Hawaii - Day Six

Another cloudy but warm day in Hawaii when we woke up Wednesday morning. But we had planned a drive to the North Shore, anyway, so the clouds didn't matter. Our first stop along the way was the Dole plantation. We learned how to pick out the perfect pineapple. (It should have no smell, the "eyes" should all be the same size, it shouldn't be soft, and color doesn't matter.) We also learned how to take the top of the pineapple and start your own pineapple plant at home. Somehow, I just don't think it would taste the same as a Hawaiian grown one.

This is what pineapple plants look like.

In the Dole Plant there was a guy making picture-letter names, so we got some for each of the kids.

After the pineapples we went on to the North Shore. We stopped at Hale'iwa Beach and watched some surfers.

It was very windy that day, but still not cold.

(I could get used that that not-cold part, real fast!)

The waves along the North Shore only got to be about 10-12 feet high. Sometimes they can get as high as 30 feet!!!

A local told us to hunt down Giovanni's Shrimp Truck because they made the best shrimp ever! We found it and had some. It was fine, but not the best ever, sorry.

We drove past the Polynesian Cultural Centre on our way back to where we were the day before. Being so windy out we decided to stop at the Blowhole one more time to see if we could see anything, and we weren't disappointed!

Then we went on to Hanauma Bay.

The waves were pretty big until they crashed on the coral reef, then the whole bay was very calm.

Calm, but the wind stirred up the water so it wasn't very clear. They said it was the worst day for snorkeling there in 5 years! But you come that far, you gotta go, anyway.

So we did, but not for very long.

We'll have to go back again on a nice calm sunny day and do it again.

(Oh, if you insist! :-)

For supper that night we went to the Cheesecake Factory.

We had a very unique salad called a Luau Salad that had all kinds of fun stuff in it.