Hawaii: never say never

I said I wouldn't ever, but I did.















Since we had such bad weather, a helicopter was pretty much our only option for seeing the entire island of Kauai. The rain often kept us from sight seeing by foot (although we did end up doing our fair share of sight seeing on the ground).




















Still, the helicopter was quite an experience - the scenery was SO beautiful from above.















Naturally I looked into the safety reports on the company we flew with. And double checked the accuracy of those reports with everyone I encountered prior to hopping aboard: the woman who weighed us in, the shuttle guy who drove us to the launchpad, and the pilot himself. Thankfully, they all had the same story. Hopefully it was true.




















We got to use the Bose noise canceling headphones (I seriously heart those things) so it was a quiet ride. The pilot spoke through the headphones to guide us through the tour. And apparently our helicopter was particularly eco-friendly, though I can't remember why exactly...




















This is a shot of the Na Pali coast. We later toured this coastline on a catamaran (photos of that adventure to follow) - it's breathtaking. Sadly, we weren't able to hike in due to weather and time constraints.















It really was amazing being in the helicopter - I was shocked by how calm and peaceful it was - sort of like we were floating above the island in a giant bubble. I expected the ride to be rough and choppy, but it was the opposite. I think because we weighed in as the lightest of the three couples on the tour, Husband and I got to sit up front next to the pilot, so we had prime viewing through the front windshield (or whatever you call the big front window in a helicopter). I didn't want the tour to end.




















After we landed I felt very brave and as you can see, proud (once I'd cleared the blades of the propeller - hey, I saw that ER episode where the guy lost his arm). I found out later that that yellow thing buckled around my waist was my emergency parachute SHOULD WE CRASH. Ahhh, ignorance. It's true what they say about it being better than Valium. Wait, am I the only person who says that? Well, either way, it's still true.