Actually, part of that photo album is still Day 2, as they include pics of us leaving Honolulu (the ones with Diamond Head).
Anyway, breakfast on Day 3 consisted of just coffee, on my balcony. I was a tad worried that I'd have trouble making weight for my helicopter ride, since I'd be dressed (not just out of the shower, which is how I weighed myself at home....how's THAT for a mental picture?
) and carrying stuff (including my camera). I'd rented a car, since I had no formal shore excursions planned, and took off in my Mustang convertible for the northern part of Kauai. While I found Oahu to be "pretty," the same could not be said for Kauai....it was absolutely GORGEOUS! The coast road took me past quaint towns like Kapa'a and Wailua, and led me to Princeville, Kailua, and one of the most beautiful spots in the world, Hanalei. The beach was beautiful, the bay crystal clear, the town charming. I drove to "the end of the road"...which really could be called the end of the earth. "Quiet" isn't a specific enough word for it...it's just eerie. At least until the next car arrives. The road was small and twisty, with lots of one-lane bridges as it goes past waterfalls and gorgeous mountains. But unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to really appreciate it, since I had to be back in Lihue to catch a helicopter ride...
Back in Lihue, I arrived at Blue Hawaiian helicopters, a storefront in a mall not far from Nawiliwili Harbor (where we were docked). They weighed me (and I was under!), and shuttled us over to the airport. At this point, I was starting to feel a little stressed...I am deathly afraid of heights, after all. Then they announced the seat assignments for the six passengers they were taking up....and I found out I'd have the best seat on the bird: the front window seat (there was one young lady, on her honeymoon, sitting between me and the pilot...her new husband was relegated to the back seat, which they have to assign based on weight). The problem was that the window went from over my head all the way down to below my feet! Now the panic started to set in, but I said to myself, "I can do this....I can do this...."
Once the copter took off, though, I started saying something else: "Oh...my...God. Oh...my....God." Over and over. and Over. And over. And it wasn't because I was scared, it was because of what I was seeing. The mountains look so different from the air...and the sea...and the cute towns...and then Waimea Canyon, the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. Wow. Then up the Napali coast, where there are no roads (I even saw the "end of the road" where I had been a couple of hours earlier). The cliffs were just awesome, in the exact sense of that word; they looked like green origami rather than rocks. Then a quick jaunt over Hanalei (again, so different from the air!) and then into the wettest place on earth. It always rains there, and the result is that all that rain has to go somewhere, so there are waterfalls EVERYWHERE. I lost count...a veritable plethora of waterfalls...the pix I took just didn't do it justice, believe me.
And then it was over...all too soon. Back to the airport, back to my car, and off to look over the southern half of the island. And just when I thought I'd seen enough beauty, I came across Koloa (where I spotted a restaurant and had some fried fish...but not just any fried fish, it was mahi mahi, and it was spectacular) and Poipu. And after walking the beach for a while, I realized I had to get back to the ship, since we were sailing at 6 PM again....my day in a true paradise was cut short, and over way too soon.
Back on the ship, I relaxed for a few minutes, then went to dinner. Just me and Joanne again; no sign of our other tablemates. Yet again, we discussed our days as we munched (a steak and baked potato, followed by my first real dessert in months: chocolate lava cake and vanilla ice cream; I have never tasted anything soooooooo good, which would have been true even if it was made of chocolate sawdust), then I hit the casino for an hour before landing in the poker room and playing a tournament (I lost on a bad beat on the FIRST DAMN HAND; I went all in with the best hand, a pair of queens, and the guy who called caught an ace on the river!) and a cash game ($1/$2 no limit...I kicked butt on that one!), then went to bed. Thus endeth the third day, and I could have died a happy man right then. Luckily, I have a DVD of the helicopter flight to remind me of what I saw, to remind me of what I now believe is the most beautiful place on earth.
Tomorrow: GRITS, Madame Pele, and Flipper
