Our destination today was NORTH. We pretty much followed the purple path, outlined below. What a day!
Our first stop was Kualoa Park. The offshore island is called Chinaman's Hat.
We were intrigued by these ruins. The Kualoa Plantation Sugar Mill was started by Charles Hastings Judd and Samuel Wilder. In 1865, they planted sugarcane and built a steam-powered mill using the most modern machinery from Scotland. By 1871, the mill was a failing venture due to meager rainfall.
A brief detour brought us to La'ie Point. What a beautiful place to view our surroundings.
We came to Turtle Bay Resort mainly because we had just watched the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which was mostly filmed here.
Steve is paying homage to a yoga scene in the film. So dang funny!
Trying to be the best tourists we could be, we stopped at Ted's Bakery for its Chocolate Haupia Cream pie. Delicious!
We stopped at several beaches along the route.
Lunch was at the Pupukea Beach Grill food truck followed by frolicking at Pupukea Beach. This long and narrow stretch of beach has two small pocket beaches within the rocks – Shark's Cove and Three Tables... both perfect spots to snorkel.
Armed with swim goggles, I headed back into the sea.
The coolest thing I saw was this Snake eel. These snake-like creatures are more gentle than their aggressive relatives, the morays. I didn't know that at the time and I was a little ooked out, but how cool, right?
We then went to Waimea Valley for their Thursday Farmers Market and beautiful flora.
A must for me was Turtle Beach. Known as the only place in Hawai'i where the turtles are so gregarious, they play carefree and beach themselves to bask in the sun. We met Olivia-Dawn, a 42 year old honu who spends 1/3 of her days in the sunshine. What a treat to meet her.
Historic Hale'iwa is the biggest town on the North Shore and a perfect spot to stroll the shops and get a coffee.
And since 1951, the Mastumoto family has been serving Shave Ice here.
Pineapples are BIG in Hawaii and James Dole started it all here in 1900. The company has 11,500 acres under cultivation. Based on how many can grow on an acre, there could be as many as 350 million pineapples being raised. Wow, right!
The Varietal Garden was pretty interesting. It is one of the free things to see at Plantation. This garden educates the public that pineapples (or bromeliads) come in other forms. FYI- the Smooth Cayenne is the one that is grown commercially.
I have to end today's post with this little guy. How adorable is the Gold Dust Day Gecko? He is a testament to the vibrancy that is O'ahu. I mean, he has blue feet! We are continuously amazed at the beauty and uniqueness of everything we discover here.
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5 comments:
Scary looking snake eels, blue-footed Gold Dust geckos, colorful fish and honus, pineapple plants--love all that unique Nature! Our Tahoe nature is buried under another foot of snow that fell all day yesterday. (But the sun is out today!).
Wow all in one day! How absolutely beautiful!!
Shave Ice! Shave Ice!! Shave Ice!!!
I wasn't sure where to begin, but why not with that yummy treat! Okay, now on to that gecko...what?! I cannot believe that that little guy is real! He is amazingly beautiful. The selfie of you swimming is super fab. Well, it all is! Aloha!!
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You two are exhausting me! I want you to be my tour guides on our next trip!!!!!
Do you have a map I can view with town names so I can follow just what you did
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