Travel Diary

Here was the big day - the helicopter ride. It was the moment we all had been waiting for. That's probably because we had paid so much for it. But we had heard that it was a must-do activity while on Kauai. The book even said visiting Kauai and not taking a helicopter ride was like visiting the Sistine Chapel and not looking up. Although, come to think of it, the Sistine Chapel was nice, but I don't think I would have paid $165 to look up in there. I mean the walls were painted nicely too.

We grabbed some McDonalds again. I really am ashamed to admit that I did eat there twice. But in my defense, I only had bagels and one thing of hash browns. Afterwards, we headed to the reception area of Jack Harter helicopter rides and waited. The people there were very friendly. The place had been the number two recommendation in the book. Why didn't we go with number one? Well, the number one recommendation was Air Kauai and they flew with a type of helicopter that did have opening windows. And I needed open windows for my pictures. Plus, their choppers had two middle seats which would have possibly kept two of us away from the windows. With Jack Harter, we were the only people on the bird. Come to think of it, I guess there was the pilot as well. And he's sort of necessary.

They gave us the usual briefing and then drove us over to the helipads. Several companies had birds out there. And we saw people getting onto choppers from companies the book recommended against. Oh woe unto the uninformed tourist who has not a guide book. Eventually, our bird came in and we got ready to climb aboard.

I got a seat up front. I don't know if it was luck or because I told the lady on the phone that I would be the big photographer on the trip. Needless to say, I was quite pleased. Now, if you've never been on a bird before (for the slower readers who haven't figured this out, "bird" is another word for helicopter. This isn't the Flintstones. We weren't riding pterodactyls), I must say, it's quite different than a plane. It moves just about any direction. The sensation when it leaves the ground is indescribable. Let's just say it's moving. Moments later, you're hovering several hundred feet off the ground.

We headed west and to the mountains. I snapped pictures almost as fast as the camera would let me. Having the "best shot selector" on my camera was a huge help. I could have the camera take 5 pictures of something, and it would only save the sharpest one. Misty ran the camcorder until the tape ran out. Doh! I should have been better prepared on that one. But that's okay. Now, I have an excuse to take another ride. We flew all around the island and saw many wonderful things. Being in a helicopter allowed us to see waterfalls and places that were all but inaccessible to people on the ground. The pictures just can't show all the marvelous beauty of the island. The most spectacular part was the valley below Mount Wai'ale'ale. The waterfalls there just danced and leapt their way down the 3000-foot face of the mountain.

The tour finally ended after an hour. It was worth the money, although realistically I'm not sure I would go a second time. It's just so pricey. However, I may take one on the big island of Hawaii someday.

We returned to the hotel and did some more boogey boarding. The waves at the beach we chose were very choppy and made for some pretty poor rides. We didn't stay at the beach for long.

Soon, it was dinnertime again. The book recommended a place down south a bit where they served Ostrich meat. I wasn't sure if I wanted to order that, but I did want to check it out. The place turned out to be a small burger joint. It had an upstairs outdoor seating area that sheltered us from the rain and let us see the ocean. The food wasn't great. My fish and chips were too fried. I had to bite through a lot of fried fat to get to my "fish." Still, the others enjoyed their meals and the atmosphere was nice. The birds there were as unafraid as the fish. I decided to hold out a piece of a Cheerio and, before I knew it, a bird flew up and snatched it out of my hand with his beak. I'd never seen a wild bird do THAT before. I'll remember that moment for years to come.

When dinner was done, we toured around a few local shops. There wasn't anything that I found to be worthy of buying. If you are in the market for a dead baby shark in a jar, they did have plenty of those. Alas, that just wasn't a market I happen to be in. Once the touring was over, we went back to the hotel. And if you're thinking we went to the bar, you'd win a cigar.