Oahu

I haven’t shown you Hawaii yet. That’s because I haven’t seen the real Hawaii. That’s what today will be about. Our hotel here is in the middle of Waikiki. This is the view from my window this morning:

Yes, we’re on the 17^th floor and there’s only 18 or 19 floors total. Yikes! I don’t do well with heights but I braved our balcony to take these pictures. Let’s go see the rest of the island… 

First off we go to Old Pali Road.10 minutes from Honolulu is a rain forest. It's absolutely wonderful - huge trees covered in philodendrums, big elephant ear size leaves...This area gets over 300 inches of rain a year! Supposedly wild ginger blooms along side the road, but since I don't know what that looks like, I couldn't tell you. After that short 2 mile section of road, we continued north to the Pali Look out. Stunning views make you think of the Jurrasic Park movie on the one side. It's hard to take all in.

 Of course I was almost as interested in the wild chickens running around. They looked like the jungle fowl domestic chickens evolved from. Little did I know this was only the first of many times I would see them.

After leaving the rain forest, we traveled a while to the interior of the island. There we came upon the Dole Pineapple Visitor Center. Wow! Loads of people and more pineapple stuff then you could ever dream of. I would have tried a bunch of it but Jacky said there wasn't room in the suitcase :( We did enjoy delicious pineapple ice cream! but I passed by the pineapple flavored ham jerky, pineapple candy, chili pineapple chunks (no, really!)... 

Caroline and I enjoyed picking out oysters to find a pearl inside. Oh I know it's a scheme but we enjoyed it. And now I have a beautiful necklace to remember the islands by!

We had fun taking a train around the plantation and learning about pineapples and going through the Dole Garden that showed off native plants. The only sour note was the rain that periodically soaked us. I guess the trade winds were from the south bringing in wind and rain. Normally they come from the north. I hope it clears up soon. Hawaii's national flower is the Hibiscus and they were found in the Dole garden in every color I could think of.

When we finally got on our way, food was the next order of business. In a busy small surfing town full of college age kids we found a Mexican restaurant. Later, full of good food, we followed the kids and cars to the water. All along the western side of Oahu the big BIG waves crash in. This seems to be a good time of year for surfing and the number of people out there show that. I didn't get really good photos since it was getting darker and the surfers were out a ways from shore. But the waves were SPECTACULAR and we couldn't get enough of watching them. Photos and videos don't do them justice, you'll just have to come and see for yourself!

One more sun setting over the ocean. I hear there will be plenty of them to see in Maui. You can never get tired of sunsets and oceans, sorry. Tomorrow is another travel day - fly to Maui. It will be interesting to compare the islands. Until then, Aloha