Aloha and Mahalo are the 2 Hawaiian words we start to hear after we arrive in Honolulu. Aloha means love and it's used as a hello/good bye. Mahalo means thank you. After 12 hours of flying, we made it. We flew from Orlando to Atlanta and then all the way from Atlanta to Honolulu, but thanks to mom and Gil's sky miles we flew first class all the way and that made a big difference in making the flight seem shorter and more comfortable. A big Mahalo to them for that! Still, the seats never go back as far as you'd like them to. There was a little turbulence, but we made it through the rough spots just fine (Yes that was an analogy). And the turbulence is not entirely over (yea, that's another double entendre/analogy thingie). It seems the one task I had was to book our first night hotel. How it ended up getting booked for 6 days ago is somewhat of a mystery. But we manage to get a room at a sister hotel and crash in our tiny little room in Waikiki. Hopefully I won't get charged for the missed reservation. I'm just hoping it was their fault and not my own early Alzheimer's setting in.
Awaking in our little $150 matchbox hotel room, we are excited about the rest of the trip. We're in Hawaii, we're getting married, we are going to go scuba diving, hang gliding, waterfall watching, and we're going to explore exotic beaches!! Fortunately for me Betty has planned & booked the rest of the trip. I'm in good hands, she's a pro!! I just need to tag along and enjoy the adventure.
Today we fly to Kauai where we will get our marriage license, stay for a few nights, and get married… if she's lucky. On our drive to the airport, our driver tells us about the history of Hawaii. I direct our conversation more to his cultural history and get some candid information that he probably doesn't share with too many visitors. We find out the white man (no offense/none taken) has ruined a lot of it and turned the land into a "cement jungle". Now by typing this, you're thinking he was a disgruntled villager, but he actually has a very honest friendly personality and I think it was only my questions that opened him up to be so candid with us and give us an honest, but often concealed, point of view. We find out, Christianity was forced onto them & the United States basically forced them to join. They had beloved Kings and Queens here before with great heritage. Even their native language was forbidden for them to speak in public as late as 1980! We listened to music from his great grandmother that, in their native language, told stories about the island. At the end we gave him a heartfelt Mahalo for the history lesson and told him we hope that his culture is preserved and for it to thrive again. This is a side of Hawaiian culture we had not known of.
Once we get to Kauai and we hunt for our luggage, we end up at Alamo car rental. At that moment, Betty realizes that we are supposed to be at National. It is a rare mistake by the great planner and I take pleasure in her frail humanity. We are even now… ok maybe not entirely. Fortunately National has an affiliation with Alamo and we are able to fill our car rental through National.
On the way to the resort, we find a couple waterfalls along the way and stop to take pictures. The island is similar to the tropical feel of Costa Rica, but you can tell by the roads, cars, and buildings, you are in a developed country, but it doesn't seem to be part of the US.
Eventually we get to the Hyatt and get lei'd… with a pretty string of flowers. The air is also filled with a potpourri of floral scents. The room is nice and contains a complimentary bottle of champagne, a delicious looking cheese platter, a bottle of cabernet, and a card addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Williams… (insert record scratch sound effect here). The bellboy corrects the situation by having the yummy looking cheese plate and wine removed. Now it is time for his tip. Instead of giving him one of the tips that come to mind, I had him a couple bucks and send him away. The ocean view room is a free (2-levels higher) upgrade from the mountain view we had booked. Granted the ocean is only visible from the left side of the balcony if you stand on your toes. The mountain view would more aptly be parking lot view. Our room does overlook a gorgeous pool area with several floral trees, palms, and hot tubs intertwined with a lazy river and multiple bridges and pools. There are several coy ponds around the hotel with white and black swans.
We arrived around 3:00, so we had time to relax in the pool area. We chose the salt water lagoon and begin to unwind. Later while Betty takes a shower, I venture down to the concierge and request a new cheese plate. When Betty gets out of the shower, she mentions that we should just order a cheese plate from room service. As the last syllable leaves her mouth, there is a knock at the door and magically the cheese arrives. I get major points for this. I have my moments what can I say. So enjoy the cheese platter at the balcony table with our bottle of champagne and begin to toast to our vacation and bright future together.
This is our 2nd day in Kauai. We woke up early as we still seem to be on Orlando time. Because we are honeymooners, Betty scored us some free breakfast coupons worth $50 each and we have enough for the entire stay here. We eat our breakfast buffet next to a coy pond with 2 white swan. When Betty gets up, a dozen tiny birds fly to her seat and move in to her plate with caution. I took a couple pictures of them snacking on her left over banana. At one point there were at least 5 of them sitting on her chair dreaming of their free breakfast buffet.
After breakfast, we get ready and head to the dive shop to go scuba diving. Our dive master, Debbie, is a short peppy blonde with lots of spunk. Our dive group consists of the captain, Debbie, Michelle, her son Collin, and 2 other guys. We all get along great and have 2 great dives. The 1st is nothing short of amazing. We descend into crystal blue water and see lots of tropical fish, we approach a "cleaning station" where there are 5 or 6 large sea turtles getting their shells cleaned by little fish. Collin takes lots of great photos and promises to email them to us.
Later that night we eat at Tide Pools, a fine dining restaurant overlooking and built over more coy ponds. It has the feel of several tropical huts connected over several coy ponds. Tiki torches are lit as the pond centerpieces as it gets darker. Betty orders a Hawaiian fish that starts with an "O" (that's all we know), while I get the beef tenderloins. While waiting for our meals, I slyly flick breadcrumbs into the adjacent pond for the giant coy that flop about to feast on them. We get a couple looks from a nearby table of old grannies but I can't help being like a kid and we continue to enjoy ourselves. Hey at least I'm not making the wine glass noise that dad would be doing right about now.
Mondays in Kauai sure beat Mondays at home. We start with another great breakfast buffet. After our morning meals, Betty goes to the salon for her hair appointment armed with some photos of her hairstylist's creation from back home. I lounge around (this is what men do) and reflect on roads leading here. It been a long strange trip as some have sang, but there's no place like home and I feel at home with Betty, my bride to be.
When it's time, I wait down in the lobby for her and as she approaches, birds chirp and the room fills with a warm glow. Her smile meets mine and we seal the moment with a short kiss. Man I hate lip-gloss. Doug, our limo driver is there after we snap a couple pictures and we are on our way to the small airport. When we arrive at the tiny air strip, we are greeted by Kay, our wedding coordinator. We watch a short safety video that tells us where the machete and other survival gear is in case we crash in the jungle, and then we make our way to the helicopter. Betty takes a short bathroom break. Unfortunately this airport is so small, they only have a port-o-let and I take one of the ever-popular bride exiting the port-o-let pictures, which becomes one of my favorites. Betty makes the best of the moment and swings the stall door open with sass.
The helicopter pilot (John), our photographer (Liz), and our videographer/minister (Patrick) are all that accompany us. The helicopter ride is amazing. The pilot, Betty, and me sit in the front with Betty in the middle and me on the right. There are no doors and at 4000 feet, it is breathtaking. Some walls of the mountainside rise vertically straight up from sea level to the clouds. They are all green with foliage. Deep trenches are cut from the hundreds of waterfalls we fly over and next to. When we land in a secluded patch in the jungle, we get out of the helicopter and pose for pictures. A short narrow path leads to our waterfall (Pu'u Ka Ele). It is a beautiful backdrop for our wedding and could not have been better. Pat equips us with microphones and begins our vows. Betty is given a beautiful flowered lei by me and I am given a weed sash from her. I swear I pull this stuff out of my yard all the time but somehow it is still decorative and we continue and exchange rings. He pronounces us husband & wife and we take more photos. Liz is nice enough to take several pictures with our digital camera as well. After signing our paperwork, we make our way back to the jungle to the small helicopter and lift off. John, the pilot, gives us a nice tour of the island. The wind blows against my shirt as I am sitting against the open air. A few drops of rain dampen my arm as we fly through a couple small showers, but it just adds to the realness of the experience. As a t-shirt in town read earlier says, "No Rain, No Rainbows" and we do see a couple on our way back.
When we land, Doug has our limo ready and takes us to Spouting Horn, which is an old volcano tube at the ocean that funnels water in and sprays out from a spout with an escalading hollow sound. We continue to document everything from the limo to the chickens in the parking lot with our camera. In the limo, we finish off our bottle of champagne and reach the Beach House Restaurant. At the Beach House, Betty ordered a Kauaian Dream cocktail (Vanilla Vodka, Kailua, & Pineapple) and I had a Hawaiian beer. Our table was ocean front and the sun glared in until sunset. Tiki torches and surfers entertained us while we ate awesome Ahi & a delicious duck. We opened our bottle of Dolcetto D'Alba wine. Our dive friends Michelle and her son Collin sat one table over from us. Another young couple on their honeymoon sat next to us and we took turns taking each other's pictures. Everyone was friendly but then again everyone is friendly after a bottle of wine and a couple cocktails. We shared a glass of wine with Michelle and she got us 2 glasses of champagne. For desert, we shared a Bananas Fosters. After dinner, we took some more pictures and then returned to our limo. Once back at the resort, we manage to find a little jazz bar and celebrate with a Silver Patrone and Appletini. By now, coincidently, we are feeling pretty merry and find our way back to our room where… well this part you don't get to hear about… but yours' truly is a stallion.
The next morning, miraculously, we felt fine. We decided to find the other breakfast place. It took some walking to find, but that's all part of the adventure. It's at the golf club house and still free with our vouchers. I had a strange fried rice & egg meal and Betty had pancakes with blueberries, pineapple, and banana inside. Both were yummy. After breakfast, we go to the post office to mail back some things we won't need to lug around anymore like our wedding attire to lighten our load.
On the way back, Betty reviews our pictures in our digital camera and tries to remove the date stamp. One menu item, format, fails to remove the date. Later we take more pictures of the black swans in front of our resort and realize the previous pictures including our wedding pictures and pre-wedding shots are all gone. It is then that I recalled Betty mentioning that word "format". Just like that over 150 pictures were wiped out. Pictures, that can't be retaken. This is sad news. We checked with the hotel's business center and then called around then called around to find out there might be a small 20% chance to recover the pictures. We try to temporarily put it behind us because our couple's massage appointment is in a few minutes. This may be the perfect time to relax and calm us back down.
The massage was great and relaxing. Betty and I were in the same room overlooking the ocean, of course our faces overlooked the carpet, but it was nice carpet. The spa area was a secluded area for the spa-goers. There was a common area and had separate men and women's areas. The showers were in interesting rock formations that were in an open courtyard.
After the massages, we traveled into town looking for another memory card to try and preserve any chance of recovering the pictures. One of the Sears electronics staff says it's not possible to recover them, another one tells us he knows someone who works for the Pentagon that could, but would charge $1500. So now the cost may be prohibitive too. Our chances are slimming. Betty asks if there are any camera shops in town and we end up at Don's camera shop. Don is nice and refers us to Joe's camera shop. Joe's is right behind Pono Market where we got our marriage licenses. Joe is friendly, as most Hawaiians are, and happens to have several programs to try. After several program attempts over a couple hours (like waiting in a delivery room), Joe has recovered most of the pictures. He says he normally charges $100, but charges us $50 either because we are newly weds or my interesting conversations with him. In any case we are thrilled to get the pictures back. Joe says the photos on CD, that's compact disk grandma, not certificate of deposit.
We then find an Internet café, and are able to post a couple pictures online. Since Betty is still in the "dog house", she lets me eat my favorite food, Mexican. I figure I better milk her reformatting drama for all it's worth, so I get her to accept driving responsibilities for the next island.
Since we were too tired to pack last night, we wake up a little earlier and pack everything. Today we go to the big island. We enjoy another breakfast buffet and then head to the airport to fly Hawaiian Airlines this time. There is a short layover in Honolulu that we use for lunch, and then Betty signs for our white jeep. Starting our tour around the island, we go waterfall exploring on our way to our cottage. We stop by Rainbow Falls first, which are beautiful, then we go to Akaka Falls. There are actually 2 waterfalls at Akaka. Akaka is far better than the Kahuna Falls that share this location. Again we document our explorations with more photographs… and with any luck, Betty won't reformat the camera again. :) Wives… sheesh… are they all like this?
Back on the road again, we continue to our cottage. The roads here are pretty good and look like they were all paved around the same time as they all have the same look and feel. Hardly any pot holes like Costa Rica had. The terrain is rocky and the road cuts through massive clumps of black lava rock. There are thousands on tropical plants everywhere but I have seen no ants. My thought is that the white man will eventually bring them. All in all, it does seem like there are not that many insects here. And buildings stay relatively and surprisingly clean. Maybe the dirt here is heavier and doesn't get kicked up into the air; maybe there are less spider webs and mud daubers; whatever it is, windowsills, awnings, and everything just seems cleaner here. The weather is hot like Florida but breezy.
Once we find our cottage, we explore the surrounding land. There are several fruit type trees and tropical plants. There are pineapple, coffee plants, sugarcane, a lime-looking tree, and several other unknown specimens. Some naturally here, some purposely planted by the cottage owner.
BRIGHT AND EARLY we wake to a glaring sun. The sunlight beams through the windows with the intensity of a kid with a magnifying glass. Most of the windows are open and are requested to stay open by the owners, so the nights' sleep was a bit chilly. A wind chime also volumed up during the evening as the night breeze picked up and the rest of the cottage went quiet. Our breakfast consists of Captain Crunch cereal we picked up at the grocery store and we eat on the back porch overlooking the wilderness and volcanic mountains. A cat that we met last night joins us, but we've been instructed not to feed her by the fridge instructions. The cat tells us not to listen to such nonsense from the mean refrigerator.
Today we have some more scuba diving planned and make our way to the other side of the aptly named Big Island. We first stop at "Volcanos" park, which has several remains of past… volcanos. We drive around the crater of one and through several others, stopping along the way to take pictures. Finally we reach "the end of the road" where the road dead-ends where it was covered by lava flow. We hike up over this cooled mass of black rock towards the sea. We take pictures and video of the strange landscape and ocean. After what seems to have been a mile hike over the rocks, we can see steam coming up where the active lava meets the ocean in the distance. We could hike another 2 ½ miles over the rough terrain to get a closer look, but we are running short on time. As we wind back up the road, we exit this national park and give someone else our pass.
Eventually after 3hrs of driving, we reach the dive shop and gear up. 2 sea turtles are right there in the marina between our dive boat and the sea wall where we boarded the boat. Keller, our dive master, is very entertaining and has lots of great jokes like why do mermaids wear seashells? And why do sharks not like to eat clowns? What did the ocean say to the shore? What are the 3 rings of marriage? As well as a slew of other ones. The captain was pretty funny too. Yea, I purposely didn't type the answers to those jokes, you'll have to ask us for the punch lines.
After a half hour, we reach our destination, which is right out from the airport. About 4 other dive boats are anchored in the vicinity. This is a 2-tank dive meaning we do one dive, come back to the boat, take a break and then strap on a fresh tank and do another dive. Unlike most 2-tank dives, we will dive in the same location for both dives. To help prevent decompression sickness, we will wait about an hour in between dives and eat sandwiches and cookies. Cookies, such as oreos, are an important factor that can not be overlooked.
The first dive is cool as we see 3-4 giant Manta rays, the largest one "Big Birtha" has a wing span of 16 feet. Whoa is right. They slowly glide through the ocean feeding on plankton. The wings flap like giant birds in slow motion. They have black tops and white underbellies. They somewhat resemble giant stingrays but they have 2 flanges that protrude out from the sides of their mouth and help funnel planton-rich water in. The wings are kinda pointy like a bat where a stingray is more like a round circle with a tail.
We also see a couple different types of eel, lots of tropical fish, shrimp, and coral. Our Dive Master, Keller, shoots us with an underwater video camera. One scene he orchestrates is for Betty to be eaten by his hand puppet shark and me to swim into the giant shark's mouth to save her. The hand puppet is next to the camera eye and we are in the distance, so it gives a great illusion of the simulated attack.
The 2nd dive is Betty's first night dive, but as Keller explains to us. Night diving is a lot like day diving, except it's… dark. And we will have dive lights so we can see in the… dark. Betty and I find his dry humor to be hysterical and the way he says it is just too funny. We take a couple pictures of the sunset and then get ready to explore into the great unknown.
And so our journey begins, (read with your best Jacque Cousteau voice) the wat-ter is a pitch black. De moon lights up de jet-ties extending from de airport and shimmers upon de ocean surface. As Betty straps her gear on and takes her plunge into the wa-ter, she is armed with only her suit and a dive light to protect her from de dark abyss. She joins up with me and we begin our decent. What mysteries lay ahead I do not know. Small planton dance in front of our lights like lit-tle circus performers. Keller, with his video camera and lights, leads us to de rest of de divers. Together we sit in an underwater circle and direct our light beams into the center. More plankton are attracted and soon the giant winged creatures will emerge from the dark. Ahh… they are here. These beautiful great winged creatures swoop above us with mouths open wide. They feast upon the tiny plankton sifting it from within our beams of light. It is a dazzling display of underwater acrobatics. Other large-eyed fish nibble at our lights for tasty morsels. 3 Manta ray glide inches from our heads as 1 performs somersaults between the snorklers above and the divers 40 ft below. They feast upon the plankton our lights have attracted. After taking in this magnificent spectacle, we swim to the adjacent darkness. Together we discover a variety of sea life. Eels feast on fish and strange underwater animals scour the ocean floor to prey on victims in their sleep. Keller captures 2 squid and a rare sea slug with his video camera. Our ascent is sad one as we must leave this amazing underwater paradise un-der de sea. Back on our ves-sel, we share our experiences with friends and reflect upon the sea life we have just witnessed mere inches below our feet (end Cousteau voice).
Back at the dive shop, Keller puts in the unedited video and we re-experience the adventure. Betty and I decide to buy this video to share with our family and as a memento of our great adventures under the sea.
On our long 2 ½ hr drive back, Betty takes a nap and I splash water on my face. The road is long, dark, and windy. Ears pop as we go up and down around the coastline. 2 or 3 other cars are all that pass us for the drive back to the cottage. I notice the car compass says north but I am not sure when I rounded the southern tip. I know the road I need to turn on is somewhere on the eastern side of the island about mid-way up. There are a few small towns with strange Hawaiian names and I am tempted to check the map, but I don't want to wake Betty up. Have I gone too far? I don't think so, but I imagine reaching the north side and having to turn back. Betty wakes up in time and reminds me we are staying in Pahala and I recall only passing one town starting with a "P" so I think we have more to go. And within a mile or two we reach Pahala. Our bed is close now.
The morning passes better as I remembered to pull what little shades we had and wear one of Betty's eye masks. It is still early but not 6am early. Today our adventure is to find the Black sand beach and the elusive Green sand beach. We head south from Pahala 10 minutes to the Black Sand Beach Nation Park. It is easy to find and we walk in the black pebbles. The "sand" ranges from rocks to pebbles and fine sand. It is rough on the feet but interesting to walk along. The coastline has larger rocks and in some pockets of water, sea turtles feast on algae. We count 4 in one little pool alcove and we take pictures from 4ft away. Betty sees 4 or so more in another area of the beach. We could reach out and touch them, but don't. They are protected animals and we do not want to intrude on them more than we already have. Seeing the sea turtles was an unexpected perk we had not known about. And Betty loves sea turtles so it was really exciting to see them. So many of them, and so close up.
After taking in the sights, we head to the southern most tip of the island to find the Green sand beach. Betty has researched enough to know we should have a jeep for this excursion.
At Kilometer marker 111 (69 miles), we find our turn off from highway 11 at 1:11 in the afternoon and we break to eat our packed lunches. The book says drive down to the fork in the road and veer to the left. I pass several spoons, but no fork, and then we find it. The road is a bumpy but paved 1-lane road. Once we reach the end of the road, we see the little parking area. One of the travel books says if we have 4 wheel drive, disregard the keep out sign and journey forth. This is off-roading at it's best and Betty is at the helm. She really enjoys it as we drive over some really rough terrain. The book says 2 ½ miles but the drive feels longer. Eventually we reach the top of the cliff with the Green sand beach below. We work our way down the cliff to the beach. There are only a couple of other people here. The sand is much finer and easy to walk on. We lay out our towels and soak up a few rays. When we are done, we climb back up the cliff to our jeep. Blocking my passenger side door are a dozen bees clamoring to get inside. We manage to battle them away and realize they were after the half empty diet Coke that Betty had left. Hawaiian bees love diet Coke because it has the great syrupy taste of Coke without all the calories. The terrain is not much easier heading back but Betty manages to conquer the treacherous landscape.
After our beach adventures, we make our way back to our little solar powered cottage in the hills and our friendly cat is back to give us attention. An outside shower carries the remains of the beaches away. And Betty captures a candid picture of me showering with a plant strategically placed in the foreground.
We wake up at 5:30am only to find out it wasn't early enough. When we get to the airport, we arrive 10 minutes before our flight time and miss our inter-island flight to Maui. We do however find another flight with a different airline, but it does cost us another $200. Guess those free breakfast coupons even it out but it is a shame we have another unneeded expense.
Once in Maui, we drive some windy roads on our way to our cottage. We drive along the famous "road to Hana" to reach our tiny little cottage off of mile marker 3. The cottage is small but quaint with tons of foliage around and a small coy pond in front of a little covered patio. We settle in and then go sight seeing.
We drive south to a winery and taste a couple wines. On our way back, we drive a slow windy road to the top of a 10,000 ft volcano. Some cows share the road with us and as we slow down to take the picture of one walking on the road, and as we get ready to snap the picture, it stops and turns to us and moo's. "We got moo'd"!!
The road winds up through the clouds and then above them. This is one of the most spectacular views we've seen. The lookout point is above the clouds and is surrounded by the white layer of clouds. Sunrises and sunsets are supposed to be really interesting because they rise and set into the ocean of clouds.
After surveying and documenting the area extensively with our camera, we start the 30-mile drive down. We pass more cows and a couple Nene. Nene are the Hawaiian state bird and they are a goose-like bird. Which leads me to my very own Nene joke and to my knowledge, the only one of it's kind. Why did the Nene cross the road? Because it wasn't chicken!
Back towards our little cottage we stop at a little Bar & Grill called the Stop Watch and had an Ahi sandwich and wings. This was the best sandwich ever as it had a spicy little au jus dipping sauce. The windy road back to the cottage is like an arcade game, but Betty reminds me, I only get 1 player. Armed with shades and eye masks, we climb into bed and prepare for the morning sunshine.
We start our day with an outdoor shower overlooking several banana trees and thick tropical plants. I can even see the ocean as I shampoo my hair. This is a nice fresh air way to wake up and the morning is a perfect 77°F. Betty cooks up some scrambled egg sandwiches with the Havarti I bought. We share some of our sour dough bread with the fish in the pond just a couple feet from our breakfast table on the front porch of the cottage.
After breakfast, we go exploring the nearby Twin Falls. After a long narrow walk over 1ft wide bridges and tree roots, we find a small waterfall, maybe 20ft tall. There are about 10 other tourists that have found there way here and some kids dive off from the top. On our hike back through the woods, we see another small trail and venture forth. Soon we intersect with a tour group and follow them to pick up free tidbits of information. We eventually end up at a better waterfall maybe 30-40 ft high cascading over a shallow cavern. The roof of which is made up of roots and looks like the underneath side of sod. Some more adventurous kids successfully jump off the top of this fall, but Betty and I pass. The previous day we had passed a couple emergency vehicles at the entrance probably tending to a less successful jumper.
Now it's time for Betty' favorite past-time, we head into town to go shopping. She quickly navigates with her internal radar to a Macy's. She finds a festive little Maui shirt, a sundress, and shorts. The weather is a warm 85° but the breezes are nice. We now head to the west side to see… what's on the west side.
We wind along the beach and it feels like we're driving on a giant post card. Each view could pass as one. We find a little tourist town and stop in at another internet café that allowed us to save some more pictures and videos to CD. In Hana, we find a tourist shop and we are able to get some little nick knacks for our friends and family. We picked up some groceries from an organic store along the way and I attempt to make pasta back at the cottage. The water never gets hot enough to boil with the portable cooking eye and the circuit breaker trips at one point, so the pasta comes out horrible. But I am well on my way to keeping my cooking responsibilities to a minimum.
We wake up and enjoy the outside shower once again overlooking the tropical forest and ocean in the distance. We pack our lunches and head out to Hana to go motorized hang gliding with Armond, our pilot. The road is an adventure but at least it's paved. Some areas are only wide enough for one car so we take turns with the oncoming traffic. Fortunately there is not much traffic. The road winds to the left, then right, then left again and at times the turns seem to turn nearly 180 degrees back around. After about 30 miles of the twisting road, we find the Hana airport, or rather I should say airstrip.
After landing his previous victim, Armond waves us over to his little canopy hanger. He greets us with a smile and is a friendly German always ending his sentences with "yah". Betty decides to go first and zips her flight suit. She climbs into the small 2-seater Ultralight "Trike" and straps on her helmet. Armond puts his pilot seat back between Betty's legs and climbs into the small craft. They taxi down the runway and in a blink they are up in the air. It used such a small portion of runway, I didn't have time to capture her lift off on video. Up in the clouds, she sees more waterfalls and beautiful coastline, eventually flying up to 4,000 ft and then something happens. Armond shuts off the engine and they start gliding down to the airstrip below. It falls at a 10:1 decent, which means it glides 10ft for every 1ft down. With the hum of the motor gone, its like skiing on powder. It's quiet and smooth with only the cool air blowing past you as you glide. Armond pushes left and right on the glider's crossbar to turn left and right and up and down. Going up slows the big kite to a near stand still, which is eerie.
Back down on planet earth, I entertain myself by filming small documentaries about the search parties, which have been sent out to find Betty in the Hawaiian Triangle. Then…I see them emerge from the skies. Betty & Armond coast in without the motor and almost makes it to the hangar (he was probably just trying to save on gas). He fires up the motor again to finish their way to the hangar where we change suits and switch places. My flight is similar to Betty's I get to fly the great bird. Reaching from behind Armond, I am allowed to grab the handle bars and turn left and right and the aircraft responds with a delayed slow left and right turn. Armond occasionally communicates with helicopters and airplanes in the area. At one point, I ask what that big white puffy thing is in front of us from my microphone headset. Armond looks around his instruments to see what I'm referring to… "oh… the cloud… yah… I was looking all over for a white thing yah" he laughed in his German accent. We fly over where they filmed the opening to Jurassic Park and George Harrison's house. At another point he asks if I want a preview of heaven to which I respond, what makes you think I'm going there? He laughs and says, "yah… me too… ha ha… at least we can see what it looks like". We continue having fun sailing through the sky.
After we land, Armond shows us where to find the nearby Red sand beach. It's only a short drive further. We park just up from a little hotel and explore the surrounding area for a path. We end up asking a local and she points us in the right direction across a field. Several little paths lead us up to high cliff. We can see the beach below, but can't find the way down to it. Eventually we try a different route and reach the beach. About a dozen other people have found this little paradise with us. The sand is made up of red and black rocks, some big, some as fine as sand. Evidently this is a clothing optional beach as a black man lets it all hang out. I take this casual atmosphere to change into my bathing suit partially behind a rock. The water of this high walled lagoon is cool and refreshing as Betty and I swim around. The ocean floor of the beach though has large rocks that we are careful not to stub our toes on.
Once we leave this hidden little beach, we take the restricted road back around the southeast side of Maui. Our car rental says driving this and a few other areas voids our contract, so that of course makes it all the more alluring. This road is windy as well and we capture lots of scenic views of the Oceanside. We eventually make it back to the cottage, shower up, then find our little bar & grill for another delicious Ahi meal.
The trip is coming to a close. We start with our last outdoor shower and pack up to begin our way back to the airport. It's been a great trip but our parents have refused to pick up our bills and send us money to stay here. Our flight isn't scheduled to leave until 9pm, which means we have 8 hours to kill. We find a nice resort and check out their art pieces and walk around their pool areas but it's too hot to stay outside for long. Ice cream seems like the only solution to beat the heat. We find a Cold Stone in a plaza and enjoy some cold ice cream concoctions. Nearby in the same plaza, we find Hilo Hatties, a touristy upscale gift store. We drove around some more and eventually returned our rental car and waited for our flight. Luckily we flew first class again so the flight didn't feel as long even with our 3hr layover in Salt Lake City.
Back at home, our house had been decorated by some friends. The theme was camping as power the back half of the house had been turned off. Streamers and balloons decorated the living room, and the kitchen table was set with festive tablecloth and paper plates with gummy bears on them. Our plates had been hidden and switched out for paper plates and silverware was now plastic ware. Fly paper had been strung up to trap camping flies and other small signs of affection were sprinkled throughout.
And then they lived happily ever after.