Danielle took this video of the girls silks performance. For the past week, the girls have been on a serious performance "high"....they wish that there was another one to do. It's super cute to see them so excited and proud of what they've accomplished. We're so proud of them too!!
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
African Dance
Bill, Gabbi and Jacqui visited me on my last day of West African Dance camp on the North Shore last weekend. I think that they were pretty inspired because they came home and immediately started choreographing their own dance. ....check it out. They even picked out their own music from their keyboard, and costumes including a lapa and a hula top. Too cute. I think they own the rights to the "stinky armpit" move!!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Samadhi Show
Gabbi and Jacqui performed in an aerial show with Samadhi Hawai'i tonight. It was a truly magical experience. They have been taking classes for the past six months (and in Vermont back when we were in MA). Aunties Andrea, Chandra, Nicole, and Jaime did a great job with the classes. The show was held at the ArtZone in Honolulu and played to a packed house.
Most of the pictures are from the dress rehearsal Friday night.
Show night, with full makeup!
Gabbi, Jacqui, and their good pal Talulah.
The whole crew from the show!
Most of the pictures are from the dress rehearsal Friday night.
Show night, with full makeup!
Gabbi, Jacqui, and their good pal Talulah.
The whole crew from the show!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Daintree Rainforest
We arrived in Cairns late, picked up the tiniest car that I have ever driven, and found our condo.
The first day, we explored the area a bit and found this beautiful waterfall.
On our second day, we headed north to the Daintree Rainforest. We stopped along the way to try to find information about hiking in the forest. In the guidebooks and people that we talked to really pushed us to hire a guide service. Dire warnings of crocodiles, pythons, and plants that would rip the skin right off of our bodies were presented... We really wanted to just spend the day exploring. My impression is that the Queensland Park Commission has really given in to pressures from commercial guides. There are only a handful of boardwalks .5 - 1 km long for hiking. Other trails that we read about have been allowed to grow over and are impassable now.
We ended up going to the Rainforest Center in addition to the boardwalks and the forest was quite beautiful, but we couldn't help but feel that everyone that we talked to was trying to make a buck off of us.
Our first overlook after crossing the Daintree River. Much of the vegetation and landscape in this area reminded us of Hawai'i.
The boardwalks were in quite good shape.
The cassowary fruit is poisonous to just about everything except cassowaries (they swallow them whole).
The butterflies were absolutely beautiful. We saw the giant Ulysses butterfly, some green triangles, and this blue triangle.
We thought that these berries were very cool.
The buttress roots were very big.
A katydid type insect just before being nabbed by Jacqui...it promptly bit her, much to her dismay...
There were lots of big spiders along all of the trails.
This strangler fig long outlasted its host and looked really neat with the empty space where the original tree had been.
The epiphytic plants were amazing. They root to the trees that host them and catch water from the sky.
One of the boardwalks followed a mangrove swamp.
Showing off some flowers for the camera.
Basket ferns...another epiphyte.
We didn't see any cassowaries in the wild, but we thought this sign was pretty funny. There were speedbumps about every 5 km to keep speeds down.
We found these sand balls at the beach that we stopped at before heading back to Cairns. Crabs sift through the sand for food (invertebrates) and leave behind these patterns.
We saw this carnivorous pitcher plant when we stopped for ice cream and a cool roadside stand.
The Daintree River ferry was the only method of crossing into the Daintree.
The first day, we explored the area a bit and found this beautiful waterfall.
On our second day, we headed north to the Daintree Rainforest. We stopped along the way to try to find information about hiking in the forest. In the guidebooks and people that we talked to really pushed us to hire a guide service. Dire warnings of crocodiles, pythons, and plants that would rip the skin right off of our bodies were presented... We really wanted to just spend the day exploring. My impression is that the Queensland Park Commission has really given in to pressures from commercial guides. There are only a handful of boardwalks .5 - 1 km long for hiking. Other trails that we read about have been allowed to grow over and are impassable now.
We ended up going to the Rainforest Center in addition to the boardwalks and the forest was quite beautiful, but we couldn't help but feel that everyone that we talked to was trying to make a buck off of us.
Our first overlook after crossing the Daintree River. Much of the vegetation and landscape in this area reminded us of Hawai'i.
The boardwalks were in quite good shape.
The cassowary fruit is poisonous to just about everything except cassowaries (they swallow them whole).
The butterflies were absolutely beautiful. We saw the giant Ulysses butterfly, some green triangles, and this blue triangle.
We thought that these berries were very cool.
The buttress roots were very big.
A katydid type insect just before being nabbed by Jacqui...it promptly bit her, much to her dismay...
There were lots of big spiders along all of the trails.
This strangler fig long outlasted its host and looked really neat with the empty space where the original tree had been.
The epiphytic plants were amazing. They root to the trees that host them and catch water from the sky.
One of the boardwalks followed a mangrove swamp.
Showing off some flowers for the camera.
Basket ferns...another epiphyte.
We didn't see any cassowaries in the wild, but we thought this sign was pretty funny. There were speedbumps about every 5 km to keep speeds down.
We found these sand balls at the beach that we stopped at before heading back to Cairns. Crabs sift through the sand for food (invertebrates) and leave behind these patterns.
We saw this carnivorous pitcher plant when we stopped for ice cream and a cool roadside stand.
The Daintree River ferry was the only method of crossing into the Daintree.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Downtown Sydney
We had most of a day to spend in Sydney before our flight to Cairns.
So we left our campsite fairly early. It was an easy drive and remarkably easy to find parking near the Harbour Bridge. We walked the bridge and enjoyed the views of the Opera House and downtown.
The walk across the bridge is about a mile each way. We were glad to have gotten up and across before the sun got too hot!
After a stop at Starbucks...yes, we went to Starbucks. At that point in the trip we really wanted a decent cup of coffee. I was done with the coffee in Australia after the second day. It is very European style with lots (a ridiculous amount) of milk. The Starbucks at least had the option of drip coffee. It wasn't great, but it worked...
This fountain outside of Starbucks provided some balance beam time...Anyway, after our stop we walked to the Opera House and then around the Botanic Garden.
This plant reminded us very much of the banana flowers that we see in Hawai'i.
One of the issues that has come up at the Botanic Gardens is all of the fruit bats (Flying Foxes) that roost in the trees. There are estimates that as many as 10,000 of the creatures call the garden home. They were great to see, but you could certainly see the impacts that they were having on some of the trees. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of suitable habitat left for them and they obviously have been doing quite well here!
On our way back to the car we stopped to watch a street performer. Bendy Em put on a fun show. If you get a chance to stop and watch, she's good for some laughs and is quite the contortionist!
After stopping for dinner at a great little pizza place, we had a little more time to kill and found Perry Park to stretch our legs and run around.
Then it was on to the airport and a week in Cairns!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Featherdale Wildlife Park
Gabbi and Jacqui were really excited to see koalas and since it did not seem likely that we were going to encounter any in the wild, we went to a wildlife park just outside of Sydney.
In New South Wales, you are not allowed to hold koalas, so we had to settle for petting them and posing...
We looked for cassowaries in the wild near Cairns, but this one at the wildlife park was the only one we saw.
This is a hairy nosed wombat. Unfortunately, we only saw dead ones in the wild as roadkill!
For some reason, the girls were really excited about trying to catch these chickens.
They eventually caught one...only to get peed on.
This Tasmanian Devil seemed a little wiped out...
We were pretty glad that this was the only saltwater croc that we encountered during out trip!
These cute little ones are called quolls.
An echidna, one of the only two egg laying mammals (the other being the platypus, which we only saw a stuffed one).
On the way out, the girls were able to visit with this joey wallaby. It is being rehabilitated and was cozy in its pouch. Gabbi and Jacqui were pretty excited to be able to hold it!
In New South Wales, you are not allowed to hold koalas, so we had to settle for petting them and posing...
We looked for cassowaries in the wild near Cairns, but this one at the wildlife park was the only one we saw.
This is a hairy nosed wombat. Unfortunately, we only saw dead ones in the wild as roadkill!
For some reason, the girls were really excited about trying to catch these chickens.
They eventually caught one...only to get peed on.
This Tasmanian Devil seemed a little wiped out...
We were pretty glad that this was the only saltwater croc that we encountered during out trip!
These cute little ones are called quolls.
An echidna, one of the only two egg laying mammals (the other being the platypus, which we only saw a stuffed one). 
On the way out, the girls were able to visit with this joey wallaby. It is being rehabilitated and was cozy in its pouch. Gabbi and Jacqui were pretty excited to be able to hold it!
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