Colorado Cruiser: Clay & Nannette's 25th Annniversary trip to Hawaii Part 3

Monday morning I awoke on the lanai of our room to the sound of waves, birds, and wind in the palm trees. Nature makes a great alarm clock. Kyle and Kadi were already half awake which is a miracle because it was only 7:00 am.

We chatted for a bit then started cooking breakfast. I fixed omelettes for the 3 of us, then my brother Mike woke up and had a mauna pua (think big blob of bread with meat cooked into the middle). We checked email, browsed a bit on the web, and generally had a relaxing morning.

By 9:00 we started trying to figure out what to do with ourselves. Kadi remembered that Nan had mentioned para sailing, so we called around to find out the prices. The company we found was Alien Para Sail and they said they had the exclusive rights to para sailing on the big island. They could fit us in at 12:00 for a price of $56 each.

We fought our way to downtown Kailua and finally managed to park the minivan behind the strip mall. Then they started listing all of the options for various heights and options, and by the end of it we had decided to all go to the medium height and to buy the pictures the guy takes with a nice zoom camera.

We walked over to the docs and waited for the boat. When we boarded, the captain said that he was fine letting anyone fly with anyone else, so Nan decided to go up with Kyle, and I would go up with Kadi. Mike decided to ride with his wife Sheryl because he had no one else to go up with.

We rode the boat about about 2 miles, then they put the boat idling forward and untied the parachute. When they held it up, the wind caught it and WHAM it inflated and jolted the boat around a bit. It was kind of neat to watch it go up.

Kadi and I were first, so we strapped on life vests and harnesses, then carefully went up on the back deck where they 1st mate had us sit down and snapped us onto the parachute.

The captain gunned the boat and they pulled a pin out. We rose gently from the deck and floated out over the wake of the boat. Within seconds we were far enough away that the sound of the motor died away and we were suspended in a peaceful breeze with the beach, the waves, and the sparsley clouded sky all around us. I really wish we'd had the brains to buy a waterproof disposable camera to take a few pictures. It was a breath taking view, and well worth every cent we paid.

They took us down the coast past our hotel.

After a few minutes the 1st mate started flapping his arms which we had been told was his signal to ask if we wanted to spend yet more money and let out an additional 400 feet of line. Kadi was game, so we flapped back and up we went. You don't go 400 feet higher, but it was pretty noticable that we went up quite a bit more. Now the boat looks like a tiny dot, and the waves of the ocean just look like small ripples.

We could easily see the Island of Maui off to the North West of us, and we could see many boats and allot of the coast line.

After a while, the boat slowed and stopped and we began to drift down toward the water. It was very slow and gentle, not scary at all. We watched the waves get bigger and the ground get closer until we were about 30 foot off the water, then the boat gunned and we took off up into the air again.

They turned the boat around with us dragging behind and slowly started to winch us in. The harness I was in had started to pinch and chaffe a bit, so I was ready to go down.

They brought us to about 100 feet and had us wave and smile for cameras. Then we grabbed ahold of the bar above us and they winched us right onto the deck standing up. It was so simple and easy that I was kind of suprised.

They unbuckled us and we made our way to the front of the boat while they hooked up Mike and Sheryl.

We took alot of photos and some videos of the rest of the ride, but other than no one else flapping to go higher, they all had a similar ride and loved it.

After we got done parasailing, they started the offers for shirts and other things. Kyle and I both got crew shirts (just like what the captain and 1st mate wore). They really are nice shirt that kept the sun off but weren't hot.

We decided to go to Sam's club to do some shopping and to get a cheap lunch. You all know Sam's hot dogs and pizza. Mike found a pair of florescent orange shoes that he had to have, and we bought more food to eat back at the hotel room

After lunch we headed North for a nice beach. It's about a 30 mile drive up the coast. The waves weren't very large and the beach wasn't too crowded. We played, swam, body surfed, and generally enjoyed ourselves for about 2 hours, then headed back to town. It was getting dark by the time we gassed the van up and unloaded all the food.

Some of us went for a swim in the pool and a soak in the hot tub. We all decided we didn't need to go out for dinner, and just made something in the room.

Kyle and Kadi waking after their first night in Hawaii