Hawaii: Day 3, Part 2

After our wild helicopter ride, our upset stomachs and dizzy cerebrums were crying for adventures that were of a tamer nature.  So we decided to go tour the chocolate factory.

Warner (who WILL marry someone I am related to) decided to come with us and be our native tour guide.

Nothing against our native tour guide, but we were somehow led to believe the chocolate factory was, well, cool.  It turned out it was more like a giant chocolate gift shop.  With an empty factory portion.

But they did have some yummy samples.  Chocolate macadamia nut shortbread?  Yes, please.

Word to the wise, don't try the lavender shortbread.

After the "factory" we tried to see the zoo in order to make all Kelly's dreams come true (she LOVES zoos), despite Warner claiming it was a waste of our time (they have a cross-eyed siberian tiger named Namaste!  I want to know his definition of waste of time.).

Unfortunately, the zoo had already closed.  But there were tons of roosters walking around which naturally turned into a rooster chase featuring Warner vs. Jen.

Final Score, Warner: 0  Jen: 0  Roosters: 1.

This is Adrienne watching the rooster chase.  Is she bored or still recovering from her helicopter sickness?  I'll let you decide.

But if there's one thing that cheers Adriennebaby up, it's a photo shoot.

Jeep II looked so good every where we went.  I often found myself taking more pictures of it than the scenic areas of Hawaii.  Oops.

Since the zoo was closed, Kelly's dreams were crushed.  So we decided to go to the ukulele store in order to make all her other dreams come true.

These are the ukuleles:

And this was a fascinating ukulele customer.  Fashion: grey fedora, gages, child size leather cowboy vest, gun holders sans guns, skinny jeans, studded belt, and a rat's tail.  I say H-O-T to that, but I'll let you decide.

Warner is a music prodigy and the ukulele is his specialty so he was there to help Kelly pick out a good one.

It turns out, all of Adrienne's secret dreams involved owning her own ukulele, so she bought one too.

In order to complete the band(wagon), Jen got one too.  By the time we left the store, I was the only one who did not own a ukulele. 

But I was the only one who got a picture of this.  Cooler than a ukulele?  I'll let you decide.

After the ukulele store, we went to a Walmart to make all Jen's dreams come true.  She still needed to turn in her grades online and needed a place with free wifi.

We spent a little time at Ross Dress For Less across the street, where Adrienne and I shopped and Kelly and Warner played with my camera:

We spent over TWO hours waiting at Walmart for poor Jen to finish turning in her grades.  Walmart is the last place you want to spend so much/any time at while on a once in a lifetime trip to paradise.  Walmart is the epitome of pure, generic, commercial boredom.  

Then again, maybe it wasn't.  I'll let you decide.

   

Hawaii: Day 3, Part 1

On Hawaii, Day 3, we (Kelly and Adrienne) picked Jen up at the airport at 6 am.  We spent the rest of the morning lounging around the house, partly because Jen and I were battling deadlines with a sketchy internet connection to turn in grades and a sacrament program, and partly because our time zone was catching up to us.  So now seems like a good time to introduce my second family and our home away from home.

We stayed in this home with the Lawson Family.  Honestly, I was more excited to visit my second family than I was to visit Hawaii.  I love them like my own.

The Lawson Family is a family of 8 kids.  The Kitchen Family is a family of 8 kids.  Both families start out with 4 girls, then a boy, then a girl (Lawsons end with 2 boys, Kitchens with 2 girls).  Both families are extremely close in age, moved around a lot when they were younger, are incredibly talented, intelligent, beautiful, etc. The Lawsons call their youngest girl Schmoo.  We call our youngest girl Smoody.  Weird, eh?  And (brace yourself) both families have moms with unusual names that start with V (Vanda and VaLois).

Speaking of Vanda, this is her.  (We both have blinking problems in our families.)

This is Dalan, or Dal Pal.

This is Warner, or Master Ninja.

This is artwork done by Ron(the dad).

This is the boys' room.

This is the hallway.

This is the magical unicorn poster in the hallway that you can gain special powers from.

And this is the "treehouse" room where we stayed.

The lovely mural was done by my lovely bff, Miriam (she's my 4th child soulmate).  Here's a picture of Miriam and Camilla (the Ashley and Kelly of the Lawson family).  They were not in Hawaii, but they are just so cute, I have to show them off.

The floor of the treehouse room was made of thin wooden boards with one or two holes in it that you could pass notes through from the room below.  The room below was the "ballroom."

This room doubles as a dance hall, a gym, a movie theatre, a billiards room, and a game room.

As we came to find out, we were not staying at a house.  We were staying at a party palace and I loved it.  And I love this family.  I miss them.

Anyway, back to Day 3.  When we were done lounging around we decided since we didn't have anything else to do, we'd go on a helicopter ride.

We called the airport and it turns out they had an opening if we could get there in 30 minutes. 

We definitely got there and we were fully trained in helicopter safety and fully informed of the entire history of the Big Island volcanoes all in a matter of 15 minutes.

We also had to weigh ourselves like luggage.

"Oh Jenny, I see you've been eating on the way over." -Jen, interpreting the thoughts of the helicopter company employee

This is us as we were walking closer and closer to the launching pad.

This is me getting buckled in.

This is all of us (including our pilot, Joyce, the first woman helicopter pilot on the island) ready for take off.

And this, this is take off.

If I had gone all my life never flying in a helicopter, I would have cried.
It was surreal. 

We flew over neighborhoods and jungles and macadamia nut farms.  Do you know that it takes a machine 300 lbs per square unit of pressure to crack a macadamia shell and yet it has to be delicate enough that it does not crush the nut?

Then we flew along the coast for awhile.  Sometimes, we were told, you could see lava dripping into the sea, but not today.

Then we flew over the lava fields.  The light lava is pahoehoe, smooth as a pan of brownies.  The dark lava is a'a, it's so sharp and jagged, it could crush your soul.

Most of the time the lava flows over the land.  Sometimes it flows around it, leaving thriving green patches. 

And within those patches, are things like this: a bed and breakfast that can only be accessed by helicopter.

But why build a home on a patch of green, when you can just build it directly on the lava?  I have one word for these people: ca-razy.

Do you want to know something else that is ca-razy?  My hair.

Do you want to know something else that is ca-razy? Volcanoes.

I felt so small and insignificant.

At first, there was only one little pocket of lava.

But it quickly burst out into more and more, you could hear the bubbling and powerful sprays and the heat from the lava came through the window and turned our copter into a sauna.

The volcano was erupting so much, Joyce was just as excited as we were and spent well over our time limit circling the crater.  She said we got a very rare show.

"Thank you, Madame Pele!" ~Joyce, the pilot

*Pele is the Hawaiian goddess of fire, the Big Island is her home

We finally left after it got too smoky to see much more of the show.

We spent so much time at the volcano, we only had time to hover over the scenic waterfalls for a few minutes.

But, wow, what a hover.

This was about the time Adrienne was feeling a little queasy and grabbing for her barf bag.

We finally circled back around to the Hilo Airport in our hilo-copter.

One of the coolest parts about the flight, was landing side-ways!

And that concludes our Big Island flight for Day 3.  Hang loose, and always remember to wear your safety fanny pack.

This was a novel of a post, and it was only half the day!  I will post Part 2 soon!