We had saved a special excursion for this day: Alexis had talked us into signing up for a helicopter tour of the island. Neither of us had ever flown in one, and this particular company was inside a small shopping center. Since we had some time, we walked around for a bit and had some pizza for lunch followed by traditional Hawaiian shave ice. Yes, they call it shave ice, not shaved ice. I chose guava flavored syrup. My family always drank guava juice with lemonade when I was growing up.
Before we went up, they had to weigh us along with whatever was going up with us- little Stitch, clothes, etc. We waited by the landing platform as the couple in the time slot before us disembarked from the helicopter. They were definitely thrilled with the experoence.
Our guide gave each of us a pair of large headphones and instructed us to press a button and speak into the mic if we wanted to talk- without it, we wouldn't be able to hear each other or him due to the pounding wind. Soon, we took off, and the motion was so smooth I could hardly tell we were moving at all. It was as if I was just watching a moving image below me. I couldn't believe how quickly we reached such heights.
Our guide switched on some music that piped into our headphones. We now had a lovely soundtrack of gentle Hawaiian melodies as we looked down on the world. The helicopter glided back and forth in and around the island. We saw tall waterfalls and lush greenery and ocean shores. Being that high made everything look like movie set miniatures. The wind whipped loose strands of hair so hard they stung my face.
I am not sure how long we were up there, but it was about the right amount of time as I was tiring of getting a beating from the wind. However, Derek and I both agreed that we were very glad our host talked us into the experience. Derek commented that he would never feel the need to ride Soarin at Epcot again.
After our flight, we still had several hours left till our next flight- the one home. We weren't sure what ekse we had time for before we had to head back to the airport so we just explored a bit. I was disappointed that we were ending the trip, but that wasn't to be. That will have to be saved for a future "do-over" trip.
We had driven by a little koa wood shop earlier, so we decided to check it out. Koa wood is something only found in Hawaii. In the interest of taking home items actually made in Hawaii, we bought cute turtle earrings for me and a nice koa wood picture frame.
We checked our guidebook for other opportunities to explore the area and ended up at a Kauai plantation museum. We enjoyed the museum which was pretty much what you'd expect- a walk through the history and nature of the area, including an exhibit on Hawaiian tourism and the hospitality industry.
We hadn't done a lot of shopping, so we decided to stop at a big Hawaiian souvenir chain called Hilo Hattie's- they had every Hawaiian souvenir you can imagine...from aloha shirts and grass skirts to macadamia nuts and spices. They even give you a shell necklace when you enter, and there were lots of free samples to nibble on. We decided to take home some spices and cooking oil.
We used our guidebook again for dinner and chose a recommended diner called the Barbeque Inn. I was intrigued that the meals served there came with a slice of pie for dessert. Oddly enough, the menu didn't have much that we would identify as BBQ, and we left there feeling underwhelmed and confused at the recommendation (although the pie was good).
After dinner, there wasn't much left to do besides head to the airport, despite there still being a few hours to wait. So, with that, we said Aloha Hawaii! Till we meet again!
