnacle (I think):

Next to Mirror lake was a garden of cairns, I suppose so people can satisfy their urge to leave a cairn in Yosemite, without having stacked rocks all over the park. Some were really impressive:

Next to Mirror Lake, which was starting to look like a mud puddle in places, there was a wide spot in the river which was perfect for Leilani to swim. She had been looking forward to this all day, no matter how cold the water was.

Nearby was a beach, too. She was very happy to spread out her towel and lay in the sun:

And all around was a spectacular view of the valley, here looking up at Half Dome:

By the time we got back to the road, the sun was getting low, creating beautiful colors:

Driving out of the valley, we had to stop to look at El Capitan. Andy spotted the climbers, and Sonja’s new zoom lens got the picture:

The second image is a separate zoomed photo, not an enlargement of the first. But the rectangle shows where the climbers are located. They have a porta-ledge tied to the rock for sleeping on. This being a popular weekend, there were other climbers on the cliff as well.

On our 2nd day we decided to get an early start so we could do an all-day hike. We drove to the valley at 8am and had a picnic breakfast and coffee at Curry Village. Then we took the shuttle bus and started on the John Muir Trail. This picture is later, at the junction to the Mist trail to Vernal Falls:

We really tried to encourage Leilani to keep hiking, with stories about John Muir, the John Muir trail, and where she could go swimming later. But she still wanted to take “breaks” so she could climb on the rocks near the trail. She is really a good climber, finding the right hand and foot holds.

This was a crowded weekend in Yosemite. The campgrounds were full, the parking lots were full, the shuttle buses were full, and we chose the most popular hike. So it was rather strange for us, who usually avoid crowds, and we were amazed by the number of hikers more than a mile from the trailhead:

Leilani loved hiking on the stairs: hiking and climbing on the same trail. Soon we reached the bottom of the waterfall:

We left the trail to explore, and soon found a big flat rock at the bottom of the falls, with almost nobody else (except someone to take our picture):

The rocks and the water are fascinating to watch, we stopped at several places on the way up to take more pictures.

And the rainbow was amazing:

Leilani continued to climb the steep steps up the side of the waterfall. This was Leilani’s first hike of 1000 feet (300m) of elevation gain and she really surprised us with her strength and stamina:

At the top of the waterfall:

We stopped for a picnic and a splash in Vernal Pool, a small lake above the waterfall. Swimming in the lake is actually forbidden, and we taught her never to swim above a waterfall, so she was happy to just splash in the water.

On the way down, we stopped for more pictures of the waterfall and rainbow:

By the end of the hike (a little over 4 miles), Leilani was tired but we talked her into finishing the hike on her own, so that she could say she did the whole hike “on her own.” This may sound patronizing, but I (Andy) wanted her to really feel the sense of accomplishment instead of being carried. And I was really proud of her for doing the whole hike, especially the 1000 feet. Her reward was another shuttle bus ride and a trip to the Yosemite swimming pool.

Waiting for the bus, what a great view (“Volcano Dome” again):

The swimming pool was more of a disappointment. Sonja and Leilani spent most of the time waiting for a shower in the locker room, and the water felt cold because it was in the shade of the big cliffs already. And then we got stuck in the 5 o’clock traffic jam in Yosemite Valley.

But we made it back to our campsite plenty before dark, and made a nice fire and cooked potatoes and veggies wrapped in foil on the coals (thanks to Lisa for showing us that recipe).