I don't know, but I bet it sounds like coughing up a hairball. I think there will be one more vacation post after this and that'll run the well dry. I'm sure you're all Over It anyway, but it'll be good archive material for the YP when he goes into therapy.
Thursday we got up early and drove around the southern chunk of the island, stopping at South Point -- the creatively named southernmost point of the United States.
The YP never did quite figure out the difference between "hang loose" and rooting for Texas.
Probably the only time NYAB can honestly say he's got the whole country behind him.
South Point was also interesting because it was so windy. Trees grow sideways. There are wild horses who have taken up residence in abandoned buildings. There's a dead wind farm, replaced by a live one farther down the same hill. It's worth the drive for what you might see. We continued around the island and back on to Hilo, where we had a reservation for ... a doors-off helicopter tour.
Well, I got my closer look, but the lava had all gone underground.
What do you see when you look into a volcano? Not much besides steam.
The dead lava was pretty cool to see, though. When you are that far above the ground, you get a much better picture of what's happening with lava flow and how the island is growing as the lava runs down into the sea and cools and turns into more land mass. The fun part is watching it get to the water, though.
Apparently someone still lives in this house, above, though his driveway, below, is blocked by lava, his back yard is all black rock -- and apparently his house is only still standing because one lava flow piled up high enough to block all subsequent ones so they flowed around his house instead of over it. I mean, really. How do you insure for that? The guy can't even drive anywhere. He has to hike in and out to get groceries and all his water comes from a rain barrel.Maaaan.
YP absolutely loved this escapade. He sat up next to the pilot and used the walkie talkie like a pro and just sailed right through it like he'd spent his whole life previous in a helicopter.
(Stupid zoom lens. Next time I will take two cameras with two neckstraps. One with a zoom and one with a regular lens for stuff Right In Your Face.)
What I forgot is that NYAB has a little thing about heights. (Bad wife, no jewelry!) A little thing so huge that he refuses to get on Ferris Wheels. So the idea of puttering around in the airborne equivalent of a Jeep was ... well, he faced a fear. I, of course, completely forgot about it and couldn't figure out why, when we were about 10 feet off the ground, he was hanging for dear life to the strap you use to pull yourself into your seat with one hand and holding my hand in a death grip with the other. I tried to pull away so I could use my camera, and he gives me this look and tells me, microphone off, teeth clenched, "I. Can't. Let. Go. Of. This. Strap." Ohhh, damn.
He must have lightened up though, because he managed to ask some questions of the pilot that weren't related to falling out of the machine or whether the diminished atmosphere messes with one's head. Maybe it was the view of the waterfalls that did it.
After the tour, we drove back to the hotel and stopped at several pretty spots to look at the water and take pictures and let NYAB exhale again that THERE WERE NO DOORS.
Home, bed, etc. It was New Year's Eve, and we were all sound asleep by 10 p.m. We celebrated on East Coast time.
Next morning we got up early, even for our maladjusted selves, and trotted on down to the beach, where I belatedly learned that whale watches in Hawaii are not at all like whale watches in California. For one thing, you are on a catamaran and there's not a whiff of diesel fuel, nor seasickness. For another, it isn't windy and so cold you need a parka, it's balmy and hot and you need sunscreen.
And, the boat drivers are unlicensed.
AND, you actually get to see more than one fin of one whale.
Please imagine here that there is another photo, a really great photo of a humpback whale actually breaching. There was a showoff young whale following our boat -- he somehow wound up named Henry and the YP instantly claimed him as a member of our family with our surname -- and he was really putting on a show for us. So I am 96 percent sure I got a shot of at least half of him out of the water, but when we got the waterproof camera offerings back from CVS, there were several shots missing and in their place were several other shots of some old man I'd never seen before in my life. He didn't look too healthy, either, so I hope those weren't some poor soul's last pix of Granddad before he shuffled off the mortal coil. Yet another reason to go all-digital, all the time, and spring for the gizmos to waterproof your equipment. Sigh.
(Of course, it has occurred to me that my "missing" shots might be included in the negatives, but I never remember that when the negatives are within a 30-mile radius. Maybe someday.)
After the whale watch, we saw some sea turtles back on the beach.
Then we drove a little more around the island and had a pretty relaxed day. We thought about attempting snorkeling since the kid seemed to be over his beach woes and at ease in the water, but the lady at the sports stand told us it was too cloudy and windy and "Oh, the visibility is just zero, I'd feel like I was robbing you if I rented you equipment." So .... yeah. Maybe next time.
Next entry will focus on our last two days, which were spent back in Oahu. Pearl Harbor and body surfing!
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