Dole Plantation - Thumbs Up or Down?

 I read mixed reviews about the Dole Plantation. Some said it was a tourist trap, which I would agree with. A gigantic store stocked with every kind of pineapple item, including some dubious items, was the first thing I saw upon arrival. Some people raved about the ice cream, “Best I’ve ever tasted,” crowed one aficionado. (It wasn’t. Way too sweet.)

 

But the train tour past pineapple fields with orange/rust soil from the iron/volcanic ash and the plethora of unusual plants made it all worthwhile. I don’t have a car, and the plantation was 25 miles away, but Uber was affordable. Rush hour turned the the 45 minute trip into more than an hour, but it was interesting to see the island.

I even got to see some tiny pineapples growing from the center of the plants.  

Thumbs up for research for Book 4 - HAWAII.

Mai Tai at Sunset

 I think this might be a thing as several good friends mentioned it. So here it is!

Not Hiking Diamond Head

 

I knew I wasn’t going to hike Diamond Head as there were no reservations available along with the fact that it's too steep, has too many stairs, and is generally tricky. But I wanted to see it anyway. Fortunately, one of the reservation checkers was tremendously kind and let me pass by her to the tiny visitor’s center. Thank you, Faaituti!

The visitor’s center had passport stamps, so I got one to  add to my collection. 

 

Diamond Head Crater in the distance.

 Some information:

Entrance to Diamond Head is through a long tunnel. On the left, welded-wire fabric reinforces the hillside.

Views of surrounding Oahu.

Feet in the Pacific

After breakfast, I headed for the beach. It was early, so it wasn’t crowded. There are numerous places to snack and drink, so you’re never from something tempting. 

 

The beach was very clean, and the sand was coarser - but still softer - than what I’m used to. The water is the clearest, cleanest I’ve ever seen

Where do all these prints lead? To the Pacific??

Lots of beautiful plants everywhere on the property. I'll have to use my phone to label them.

I believe this is lauhala. The leaves are used for weaving. I recognize the "walking roots" from my research for Book 4: HAWAII.

Arriving in Honolulu and Hale Koa Hotel

We arrived in Hawaii an hour early. I checked in and and headed for the pool. There's two - one for adults and a children's pool, which looks interesting with a pirate icon near it. (I didn't investigate.) 

 

Hale Koa is a beautiful resort with all the amenities of a military base including an Exchange for food, shopping, and many restaurants. It has frontage on the beach, which I could see from my balcony.

Adult pool

This was a very interesting tree - don't know the name of it yet. Anybody else know?

View from the balcony. I love those angry clouds!

PS - I'm using a new laptop, and it is not communicating well at all with Blogger. (Won't correct spelling and won't add photos in the usual way.) So each post is taking a huge amount of time, may be wonky and may be filled with spelling errors. My apologies. I'll have to fix it when I get home.  (It worked fine at home using a screen, but it's not working well at all just using the laptop.) No time to call Apple, so I'll persevere. Hopefully, it will get better as I use it. 

Thank you for traveling with me!