Heli Over Hilo

Today's grand adventure was a 50 minute helicopter ride. A first for Maddie, Daniel and me, and the first for Dana since he was a child. I'll tell you, the helicopter ride was pretty thrilling. I love the way it lifts up and settles down, rather than the way a plane takes off and lands. It's much more comfortable. We all wore headphones and had microphones with which to communicate with each other and with Joyce, our pilot (one of only two female helicopter pilots in Hawaii). While we didn't see any of the red flowing lava (which we might see as the ship passes the volcano tonight), we did see some amazing stuff - black, hardened lava where an entire subdivision used to be, toxic steam of water and sulphur, waterfalls, macadamia nut fields, our very own "Pride of America," and a pod of dolphins were the highlights. If the Internet connection decides to cooperate, I'll include several of the shots we took from the air, as well as a few of us on the ship this afternoon, where Maddie and Daniel quickly became ping pong champs, I won (decisively) the family game of Scrabble, and Maddie and I took a lei making class, where we got to create two beatiful orchid leis to wear for the rest of our trip. All in all, we had a great day on the wet side (Hilo) of the Big Island (also known as the Island of Hawaii).

As we started our day, we were greeted with a beautiful rainbow over Hilo and telephone service that enabled us to call Dad to wish him a very happy birthday. Now we head off to dinner, where we will toast him :) Happy Birthday, Dad.