Next time I go to the theater it is not going to be anything by Disney. But Leilani liked it and some of the costumes were really nice and I kind of liked a few other things too… mainly the Christmas lights in Georgetown… and we were dressed up and all so there are some nice photos.
You should do what your parents tell you because they are older and know better, and if you can’t come you have to tell them. If it is not very important it can wait till after you have done the task. Even if you tell them what you are doing sometimes they can still ask you to put it down and help. It can also cause big fights if you do not come or come unwillingly. In my case I wanted to change the batteries of my drone when my parents wanted me to help with breakfast. I did not reply and first we had a big fight and then I had to write this essay.
(Posted with permission of the author, Leilani)
We had some spectacular views flying from Seattle to Austin, Andy took a lot of photos:
Leilani found a highchair while waiting at the Austin airport.
Digging up sweet potatoes …
… and harvesting herbs
Rosemary had lots of help with her puzzle
12/26
There were 3 (three) (THREE!!!) christmas drones. Sonja happily reports not to have been involved in any drone-giving or drone-getting. Anyway, here the practice-drone is being flown.
Leilani arranges veggies…
…and cookies…
… and takes strange photos with Andy’s new phone
12/27
Andy and Leilani made more veggie plates
Even though it may look that way, we did not just eat veggies and cookies, just nobody thought of photographing the main course
Leilani found Andy’s old Legos and made Santa’s sleigh
During Christmas vacation, I (Andy) finally have time to post some of the pictures I took this year. Leilani and I went backpacking twice when Sonja couldn’t go with us. We wanted to practice before going to Kalalau, so in August, Leilani, the two dogs, and I hiked down into Waimea Canyon.
This trip was also a test of driving the Nissan Leaf (electric car) to the West Side and up the hill to the canyon. Theoretically, it has enough battery to go that far, but we wanted to see how feasible it was in practice, without getting too close to running out of charge. So we started by driving to the Home Depot in Lihue where we could recharge while I returned some items. That way, we had a full charge and a few less miles to go. I’m happy to report we made it to the trailhead without worry, and had plenty of charge left to get home.
This was also the first backpacking trip with the two dogs. They were happy to be outside, but they do have to stay on the leash, which meant I had to hold them all the time. Because there are hunters, I put their orange vests on so they don’t look like black pigs.
The hike starts on the rim of the Waimea Canyon, with some really nice views.
Not far down the hike, there is this metal pole, which I believe is a lookout for hunters. Of course, Leilani had to climb it (this kid has energy to spare).
There are a few switchbacks in the first half of the trail, and the sketchiest parts of the trail (due to erosion of crumbly rock) have been stabilized by some recent trail maintenance:
Half-way down the trail, there is an eroded red-dirt hillside that offers more views. We did see and hear a hunter shooting in this area, so we were glad to be all dressed in orange. We also saw and heard a baby goat in the other direction.
Finally at the bottom of the canyon is the river where we stopped for a while to cool our feet.
Then we continued up the canyon and followed the trail up a side-canyon.
This area used to be inhabited, the rock wall was a fence to hold livestock–probably the pigs that later got free and populated the canyon for the hunters.
The campsites have a shelter with picnic tables, composting toilets, and fire rings. However, there were no good flat spots, so we built our tent down by the stream near the emergency helicopter landing area.
In the evening, we made some pasta to eat and a fire to enjoy.
In the morning, Leilani took the camera and took some artistic photos around the camp.
On the second day, we plan to hike further along the trail up the side-canyon. In several places, there are nice swimming holes along the stream, and a bubbling side stream with taro.
But don’t be tempted to stop for long because the trail ends at some pretty cascades with smooth rocks that make great slides.
Of course, we had to try the slides, after all we had carried our bathing suits all this way just for this:
The lower cascade looks like a slide, but I think it really is too steep and dangerous:
All in all, this is a really beautiful place:
But we were not done yet. A bit back on the trail is a really nice swimming hole with 2 waterfalls and more views of the canyon. So of course we had to jump in the water and swim some more.
It was fun to swim around the pool and have the current from the upper falls carry you through and under the second waterfall:
Then we found a nice rock to do some photo-op jumps, some graceful, others not so graceful:
On the hike back to our camp, we saw some coffee plants that were planted when people used to live this far up the canyon:
There were also native wiliwili trees blooming in the canyon:
Just a pretty fern:
We found lilikoi (passion fruit) and guava to eat, and even an avocado tree I had never seen before. I also uprooted some young coffee plants to carry out and grow at home.
The dogs are used to napping all day, so all this hiking was probably a bit tiring for them:
Leilani learned a lot about hiking and camping. Here she is making our lunch of macaroni and cheese
with tuna fish–great food with lots of energy:
Then we had to pack up the camp and get ready to hike out:
Even though it was just a short walk back to the river, we still stopped to rest and play:
Then we had to hike the big hill 2000 feet (600m) back up out of the canyon. By now the dogs were tired and would lay down a lot. Leilani was tired too, but just pretended to lie down with them.
Actually Leilani did her biggest day of hiking ever so far on that day: over 8 miles up to the swimming holes and then down to the river and back up to the rim of the canyon. But we had lots of fun, and it was all worth it.
Copyright © 2025 Da Keiki Blog