One Long Sweet Song!

I was right. We both crashed hard last night. We slept great. We were too exhausted not to. We casually got up this morning and left about 9:15 for the Dole Plantation.
The drive wasn't too bad. The Dole Plantation was a lot of fun. We started with the maze. This is the largest maze in the world. They time you. You have to go to 8 check points. It was fun. I guided most of it while Aaron watched the map so he didn't feel lost. It took us 49 min. to complete the whole maze. Record times were 5-8 min. We decided we just wanted to enjoy it, and we did.
After the maze we enjoyed lunch. I had the Kalua Pork and Aaron had Teriyaki Chicken. It was good. Flowers came with the meal so Aaron put them in my hair. While we were eating we saw a lady get "attacked" by a bird. We decided the bird was probably injured. The lady freaked out. It was funny to watch.
After lunch we walked around a bit and found out some interesting facts about pineapple. A pineapple takes 18 months to be grown. Then the plant will only grow 2 more pineapples. The whole process has to be done by hand. It is quite the process.
After watching some fish be fed, we went on a garden tour. That was fun too. We listened to devices that told us about lei's, hibiscus flowers, plemaria flowers, gum trees, and so much more. Those 4 items were my favorite though. The tour took us about an hour. The title of this blog was a saying Jim Dole said about the pineapple growing business in Hawaii. Pineapple tastes so FABULOUS here. It had sprinkled a bit during the day but it was still warm. We got a Pineapple Dole Whip; Pineapple ice cream with pineapple as a topping. YUM YUM YUM!!! My mouth hurt but it sure was great. We really enjoyed the plantation.
We tried to find the Kawela Bay because Aaron wanted to find something off the beaten path. We tried to park at Turtle Bay Resort but couldn't so we drove back a few miles. After parking we walked in sand and rocks a little more than a mile back up shore to get to the Kawela Bay. We found it but it was a long ways. We put our blankets under a coconut tree (we found coconuts all over the ground)and went snorkeling. We have practiced snorkeling for about a year and finally got to snorkel in the ocean. It was disappointing. It was murky and we couldn't see anything. You could see more in Sand Hollow Reservoir than you could at this bay. We snorkeled for a little while and then decided to leave. On the way back Aaron walked next to the water and was fascinated by the fish and hermit crabs. I told him to take one and put it in our water bottle but he said he's had enough crab water for a lifetime. (You have to know what happened on our 7th anniversary trip to get that.) Some fish got scared and would jump from pool to pool. It was fun to see. There were also tons of crabs running everywhere on the sand. (Aaron forgot the camera so there aren't any pictures of this stuff) We walked forever and were frustrated with the snorkeling but we still had fun. Kawela Bay was not a total bust.
We decided to drive around the island the long way and see a few things. We saw the temple (which is closed until next Tuesday), and Laie Point. That was cool. The water had large waves. I've never seen them so big. Plus they would crash up against the rocks and spray. You could look down the island and see the mountain range. It was so pretty. We enjoyed this stop.
We were headed to the Pali lookout when we decided just to go back to the hotel. The lookout had rain and clouds and we decided it would be better to go another time. We made it back to the hotel about 8:00 We finally got dinner at the Rainbow Drive Inn. Aaron got the loco moco and loved it. We walked to dinner and then went to the "ABC Store" for macadamia nut chocolates. Yum!
Today was another "longish" day but a lot better on us since we didn't walk everywhere. We just walked a lot. Another great day of our trip.