Once we got home, we washed the sand off and examined our finds.
After collecting our sea glass and getting soaked by the incoming tide, we headed up north to the Dole Plantation.
First we took the pineapple express ride that gave us the history of how the pineapple came to Hawaii and how it is grown. Did you know that it takes 20 months to grow a pineapple and then another 15 before you get a second one.
This building is the "marketplace". Lots of souviners to be had, cafes, and pineapple cutting demonstration. I tried a pineapple smoothie. Refreshing. After cooling off inside and making some purchases we headed back outside to walk through the gardens. Beautiful. Need I say more. They have an extensive hibiscus garden, I think I got pictures of every variety. Here are a couple of my favorites.
This is one variety of pineapple that they grow.
Another unusual site was this tree bark, or lack thereof, but check out the unusual colors on this tree. I couldn't find a tag that identified what type of tree this is but isn't it funky?
Check out this waterfall and the water lilies. Another one of my favorites.
Once we left Dole Plantation we headed on to the North Shore, stopping at the North Shore Market Place in Haleiwa and had lunch at a Mexican Restaurant. Once we ate, Jeff enjoyed some leisure time sitting outside, people watching while I visited a couple art galleries and a little boutique where I purchased a sarong. We then headed on down the road and stopped at a beach that wasn't too crowded, cooled off and enjoyed the sun for a while. We then packed up and headed back to Kate's and arrived just minutes before she got home from work.
We hung out, relaxing, Kate made some yummy guacomole and we watched The Big Bang Theory. We kept on eye on the sky, as it was looking like rain, trying to decide if we should go to another of Kate's favorite beaches to watch the sun set. We decided to go even if it rained it would be fun to go check out the activities. It did start to pour while we were waiting for the sun to set, fortunately we were under shelter at a Tiki Bar. Some of the customers there were not as fortunate as us and the rain poured off the umbrellas right onto their plates of food and them. Unfortunately, we did not get to see the sun set due to the heavy cloud cover. That's alright as we enjoyed the hotel's next door rendition of a luau. It was a nice walk too. It was an enjoyable evening. We came back home and began to watch Casablanca. I say "began to" as I fell asleep before Ilsa showed up at Rick's gin joint and woke up when Jeff said we needed to go to bed as Kate had to get up early to go to work. I don't really know what time that was but I didn't miss a wink making the transition from couch to bed.
Remember the couple getting wedding photos taken I mentioned in yesterday's post. Aren't they adorable?
Today, we are still discussing our plans. We might go hike the trail at Diamond Head, Kate says there are lots of flora and fauna to snap pictures of or we might go to Waikiki and check out all the "touristy" type things. I will let you know later which we decided on. (Or it could be something totally different.)
Have a great day and Aloha.
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