Hawaii for Spring Break, Day 7

Oh! Groan and moan! Weep and sob! Today was our last day in Hawaii! Our last, last day!  And because it was our last, last day, we packed it full of really lots of fun activities, almost all of which were on the North Shore.  We were so happy that Brenda came with us for another great day, a day that made us want to stay longer or return quickly.  As we've got tickets home tomorrow, we will just have to come back.

We began with a stop at the Dole Pineapple Plantation, an actual working plantation where they grow pineapple, coffee, cocoa for chocolate, and various other things.  There is a 20 minute train ride that takes you out to view the plantation and gives you a history of pineapple cultivation in Hawaii and specifically at Dole.  There wasn't much going on because harvesting was recently completed and it takes a while for a pineapple tree to grow, so we saw a lot of empty fields.  But it was all fascinating, and who doesn't like a train ride?  We all enjoyed a Dole Whip, pineapple flavored soft ice cream, then went and wandered around the world's largest (in 2008 anyway) maze.  Blythe and Brenda went off in one direction, Brandt and Kent went off in another, and I tagged along, the odd guy out--not a boy and not wanted (by Blythe) with the girls.  It was certainly a good time.

These next four pictures were taken by Blythe who was desperate to have a turn with the camera.

 

A cheerful hula girl, and one happy and one not-so-happy plumeria.

  

Dole Whip

Yummy!!!!

 

Mazing

One very large snail

My friend, Marianne Davis, lives in Hawaii, and she is always posting beautiful/fun pictures of things she is doing with her kids.  She frequently goes stand up paddle boarding at a river by Rainbow Bridge in Haliewa.  It has looked like such a good time and I totally wanted to take the kids to do that.  So after the train/whip/maze, we headed to Rainbow Bridge.  We were fortunate to discover that there is a surf shop right next to the bridge that rents SUPs, and at the very reasonable price of $15/hour.  Such a deal!  We rented three, and had the kids each ride on one of the boards with an adult--Brandt with Kent, Blythe with Brenda then me.  

It was, as I imagined it would be, so much fun!  Doing SUP is tricky but possible, even for a novice, the river was calm, and although I had hoped to see turtles but didn't, we did see some fish.  We paddled and basked and I took pictures with the waterproof camera.  It was such a great stop.  Brenda said she absolutely wanted to return with Brent.

I kept the camera in my cleavage. 

Conveniently located with easy access.

Mary Atkinson recommended that we eat at a shrimp truck while up on the North Shore, and we found a large area of food trucks near Rainbow Bridge.  While the kids were not at all interested in shrimp and both ordered a hot dog neither of them ate, Kent, Brenda, and I all got shrimp.  Kent got coconut shrimp with a mango sauce, and Brenda and I both got very garlicky shrimp scampi.  Oh, how delicious it was!  Seriously.  I'm not joking about this.  It was so, so good.  A dozen shrimp were not enough.  Brenda and I smelled like garlic the rest of the day, but it was absolutely worth it.  Writing about it makes me want more.  Really a lot more.

Fortified with shrimp, we made our last shaved ice stop at the famous Matsumoto's.  The line was very long, but it's Matsumoto's, and we had to have shaved ice there in order to have the full Hawaiian experience.  It was cool and refreshing.

There was a longer line here than for our lunch.

raspberry lemonade

Yes, I stood in line in my swimsuit.  

I meant to put something else over it, but leapt out of the car to go secure a place in line.

One of the other things that Marianne has posted that looked super fun was swimming in a pool under a waterfall.  I discovered this was at Waimea Valley, and we made this our last stop of the day.  Waimae Valley is a real botanical garden with 5,000 different types of plants from all over the world.  They have markers so you know what they are, and are organized by region they come from.  There is a paved path you can follow through the gardens that ends at a beautiful waterfall.  

We had a wonderful hike in to the falls, where we all donned life jackets and got in the water.  It was colder than any water we'd been in in Hawaii, but once you got in and swam around a bit, it wasn't too bad.  We swam right up to the falls and all around the pool.  The children got out before we adults and then ran amok chasing the chickens and shrieking.  *side note: There are free-range chickens everywhere.  They just roam around, normally undisturbed the their human counterparts.  Normally.  I'm sure other people who were there were not thrilled with our children's behavior.  It was magical to be there, watching the falls, floating around, soaking in all the beauty around us.  

Brandt is sucking a plumeria blossom into his nose.

 

This is looking down the steps from where Brandt is standing above.

The children are up on the shore chasing chickens and making really a lot of noise.

We drove back along Kamehameha Highway in the direction of Laie, hoping to find Ted's bakery.  Dan Passmore told me they make fantastic chocolate macadamia nut pie.  We wanted to see big waves at Pipeline, too, and maybe watch the sun set at Sunset Beach.  We missed Ted's, there were no waves, and it was overcast, so the rest of the day's possible activities were a wash.  However, the day had been so fantastic, we couldn't really complain.  We stopped at McDonald's and got the children happy meals as they hadn't eaten super well all day, and talked as we drove home.  We did a bit of laundry when we got back, then packed and prepared for our very early departure in the morning.

This trip really was tremendous.  Brenda was so good to us; she drove us around, she fed us, she did our laundry and made beds and tidied up our room, just like a maid, she was attentive and patient to the children, making sure we were doing fun things with them.  She is truly the hostess with the mostess, always mindful of how to make our stay more comfortable and fun.  I wish she didn't have a house in Provo so we could host her occasionally.  We finish up feeling rested, rejuvenated, and really keen to come back.  We did so much, but there is so much we could still do.  Here's hoping we can convince Kent to go again, and Brenda to have us come stay again.

Hawaii, island paradise, and Brenda, kind soul, we shall miss you.  Until we meet again.