Days 26, 27, & 28: R&R

The past few days have been devoted purely to rest, relaxation, and reflection. In place of a long and detailed post please enjoy the following pictures from my new favorite spot on a nearby beach.
Every day for the past three days I have reserved time to sit in the sand, bob in the water, and reflect. 

So continues the healing process, in tranquility and beauty...

Catch up with you all in a day or two, true Island Style. 

Island Hop (Day 2): Ziplining, Hilo, & Black Sand Beaches

Haupia Pancakes

For the second day of our 48-hour Big Island trip we zipped around in our rental car to selected places on the Hilo side of the Big Island. After checking out of our hotel we cruised around looking for a breakfast spot and happened upon the Hawaiian Style Cafe, where Janine ordered the most delicious plate of haupia (coconut creme) pancakes while locals around us consumed egg & spam dishes and giant plates of loco moco. Each of these delicious treats was at least a finger's width tall and as large as an entire dinner plate. With a good breakfast under our belts, we headed north up the coast to the zipline shop to check in and gear-up for our Skyline Akaka Falls course.

A large van and three fit male guides transported us from the zipline shop to the agricultural fields where the course was set up. We bounced around inside the vehicle like bouncy balls (I was glad for my helmet) as we headed up, down, and around the many dirt paths leading through the groves of coffee beans, apple bananas, papayas, and cocoa plants that surrounded the course. The land on which the course is situated allegedly belongs to an older retired couple who took a helicopter ride to mark out land they wanted to buy on the island, then built a giant house and rented out their many acres to farmers and the like. Along the way I learned how bananas are grown and munched on a Latundan banana (apple banana), which was firmer and sweeter/tarter than the bananas that I am used

Throwing up shaka to Janine as I make my way across a line

to eating. Our course consisted of 7 lines, the first few of which were scaffolded to get us used to leaving the platform, steering, and sitting properly while in motion. Our guides were fantastic - the right mix of knowledgeable, humorous, and competent - and really enhanced our experience by describing the wild life around us. The sixth and seventh lines were my favorites, stretching over thousands of feet and offering extended views of natural landscapes below. The final like took us directly over Akaka Falls and is known as the longest zipline in Hawai'i at just over 3,300 feet long. This was my first time ziplining and the rush that I felt as my feet left the platform and my body hurtled along a steel cable at 50mph over a waterfall 2x the height of Niagara Falls was exhilarating. Looking back over Akaka Falls, I felt incredibly lucky to have added ziplining to  my ever-growing list of first-time adventures in Hawai'i. Life is going to seem a little dull after having so many amazing adventures over the past four weeks! The Akaka Falls line took about 3 minutes to complete, at the end of which we munched on some freshly chopped sugar cane waiting for us in a giant leaf and watched the other members of our five person party come across the falls. Check out the video Janine took (below) of her zip across Akaka Falls!



After our ziplining experience we cleaned up and hopped back in our rental to explore the Hilo Farmer's Market and grab some lunch. This market is a mid-sized gathering of artisans and food vendors from around the Big Island, and is very popular in Hilo. Janine and I wandered through covered tents where vendors prominently displayed lychee, coconuts, pineapples, kona coffee, macadamia nuts, local honey, apple bananas, dozens of types of greens & root veggies, taro, sweet potatoes, and infused liquids, among dozens of other types of local produce, some of which I could not identify. A second part of the Farmer's Market featured local artisans - screen printers, jewelry makers, basket weavers, soap makers, sea glass artists, and silk painters. I watched people pile flats of orchid plants at $20/flat into vans and others sell puppies out of boxes. There seemed to be a real sense of community in market-goers catching up; in general Hilo is much less touristy than most parts of O'ahu that I have been to so far. After exploring and making a few purchases Janine and I shared some Thai food and made our way back to our car to begin the quest for a Black Sand Beach.

Kehena Black Sand Beach from afar

Our target destination was Kehena Beach, also known as Dolphin Beach, a black sand beach in the Puna District. Black sand beaches are made up of tiny fragments of lava that shatter and fragment when lava contacts water. Kehena Beach, like Punaluu Black Sand Beach, was created virtually instantaneously by a violent interaction between a large lava flow and sea water.

Kehena Beach is also, as we later discovered, a nude beach. Our GPS stopped us outside a small unassuming gathering of ~8 cars on what appeared to be the side of a forested road. We hesitantly made our way through a barely-visible trail down the face of a volcanic rock cliff, searching for signs of sand before I saw the flash of a topless white woman between some large boulders.

We picked our way around the face of the cliff toward a now-visible stretch of black sand beach complete with pounding waves and naked humans basking on the hot sand and in the water. Never having been on a nude beach before, this took a little getting used to, especially when beach-goers would make direct eye contact with or talk to me in their birthday suits.

Tree pose with a lava tree mold

At one point an older nude man with dreadlocks busted out a wooden recorder and took up a power stance on a rock, playing his soul out to the sea. Another younger man reached for his bongos. As this eclectic concert took place I pieced together why we had not seen anyone enter or exit the beach via the trail that we had taken ... Imagine this: A woman and man dressed in casual clothing hauling themselves unassisted up ~300 foot roots of a banyan tree from the base of the beach to the top of the cliff. I motioned to Janine, speechless, when I saw this and we both watched in mild shock as a few others followed her, mostly just using their arms to pick their way to the top.

The waves were too ferocious for swimming that day, so we hung out for a bit on the beach then picked our way back up the cliff (neither of us were willing to try the  banyan root route) to our car and on to Lava Tree State Park.

Lava Tree State Park is an unusual accumulation of tree trunk lava molds left behind by a lava flow that swept through this forested area. We took a short hike through the park, which affords views of 40 of these volcanic features. In a way, the structures were haunting - petrified, crumbling shells of what had once been mighty trees. New growth between the molds of the old served as a reminder that new life is possible even in cases of extreme habitat devastation.

Happy and sweaty, Janine and I stopped at Cafe Pesto for a quick dinner, then on to the airport for our short flight back to O'ahu. Overall I have to say that this was one of the most wildly successful 48-hour vacations I could have ever imagined. We did so much in such a short period of time and didn't run ourselves ragged doing it! Mahalo to my wonderful traveling partner, Janine!

Island Hop (Day 1): Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park

'Eli 'eli kau mai (Let awe possess me) 

Let me begin by saying that there is no possible way that my words or the pictures below could do justice to some of the things that I have been witness to on this trip. The Hawaiian phrase above perfectly phrases my sentiments upon viewing the wonders that this National Park has to offer. I am humbled and amazed. Below is my feeble attempt to share a slice of my experience with you.

First rental car! The only perk of being 25!

This weekend was our big 48-hour Island Hop Adventure to the Big Island. As Janine can only get 2 days at a time off from work, we decided to make the most of her weekend and travel to the Big Island together. I spent most of Thursday getting ready and running errands for our trip while Janine worked, then we caught an evening flight out of Honolulu into Hilo. For those of you who don't know, Hawai'i is actually broken down into an archipelago of eight different islands and takes its name from the largest (i.e. Big Island) in the group. For this reason, the word Hawai'i refers to both the chain of islands and the largest island, which is where we found ourselves after a 50 minute plane ride. Hilo, HI is the rainiest city in the United States, averaging 129 inches of rain per year. It is the less touristy side of the island, known as "Old Hawai'i", and is situated on an active and a dormant volcano. We chose this side of the island over the more touristy Kona side partly based on a recommendation from my cousin, Megan, and partly out of a desire to see a different side of Hawai'i than the one available to us on O'ahu.

As we headed through the open airport in Hilo to the rental car gate, we were assaulted by the chirping noise of what I thought were birds but later found out were Coqui Frogs, an invasive species from Puerto Rico. I never actually saw these little frogs but do they ever make their presence known! We grabbed the keys to my very first rental car - a tiny Chevy Spark - and zipped off into the rainy, chirping night to our hotel, where we crashed (sleeping, not the car).

The next morning we grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel restaurant, then began the 40 minute drive to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, where we spent the next 12 hours. Our first stop was the Visitor Center, where we stepped out of the car at 8am only to realize that the sleeveless shirts and shorts we'd donned earlier that day were not appropriate day wear for the elevation level of the park. It was 55 degrees F at 8am - the coldest I have been since arriving in Hawai'i - and it may as well have been snowing for how cold I was. We got some suggestions for activities from a ranger and immediately proceeded to the nearest lodge to purchase warmer clothing.

We proceeded onward toward the spot on our map marked "Steam Vents" (Steaming Bluff Overlook), an overlook marked by clouds of steam and sulfuric smog that hissed gently from deeply hidden places in the earth. The larger vents were easily identifiable (see the gated vents in the pictures below), but the less obvious ones wafted up from the earth between grasses and trees to drift gently off the face of the outlook, filling the air with an unexpected haze and appearing from afar to join with the clouds in the skies above.

It was at Steaming Bluff Overlook that we got our first view of Kilauea Volcano. I couldn't speak for a minute, just let out a soft "oh" under my breath and drank in the sight of the smoking giant that lay before me, surrounded by miles of cracked black earth, ash, and volcanic gas. It seemed to me simultaneously to be the site of extreme devastation and colossal beauty. From as high up as we were I could see a miniature landscape dotting the caldera of Kilauea. The billowing cloud of water, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxide that Kilauea emitted seemed to have a life of its own - taking shape with the wind, changing size, and changing color as the day progressed.

We walked through the Thurston Lava Tube, a lighted prehistoric cave where, several hundred years ago, a river of red lava rushed through. Lava tubes are (forgive me, geology friends) conduits through which lava is drained from a volcano. Lava travels away from a volcano underneath the surface of a lava flow and can leave cave-like tunnels in its wake (when cooled).

The walls of the tube were ridged and resembled the tracks left by earthworms in dirt, if earthworms were 1292 to 2192 °F. The eerie lighting in the tube allowed for yellowed glimpses of rock formations and the uneven ground within. Janine and I walked through twice, once to get the video (above) and once just to soak in the quiet dampness. Our footsteps echoed down the tunnel and water dripped down our necks from above.

We ventured out of the park for a brief lunch into the Village of Volcano - a combination art gallery, B&B, and vegan cafe located in the back garden of a house. On the way into Volcano Garden Arts we passed several sand gardens, a goat tethered to a run line like a dog, and a long garden table completely set for a 12-person tea party. We looked around the gallery while our soups and salads were made in the 5-table cafe, and sipped hibiscus iced tea in peace while observing honeybees flitting about in the expansive garden.

Upon returning to the Park, we were presented with the opportunity to join in on a very rare Ranger-led hike into a restricted zone of the park that the public normally cannot access. This hike is only offered a few times a year and we happened to be in the right place at the right time to hike down into the actual caldera of Kilauea with Ranger Dean (see slideshow above and videos below). We took about an hour to hike into the caldera of the volcano, stopping when Ranger Dean wanted to explain or show us something, before emerging onto the floor of the caldera.

Imagine a broken, cracked, black wasteland that, on closer inspection, is actually teeming with endemic plant life. Imagine smoking crevices of hot steam, the crunching of dozens of people walking on volcanic rock, and webs of volcanic glass as thin as hair. Imagine looking up the sides of a volcano and realizing that you are standing on earth that used to be 800 feet higher than the ground you are currently standing on. Ash and water residue drift down on you while you marvel at the abundance of ōhi‘a lehua‘, breath-holding flowers that can live for long periods of time without oxygen and are the first to grow on volcanic soil after an eruption. The whole experience is unreal.

ōhi‘a lehua‘ plants growing in the caldera

As long as this post is (it may be my longest, yet), it is a miniscule fraction of what I learned and saw in the Park, Ranger Dean was the most exceptional guide. He stopped at strategic points to explain causes of habitat loss, point out behaviors of plants, identify native and non-native species, and describe what was going on under our feet. I recognize so many new species of plants after his hike and have a better understanding of how the introduction of non-native species of plants and animals has drastically altered the ecosystems of the Hawai'ian Islands.

Pele's Hair - thin, flexible shards of volcanic glass

Below is a video clip of one of our educational pit-stops, if you're interested. Ranger Dean stopped us in the thick of the jungle and had us listen to the birds overhead. He whipped out one of his many photo cards used to supplement his talks, and showed us a grouping of over 50 different kinds of honeycreeper
birds, then proceeded to peel back a transparency to reveal the handful that are still around today. In the video below he pieces together the ways in which non-native species have destroyed endemic populations on the island and one of the ways in which Hawai'ian traditions have evolved - in the form of pig hunting - to help control this population loss.

In the time before dinner we took our zippy rental car down Chain of Craters Road toward the coast to see if we could find where the lava hit the sea. We drove through 30 miles of lava fields, blackened molten rock as far as the eye could see, stopping at places where lava flows were marked with years (i.e. November 1974) and allowing the magnitude of what we were seeing to wash over us. The air quality worsened (sulfur) and the roads cutting through the cooled lava grew twistier as we approached the coast where a haze of volcanic pollution (VOG) hung in the air. Off in the distance we saw a concentration of volcanic gases where the lava met the open sea. We didn't hike down to the coastline as it would have been a 14 mile RT hike on unmarked land (did I mention Janine was doing all of this hiking on a broken toe?) and nightfall was coming, but I felt content knowing that we'd been into the caldera of an active volcano, magma flowing beneath our feet.

Image courtesy of www.homeaway.com

Back near the visitor center Janine and I reserved window-side seats at the lodge's Volcano House Restaurant for dinner and a panoramic view of Kilauea Volcano as night fell. We watched the sun set over Mauna Loa and Kilaeau while drinking wine and eating dinner, literally watching the world burn.

As the sky darkened the glow from Kilauea turned from white, to pink, to orange, to a blood-red. Try as I might, my puny camera could not capture the fire as it light up the night sky full of stars. In complete darkness, staring at the active volcano before me with a clear sky revealing the constellations, I once again felt awed and humbled by the sights before me.

Day 22: Sacred Sites Tour

Sacred Sited Tour Guide (Uncle Joe)

In a completely spur of the moment move last week I signed up for a daytime ghost tour at the ITT Office. Wednesday morning found me waiting at the Waikiki Resort parking lot, scanning the road for a van marked "O'ahu Ghost Tours" which was to pick me up at 10:20. True island style a loudly painted vehicle cruised into the parking lot around 10:30. A slight Hawaiian man with a huge grin popped out of the driver's seat, called to me from across the lot and introduced himself as Uncle Joe (Uncle & Auntie are terms used by the Hawai'ian people to show respect for older generations. This is part of the concept of ohana, used to show that we are all family).

The next six hours were an unpredictable ride across all parts of the island to sites that are considered sacred to the Hawai'ian people.  Uncle Joe is the son of a Hawai'ian chief and grew up in a village before they were disbanded by the U.S. government in the 1950s. He was loud, charismatic, and spontaneous. Upon boarding the van he told us that he would not be taking us to any of the marked places on the brocure, but would instead be taking us to less touristy, more traditional sacred sites that held meaning for his people. As we drove from Waikiki to god-knows-where, Uncle Joe spewed stories about O'ahu. In response to one woman's question about a local shop, Uncle Joe went into a rant about the tourism crash that O'ahu experienced post-9/11and explained that most of the mom-and-pop stores in the downtown area went under or were bought out by one entrepreneur during that time. He showed a strong sense of understanding when it came to just about anything having to do with Hawai'i's culture, politics, or history.

Grave of many of Hawai'i's great leaders

At one point he compared the Hawai'ian people to native Americans, saying that native Hawai'ians, unlike Native Americans, were not recognized as indigenous people in Hawai'i  and had no place to call their own (here he referenced reservations and ownership of land). Uncle Joe described highways built through ancient burial sites, the corruption of certain aspects of Hawai'ian culture by tourists, and the way that the U.S. Government forced native Hawai'ians out of village living and into houses, field work, and eating processed foods.

At our first stop - the Royal Mausoleum - Uncle Joe showed us the grave where many of the Hawaiian peoples' leaders were buried, excepting Kamehameha I, who is rumored to have died in battle and whose bones were never found. Uncle Joe shared with us some of the legends surrounding Kamehameha I, who was portrayed as a brutally strong leader who occasionally murdered the children of his enemies and ate them (it was believed that eating the innocent made one invincible).

Queen's Bath

The Queen's Bath was fenced off to the public, but Uncle Joe drove us up to an overlook to see the sacred place where only the royals were allowed to bathe. A local judge now owns the land and maintains the bath, but had he attempted to drink from or immerse himself in the waters back in the time when Hawai'ian royalty reigned, he would have been beheaded, as was the punishment for all non-royals who came into contact with the water.

As we continued to drive we passed one of the filming locations for LOST (my dad and sister will be excited to hear) and one of the filming locations for the new Hunger Games movie, in Pali.We continued driving past Kaneohe and eventually came to a stop in the parking lot of a country club, where Uncle Joe, without explanation, led us through some thick brush and onto a private trail that was covered in roots and overrun by vines. As we hiked, Uncle Joe explained that rock path we were walking on was hand-laid by the people of Hawai'i over 800 years ago in a collaborative effort by many villages to create a path that would allow them to transport food and other goods. The rocks (some of them were huge) were carried from each village to a central location where they were taken, a few at a time, to build Likeke Trail over the course of a century.

We followed our guide across red clay, into thickets, and through tunnels of vines. Occasionally Uncle Joe would stop without warning and boom out a chant into the forest in Hawai'ian, asking for permission to enter, praising the gods, and showing appreciation for our surroundings. He stopped several times to collect materials and make offerings out of ferns and branches, which he placed on rocks or in water as we went. The trail dead-ended in a spectacular waterfall that Uncle Joe said was sacred to his people and had healing powers. His mother, a village healer, had brought him to the falls as a young child and would bathe the ill in the healing waters. We were directed to a concealed lookout from one edge of the waterfall where Uncle Joe said the leaders of allied villages would meet and monitor activity in the valley and from the sea.

Ulu'po heiau

The last place we visited was a Hawai'ian heiau - a sacred burial ground piled high with rocks, which Uncle Joe said concealed the bodies of many Hawai'ian warriors. Ulu'po, translation "abundance of breadfruit", was the site of Uncle Joe's village, where he lived until the 1950's when he said the U.S. government pushed him and his village out of their land by intentionally drying up their river and threatening them with imprisonment. I could hear the hurt in our guide's voice as he detailed the changes that the U.S.government forced on him and his people. Hawai'ians were no longer allowed to live in villages and were forced into homes they could not afford, they were made to work for money instead of food, and were paid with currency that they now traded for canned and processed foods.

The average Hawaiian person in his village, Uncle Joe said, lived to be 90 years old before the drastic diet changes that came with the foreigners who overran their island. With obvious pride Uncle Joe walked around the land and showed us where breadfruit, mango, papaya, coconut, and kukui nut trees once flourished, pulling things off of trees and bushes for us to taste as he went. He showed us where his village would gather to eat at the end of each day and where the Quonset hut that had been his home once stood before the U.S. government imprisoned his parents for refusing to leave the village (an act that forced Uncle Joe and many other children in his village into Child Protective Services for 2 years). His story of a displaced people, broken families, and lack of respect for native people changed the way that I think about Hawai'i and the United States.

How to Crack A Coconut (courtesy of Uncle Joe)

Cracking the Outer Husk

Getting to the Good Stuff!

Days 20 & 21: Kailua Beach & Hamama Falls

I decreed Monday a beach day, suited up, doused myself in sunscreen, and headed over to Kailua Beach. I walked up and down the beach for a while, searching in-between surfers and Japanese tourists, for a place to plop my towel and snorkeling bag down before settling on a high mound of white sand under a hibiscus tree. I spent the rest of the day watching kiteboarders, bobbing in the ocean, and digging my toes in the sand.

The following day I set off to find a hiking trail that Janine's neighbors had told her about. Hamama Falls is a large waterfall in the Kaneohe area. The trail is technically closed due to the fact that it is situated on the property the board of water supply property, however, Janine's neighbors assured her that locals and other hikers have been visiting this trail regularly with no problems. I drove 20 minutes to the end of a residential trail, got out quietly and walked quickly toward a gate with a "no trespassing" sign. A large hole had been cut in the fence next to the gate to allows eager hikers to pass through. The street in front of the entrance was lined by at least a dozen parked cars.

Still smiling after hiking 2 miles uphill

The trail started out deceptively calm on a relatively flat gravel road. I ventured off onto short dirt paths a few times and was surprised by discoveries like patches of wild orchids and abandoned machinery. About a third of the way up the trail I came to a clear, clean swimming hole with a rope swing and a man-made waterfall. There were a few swimmers and families gathered here playing in the cool water. I little bit further just over a bridge the trail took a sudden twist and the uphill battle began.

Wild orchid plants along the trail

At first I welcomed the challenge of the inclined slope, seeing it as a welcome stretch for my legs. What's a hike without a fair amount of exertion, right? Huffing, puffing, and creaking muscles were expected for the lack of hiking I'd done over the past few years. I slowly but steadily made my way uphill, controlling my breathing and enjoying the tropical sights and smells. About a mile later the trail turned even steeper and I was forced to turn my eyes from the foliage to my feet to make sure that with each step I was finding purchase on the gravely road and not in a slick of mud or under a root. At this point the bugs found their opportunity and attacked. I fended them off with deet and carried on. I was unaccompanied in my ascent in that I had no hiking partner and saw no other person on the way up. Those that passed me on their way down the slope assured me it was worth the trek and tried to control their descent by walking sideways, scattering gravel as they went. Children flew by me at neck-breaking paces, laughing shrilly as they went. I stopped at a humongous banyan tree and clipped my camera to some vines for a self-photo, then set off for the last leg of the upward hike.

Top of the trail looking up at the falls

The waterfall was unexpected. I turned a corner and suddenly there it was in all its massive splendor, crashing down the side of a mountain. With no one else around I kicked off my hiking shoes, stuck my toes in the cool water, and unpacked my lunch. For the next 30 minutes I munched happily alongside the falls, listening to the peaceful sound of the water cascading along the face of the mountain and trickling down to the base of the river, before beginning the descent.

The trek down was actually more challenging than the way up, mostly due to the steepness of the trail and the fact that it was covered in gravel. Like those hikers I'd seen on my way up, I side stepped down most of the trail and managed to only slip twice (wiping out once). While picking my way down I caught a beautiful panoramic view of the island straight down to the ocean. A mountain biker passed me on his way up, sweating fiercely and breathing loudly. The trail leveling out at the end was a welcome relief for my calves. After a quick dunk in the river near the start of the trail I walked back to Janine's car, happy with my first hike. Looking forward more glimpses of the natural beauty of O'ahu in the coming weeks.

Day 19: Waikiki Aquarium and Dole Cannery

On Sunday Samantha and Steve met me in Kaneohe to have breakfast at Whole Foods on the way in to Waikiki. Sam and I dropped Steve off at the park to play lacrosse and headed toward the nearby Waikiki Aquarium. The aquarium was smaller than I'd expected, but had lots of neat marine life that I hadn't seen before - including sea horses, jelly fish, giant clams, and hundreds of types of coral. When Janine and I had snorkeled over the reef at Hanauma Bay I thought I'd seen coral, but apparently most of the greyish, rock-like coral that I'd seen while snorkeling was dead as a result of people climbing on and touching it. Waikiki Aquarium had coral in all shapes and sizes on display. My personal favorites were the pools of different jellyfish, clown fish cleaning sea anemones, and the little octopus that the aquarium stimulates by introducing different objects into its tank and allowing it to manipulate. My favorite fish is the Hawaiian state fish, Humuhumunukunukuāpua'a.

Image courtesy of hawaiibusiness.com

After leaving the aquarium Sam and I went to her friend Ingrid's apartment in Honolulu to help her try on her wedding dress, then to the Ala Moana Center for gelato and to pop around the (gienat) Apple Store. Samantha had to jump a flight back to the mainland the next day, so she and Steve left around dinner time to make their way back to the North Shore while Ingrid and I met her fiance for dinner. I enjoyed dinner with new friends over cocktails and salads, then met up with Janine to see a movie at the Dole Cannery, the remnants of the Dole Pineapple Company packing plant converted into commercial space in 1991. We watched the Great Gatsby over snacks then headed home for the evening. I was sad to see Samantha leave, as today was the last day that I'd see in in Hawaii, but I look forward to seeing her later on this summer back in NY and am so happy for the time that we got to spend together while she was here!

Day 18: Helicopter Ride & Teddy Bear Museum

Route around O'ahu

For my 25th birthday my dad and mom surprised me with the promise of a helicopter ride around the island - an activity that they'd done during their honeymoon and found to be one of the highlights of their trip. Having never been in a helicopter before, I was thrilled and a little nervous about the experience, but mostly excited to see first-hand some of the views that the island had to offer from the air. We arrived at Makani Kai Helicopters in time to watch a security video instructing us to keep our limbs away from the propellers and how to exit the helicopter in case of an emergency. Janine and I were had the front two seats of the helicopter, next to the pilot. We were loaded into the helicopter one-by-one and given headphones to wear to help with the noise and allow us to hear the pilot's instructions. Our pilot was an older Japanese gentleman who was very knowledgeable about the history of the island and kept up a running commentary during the course of our one hour flight. As I'd never been in a helicopter before, I was surprised when it took off in reverse then flew sideways for a bit before ascending into the clouds. I think I'd been expecting the helicopter's movements to be more like those of a plane - more linear and with fewer dramatic movements.

We took off from Honolulu and headed east then north along the windward side of O'ahu. From the air we saw the Sacred Falls, Polynesian Cultural Center, the Mormon Temple in Laie, Turtle Bay, aquaculture farms, and Kahuku Point - where our pilot pointed out masses of sea turtles amassed along the reefs. The tour continued along the North Shore where we saw Sunset Beach, Electric Beach, the Pipeline, and Waimea Bay. Over O'ahu's Central Plain we viewed the Dole Pineapple Maze and the "birthing stones" of Hawai'ian royalty. The last leg of our tour took us over Pearl Harbor, which was especially intriguing to me given that I had visited Pearl Harbor on land earlier in the week. At times the pilot would stop mid-air and turn the helicopter around 360 degrees to give us a full view of our location. We flew through pockets of rain, over misty mountains to emerge into sunny valleys, and over countless miles of breathtakingly turquoise water.

Janine & I in the cockpit before takeoff

Upon landing we were allowed to each take a picture in front of the helicopter. While waiting for my inner ear to adjust to being back on the ground, I purchased a DVD of our ride to show to dad and mom when I get back to NY. Janine and I both thank you so much for making this wonderful experience possible, Dad and Mom! I love you both!

In the time before our helicopter ride Janine and I visited Waikiki's Teddy Bear Museum, a family-friendly museum with hundreds of (slightly scary) animatronic bears like the ones that had frightened me at the Boulevard Mall growing up. Inside the museum stuffed animatronic bears were depicted riding dinosaurs, aboard the Titanic, scuba diving, riding motorcycles, playing basketball, carving Mount Rushmore, and having picnics, to name a few. An entire Elvis Animatronic Teddy Bear Exhibit exists, as does Bear-ack Obama (surrounded by world leaders), and Psy Bear. Many of these bears sang and danced; the Elvis Exhibit featured a 10 minute Animatronic Teddy Bear conference that was preceded by a video of Elvis arriving to Honolulu by plane and being attacked by mobs of adoring fans bearing leis. The entire exhibit took about an hour to get through and became less creepy as we progressed, perhaps due to extended exposure. There are few words I can use to describe the museum, so I'll let you use your imagination while viewing the pictures below.