Sometimes things go well in life, and other times things go so well it defies explanation. Tuesday was one of those days (the later, not the former.) For those of you who forgot how Monday went, this image may stir your memory:
Yes, that Monday.
On Tuesday morning, we woke up at an early but reasonable hour to trek to the Kona airport. We were not returning to Texas, no, we were flying via helicopter to the other side of the island to observe molten lava, beautiful valleys, and breath taking waterfalls. Ha! Is that not the coolest thing, ever? Is your mind blown as was the mind of the man in the sonic commercial? If your mind is not yet blown, please reflect on this.
Your mind is now definitely blown.
We participated in a brief safety demonstration, purchased some motion sickness reducing ginger candies (some=about 37), and were off! The helicopter pilot, Danny, was super skilled! It bears mentioning that I am interested in learning how to fly a helicopter and/or small plane, so I paid very close attention. Did I mention that I got to sit in the co-pilot seat!? Did I mention that this was the greatest day ever? Here is a picture to capture my feelings at the time:
Oh yeah! After 45 minutes in the helicopter and some super neat views of an active volcano, we landed in Hilo, the rainiest city in America, and debated how to spend our day there. First, we ate a pancake breakfast at Ken's Pancake House. We did not neglect to procure a T-shirt for my Uncle Kenny, might I add. I was virtuous and ordered peaches and cottage cheese, as my fork darted off to the side to steal mouthfuls of Tenley's blueberry pancakes. After many, many cups of coffee, we left with a vague notion of going to look for some nice plants, or something.
That vague notion brought us to a forest path and also an arboretum. A very nice monitor pointed out a nice beach for us to go to and we did. The beach looked like this:
Level up! On the car ride back, I read Ender's Game off my sisters phone and enjoyed it immensely. It is now my second favorite book. You'll have to wait for a later post to know what my favorite book is! Mwa ha ha ha ha!!
We ate lunch at an adorable restaurant that also sold ironic t-shirts and jams. The t-shirts were ironic, not the jams. We were living the dream! Riley pondered moving to Hawaii, purchasing a vespa, and hanging around Kona and Hilo, communing with the turtles.
We went to another waterfall, which was pretty, but there was a dollar admission to see it up close and Tenley was sleeping in the car. We took this picture and skedaddled.
We went back to Hilo and saw a nice book store. Mom got dad a book about Feng Shui. Later we went to Hilo Hatties. Riley and Rico got lovely Hawaiian dresses.
We returned to the Hilo airport and boarded the helicopter once again, to return to Kona via the north side of the island. This was my favorite part of the Greatest Day. After some neat aerial views of Parker Ranch and some medium sized water falls, we reached Waipio Valley, which is easily the most beautiful place I've ever been, and possibly the most beautiful place I’ll ever be. The pilot was quite skilled, and also quite audacious, tempting fate by flying so close to the mountain I could have reached out and taken a bit of it with me. I didn't, though.
It was going very well of course, but wait! The plot thickens! The pilot very calmly informed us that a warning light had gone off; it was probably nothing, but that FAA regulations mandated that he make an emergency landing. This was in a valley that was so ecologically unique and fragile that if it weren't for the warning light, he wouldn't have been allowed to land at all, by law. We made the landing and stayed in the valley for an hour as we waited for the mechanic to arrive and clear the helicopter. We passed the time taking bazillions of Christmas card photos and siting on the beach facing the Pacific Ocean.
We took a somewhat expedited route home and all received a free t-shirt for enduring the inconvenience, of it all. (Is how they put it. In my words “if that was a bad thing, it was the best bad thing ever.”)
We ate dinner at Macaroni Grill that night. A good finish to the Greatest Day. No Gollum moments today!
*the warning light did turn out to be nothing.
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