Oahu, Day Three: Giant Pineapple Maze!!!
On the last day of our Oahu excursion, we ate breakfast at the Hula Grill. Yummy mango oatmeal and sliced pineapple.
Our first stop was a short drive to the Iolani Palace, the only royal residence in the United State. We did the audio tour of the palace and got a lot of information on Hawaiian History and the demise of the Hawaiian monarchy. Probably the most interesting fact, is the palace had electricity before the White House or Buckingham Palace.
After the palace, we drove about thirty minutes to the Dole Plantation. The plantation was packed and it was sweltering hot. We ate lunch, pineapple chicken sandwich for me and then went through the pineapple garden maze. The giant hedge maze has six hidden stations that you need to find and get a stamp from. The maze is 1.7 miles long. It took us almost an hour of fast paced racing to complete it. We were sweating and exhausted and decided that we were not too interested in the other activities that the plantation had to offer. We cooled off with Dole Whips, the first that I have eaten outside of a Disney park. I took pictures of naturally growing pink pineapple. The store was huge and much shopping rounded out the Dole experience.
We had some time to kill before our flight, so we explored the Ala Moana shopping mall. A tour guide told us that this is the third largest mall in the United States. It was huge. However, like the rest of Waikiki, about ninety percent of the stores are a short walk from our home in Pasadena. I had Coffee Bean and was happy.
Our flight back was smooth. Overall, the Oahu portion of the vacation was a lot of fun. I would like to go back and see things that we didn't have time for. Three days was not enough, we barely left the Waikiki area for most of the trip.
Our first stop was a short drive to the Iolani Palace, the only royal residence in the United State. We did the audio tour of the palace and got a lot of information on Hawaiian History and the demise of the Hawaiian monarchy. Probably the most interesting fact, is the palace had electricity before the White House or Buckingham Palace.
After the palace, we drove about thirty minutes to the Dole Plantation. The plantation was packed and it was sweltering hot. We ate lunch, pineapple chicken sandwich for me and then went through the pineapple garden maze. The giant hedge maze has six hidden stations that you need to find and get a stamp from. The maze is 1.7 miles long. It took us almost an hour of fast paced racing to complete it. We were sweating and exhausted and decided that we were not too interested in the other activities that the plantation had to offer. We cooled off with Dole Whips, the first that I have eaten outside of a Disney park. I took pictures of naturally growing pink pineapple. The store was huge and much shopping rounded out the Dole experience.
We had some time to kill before our flight, so we explored the Ala Moana shopping mall. A tour guide told us that this is the third largest mall in the United States. It was huge. However, like the rest of Waikiki, about ninety percent of the stores are a short walk from our home in Pasadena. I had Coffee Bean and was happy.
Our flight back was smooth. Overall, the Oahu portion of the vacation was a lot of fun. I would like to go back and see things that we didn't have time for. Three days was not enough, we barely left the Waikiki area for most of the trip.