Our friend, Mark, arrived from Las Vegas last Friday. He'd been to Oahu a few times, but we used this as an opportunity to play tourist, since there was still a lot I hadn't seen. The first thing we did was visit the Dole Plantation. I was super excited to go, just so I could get a Dole Whip. Whips are basically pineapple soft serve ice cream, insanely good and I've only ever found them at Disneyland. Every time I visit Disneyland I get a Whip; they're honestly one of my favorite things. The Plantation has a lot of things to do, train ride, gardens, shopping, but we only did the Pineapple Maze. It's one of the largest mazes in the world and I was legitimately worried about getting lost in there. They give you a map, but it's teeny tiny and I had no clue what to do. Luckily, the guys took full control and I just followed them through the entire thing. There are 8 different checkpoints to find within the maze and you trace little stencils at each one. We were timed going through and finished in 45 minutes, which seemed crazy fast! I swear I would have been lost in there for hours, never mind finding all the checkpoints.
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| The magic that is the Dole Whip |
We also visited Waimea Valley to hike through the botanical garden and up to a waterfall where you can swim. This was my favorite thing I've done since being in Hawaii. The hike was a nice paved walk with beautiful plants, trees and birds along the way. The pool at the base of the waterfall is deep and the force of the fall made a current that continuously pushed you back. So, I didn't really swim right under the fall, but I still swam in a waterfall!
I swam to about center of this pic. Next time, I'm going all the way!
So happy to be back together!
I have lots more to write about, but I'll have to save that for another day. I also have many more photos posted on Facebook, if you want to check them out!
