A room with a view…
How often does this come true?

It did, for us. We were in Waikiki, staying at the Hawaii Prince Hotel; lucky enough to get a room on the 8th floor with a view of the ocean. I woke up to a lovely morning, warm and sunny; a perfect day for the beach. Very soon, all my hopes were dashed by the rain which caught me by surprise. There goes my perfect day, i thought to myself and started sulking. I had been warned of these spells of rain which could dampen spirits and everything around.

But what i saw after five minutes made me go wide-eye and drop-jaw. The sun creeped out of the clouds slowly to unveil the most brilliant rainbow i had ever seen this close. The rain had stopped, making me wonder if the only reason for its existence was to let the sun paint this exotic rainbow. One end of this rainbow was on a boat docked in the marina, so is that where my pot of gold would have been?

“Somewhere over the rainbow,
skies are blue,
and the dreams that you dare to dream,
really do come true”

For the scientific minds, a rainbow is an optical phenomenon that causes a continuous spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the sun’s light passes through droplets of moisture in the Earth’s atmosphere. Due to refraction inside the water droplet, the white light is broken down into the seven dominant colors that form the rainbow. It takes the form of a multi-colored arc, with red on the outside and violet on the inside.

I zoomed out and what do i see? A second rainbow, but not as bright as the first one. Look carefully around the outer rim of the brighter rainbow. A double or secondary rainbow is a second, fainter, arc seen outside the primary bow. Secondary rainbows are caused by a double reflection of sunlight inside the raindrops, and as a result, the colors of a secondary rainbow are inverted compared to the primary bow, with blue on the outside and red on the inside.

“Don’t miss all the beautiful colors of the rainbow
looking for that pot of gold.”

The rainbow effect can be observed whenever there are water drops in the air and sunlight shining from behind the observer at a low altitude or angle. The rainbow effect is also commonly seen near waterfalls or fountains. Rainbow fringes can sometimes be seen at the edges of backlit clouds and as vertical bands in distant rain. The effect can also be artificially created by dispersing water droplets into the air during a sunny day.

In my dream
I went to the end of the rainbow
and the treasure i found there
was you.

A rainbow does not actually exist at a location in the sky, but rather is an optical phenomenon whose apparent position depends on the observer’s location. All raindrops refract and reflect the sunlight in the same way, but only the light from some raindrops reaches the observer’s eye. These raindrops are perceived to constitute the rainbow by that observer. The position of a rainbow in the sky is always in the opposite direction of the Sun with respect to the observer, and the interior is always slightly brighter than the exterior.

Observe this picture carefully. This was taken 5 minutes after i took the first one. The sun came out from behind the clouds and the end of the rainbow moved farther away, this time to the center of the ocean.

Do you believe there is a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow?

If I could catch a rainbow
I would do it just for you
and share with you its beauty
On the days you’re feeling blue

We got tired of seeing rainbows so often in Hawaii. Rains on the leeward side of the island last only for 5-10 minutes and produce beautiful rainbows which too unfortunately last only 5-10 mins. I will explain the rain patterns of Hawaii in a different post.

P.S: To the person who was in the pool when i was taking these pictures: I did not get a chance to get your email address, but if you are still interested in the rainbow pictures, feel free to download them from here 🙂

Air hugs and air kisses to everyone. Have a colorful week y’all 🙂
Adios

Last night I dreamt a rainbow,
I ran towards it like a child.
I paced and raced in it’s direction,
Oh, how long and hard I tried.

Standing up from the tree stump,
without a whimper or a groan,
I let a tear fall from my eyes
and made a rainbow of my own

-2much2love
My Rainbow