Kauai. Land of unspoiled wonder and diversity. Our island hop in Hawaii. Adventures. Many memories. Some better than others.
Where to start: My brother Dan and his new wife happened to be vacationing on their honeymoon same time as us. Well, we kind of all planned it that way. And as per recommendation of our friends, Joe & Liz, we had to do an open-door helicopter ride. Liz has since been quoted saying, ‘I would never do it again because I have kids now and what if . . . ‘ and now here we are the Borelli’s, signed up for this adventure that they would never do again, and we have kids! Thanks Liz!
OK, so we charter our 2 hour journey via Inter-Island Helicopter tours with water fall lunch. $710 in the hole; this better be good. Little did I know at the time, that this was going to be one of the top things I have ever done in my life.
Like my brother, I’ve alway had a pretty strong sense of adventure. I screamed probably for the first two minutes and then realized, I’ve got to shut up and start shooting. I must tell you, you can try to lean out the helicopter to take pictures, but the force of wind is so strong, I swear it almost pushed my D300 through my skull.
I will go picture by picture and explain what we saw, oh, and what we did.

Our trustworthy helicopter pilot.

Self portrait of a helicopter passenger.

Portrait of a white-knuckled helicopter passenger

Waterfall in Waimea Canyon, also known as the little Grand Canyon.

Next beautiful water pictures are from the Na’Pali coastline. The very dangerous coastline. No swimming allowed due to treacherous rip currents and waves.





This is Princeville, where the important people or celebs hangout.


This is a pretty cool thing and I don’t know if it was an extra perk because we bought the 2 hour tour, but we landed on the inside of a volcano. This is one of the volcanic walls.

OK, we had stopped for lunch at this point. Moss grows out of a still log and not a rolling stone.

OK, here’s where our adventure turns into a new adventure. This is my agile brother Dan, boarding a volcanic rock, in preparation for the dual man jump into the 12ft. deep water. The 2nd man was to be my husband Rich. Rich didn’t make it. He tried the same agile maneuver, his foot slipped, and his middle finger broke his fall on this very same rock. MMMMMM, not so pretty!

This is a picture of the waterfall that distracted me while everyone else tended to Rich. I can handle anything trauma oriented. Heck I watch Discovery Health while eating dinner. The one thing I can’t stomach is the site of broken bones, hence why I am taking pictures of this waterfall. Inside, I was freaking out. So off, we went. Our pilot decided he was going to airlift us to Waimea hospital. What a super-great guy!

He radioed in his ‘buddies’ with the FD and they were there to greet Rich.

So, was the very expensive ambulance who literally drove us 200ft. and charged us $595!!!!

Dan and Megan leaving to go back to the airfield so they can get the car to come pick us up.

The look says it all. I was cracking up peeing in my pants!!!

Rich retorted.
Blah. Yuck. The doctor had to pop that baby back in to place. I had to leave the room. I volunteered.
For the rest of the trip, my gimpy fingered Rich, had to wear a splint, and was on very limited activities. I was sad that he couldn’t experience the other two awesome adventures I went on. But I must say this, this made for a good story. Thanks for the memory, hun!
S-