Day 2 in Hawaii

We went on a heliocopter tour of Kauai today. Absolutely amazing - there's simply no good enough adjectives. Incredible views of the canyons, waterfalls, knife-edge ridges, and sheer cliffs of the island. We flew up the same valley that they fly up in a chopper in Jurrasic Park, as well as seeing spots famous from other stuff including Gilligan's Island and Six Days Seven Nights.

The pilot happened to mention that there was a sucessful missile intercept test yesterday, and this now makes yesterday's observations make sense. The first trail I saw was the practice missile being launched from the range on the island; the second was the ship-launched interceptor, whose trail drifted into sight a while later.

I got to go snorkeling quite a bit today - the ocean is around 80° F and some beaches have rocks to break up the 8-foot waves. I saw a number of fish around the rocks, but these ones, saddle wrasses, are my favorites: