“If you see a mouse with red pants on, that’s Mickey!”
— the kid tells me how to recognize Mickey Mouse

We went to the flea market recently. Of course the girls were on the prowl for books and dolls. Check out the video to see what they found.

Music Used:

• “Pretty Blue” from 88 Elmira St. by Danny Gatton

The next day, she was inspired to make a caterpillar house and look for caterpillars while visiting grandma’s.

She didn’t discover any caterpillars, though grandma reported seeing some lovely green and black ones on her tomatoes a few weeks back. But she did find two green grasshoppers on the geraniums next to a rose bush.

So into the caterpillar (now grasshopper) house they went. They didn’t stay long, but they humoured L and didn’t seem to mind too much. After testing out the box they went back to napping on the geranium.

Maybe next time she will find a new insect friend!

(This is part two of our weekend reunion with old friends…see part one here.)

The next day we got together again for a barbecue. Madame was excited to visit again after getting to stay up late to play the night before…she said she dreamed about the marble run.

The guys lounged in the backyard while the kids played and our hosts cooked…sushi and barbecue.

The weather was perfect, sunny but not too warm. After dinner we strolled over to a nearby park.

Did I mention their almost grownup kitten, Smores? She’s so cute!

“Mommy, where’s my goggles?” – Lucy preparing to cook

The youngest member and I were invited to a party at Filoli, an after hours stroll for members.

Madame handled her first garden party with aplomb. She enjoyed the hors d’oeuvres, particularly the crackers.

She waited patiently to go in the house,  listening to the barbershop quartet.

She was excited to go upstairs (usually not allowed, but open on this special occasion) and see the rooms up there.

In the ballroom she entertained the guests with some impromptu ballet to accompany the piano player.

She enjoyed herself so much, she didn’t want to leave…even when her tuckered mom was ready to go.

Do you know what I dreamed about last night? Caterpillars at Filoli! - Lucy

One of the neat things about visiting Filoli is that you never know what you will see. The flowers are changed often, and the wildlife varies as well according to the season.

Recently we have seen wild turkeys and deer, and even both in the same day! The turkeys are hilarious…very self-assured birds who sometimes walk in front of a car, puff up, and gobble gobble at you.  The deer are so used to Filoli that they do not bolt at the first sight of visitors…esp. since we stay mostly at a distance.

There is also a resident rooster at Filoli, and though we have never seen him, we hear him often. Sometimes they let one of the chickens roam around in the garden…the last time that happened, Lucy was just a baby. She was scared of it even from a distance, and wanted to run away.

Oddly enough, her grandmother was also scared of chickens. She related this to me one time when we were walking through Filoli (possibly the same day as the chicken episode). Lucy has also shown a great dislike of chickens and roosters at petting zoos…so I think this might be an inherited trait.

Anyway, the last few visits we have been noticing…caterpillars! There are the little tiny green ones that dangle on strings hanging out of trees and get stuck in your hair (they have these every year at Stanford too), and the regular sized ones with stripes or spotty patterns. Here are some of the cool caterpillars we found recently.
Anyone able to identify them?

We’ve been to Filoli three times since it reopened in February. We went on Grandmommy’s birthday with the family, as has become our tradition.

Looking back through our photos I am reminded how happy Grandmommy was there, despite her illness. (The first photo below is Lucy now…the one next to it is Grandmommy in the same space 3 years ago. )

How peaceful and relaxing and ‘away from it all’ it is here.

Mommy, I wanna see the volcano interrupting!

-while watching Kilauea’s latest eruption

We just got back from a snowy weekend. Lucy enjoyed playing in Gma & Gpa’s yard, where there was still a bit of snow left over from last week’s storm.

Before:                                         After:

Here are some snow cats we made in the big pile of snow in the driveway:

We went up to Soda Springs for some snow play at Planet Kids. Lucy had a blast.

She rode on the tube ride, climbed the snowy volcano, and coasted down the hill. We checked out Boreal, which will be great next year for some ski lessons!

We celebrated Grandma K’s birthday with a cake made by Lucy, and played trains with Grandpa.

Grandpa gave Lucy a treasure chest, and let her pick out some shells to put in it!

Mom (sees gas station): “There’s a Shell station in case you run low.”
Lucy: “…on shells!”
- while driving around on the big island

2008 Hawaii Trip with Commentary from Mike C on Vimeo.

While finishing up the last video from our recent trip to Hawaii, I rediscovered a never finished video I’d shot during our last trip to Hawaii back in late 2008. It’d never been completed because, in technical terms, I’d screwed up much of the audio. I remember back then thinking “I better hold on to this. Maybe I’ll be able to fix it some day.”

Well, that day came this past weekend. I’d been toying with the idea of adding audio commentaries to some videos. The damaged Hawaii footage from 2008 seemed like the perfect place to give this a try. So I rustled up a microphone, grabbed the girls, and recorded an audio commentary.

So here it is: rescued video of a not quite two year-old Lucy with audio commentary from the now four-year old Lucy. It’s amazing how much she has grown in the last two years.

“Mean trees blocking the sun!”
— Lucy reprimands some trees in Hawaii

Big Island from Mike C on Vimeo.

Here’s a video of our time spent on the big island. BTW, here’s something I learned while in Hawaii:

If you see an ant in Hawaii he’s a trespasser! Yep, Hawaii is one of the few places in the world that does not have its own native ant. All the ants you see there are descendants of stoaways most likely brought over via ship or plane.

Once the ants made it to the islands, if you were a wingless insect you were pretty much out of luck. Lots of insects, including many beetles and snails, once native to the Hawaiian islands are now extinct due to the ant.

Something about Kauai: Once you arrive in Kauai one of the first things you notice are the wild chickens and roosters. They’re everywhere, walking along roads, patrolling parking lots, hanging around the airport, etc. So what’s the deal with them?

First brought to the islands by Polynesian voyagers as a food source, they were originally kept in coops. However, hurricanes would destroy the coops, allowing the chickens to roam the islands. That’s one of the reasons why wild chickens are everywhere in Kauai. They’re kinda like Kauai’s take on the mainland’s pigeons and squirrels.

“Lets get our helmets on.”
— Lucy as we get prepared to go outside on the big island

We had a wonderful time visiting Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. This was our second time visiting, and it was much different than the first.

The first time we were there, there had been a SO₂ unhealthy fumes warning which confined us in the Visitor Center for a half hour or so, closed the Jaggar museum, and much of the direct viewing of the caldera. Once it was safe to leave the Visitor Center we drove down the Chain of Craters road instead.

This time, the air was clear enough, so we went to several spots around Kilauea‘s caldera. We walked behind the Volcano House hotel (currently closed for renovation) to get our first view of the caldera, the steaming bluffs, and the Halema’uma’u vent.

Next we visited the Thurston lava tube. We walked through lush rainforest to the tube and crossed a bridge into a dripping, clammy cavern with puddles on the floor.

Next we drove toward the Jaggar museum. On the way we saw a strange sight, the steaming vents in the meadows we had seen from the overlook, so we stopped for a closer look. If you’ve been to Lassen, the smell of sulfur will be familiar.

We walked the path through the meadow to the edge of the steaming cliff we had seen from the other side. With steam venting out of the ground all around you and a smoking caldera in view you really feel in the middle of a volcano!

We arrived at the Jaggar Museum at dusk. It is very close to the Halema’uma’u vent and has a spectacular view.

What an amazing sight! The park is open 24 hours (you can walk out to lava flows in the dark if you dare) but it was a bit spooky as it got dark and we were happy to reach the road to Hilo as the last bit of light faded into night.