Hawaii - Friday, August 16

Landed in Honolulu Thursday afternoon.   Our first impressions were not great - mostly because we were staying in Waikiki which, it turns out, is the most crowded, congested, busy, New York-like place on all the islands.   Took us over an hour just to get from the airport to our hotel - a distance of about three miles.

Yeah, that crowded.

But Friday morning I checked out the window and saw beautiful colors in that very small opening to the world beyond the high rise hotels, so my first photos in Hawaii were of the sunrise as it reflected off the morning sky and bounced back from the walls of glass surrounding us.

We personally had not made any definite plans beyond doing the Polynesian Cultural Center on Tuesday, so Friday was wide open.    It became apparent that Leo wanted to go back to an island that existed during World War II, skipping all the changes he, himself, had witnessed over the years as he and Edna had returned for many visits since the war.  But from the moment we got off the plane, all he wanted to do was climb back on it and return home.   He kept saying over and over, "This is not the Hawaii I remember."  It was so sad because we could not give him the Hawaii he remembered.

And returning home at that point was, unfortunately, not an option.  We checked.

So on Friday we took off to explore the island of Oah'u.   We ended up at the Dole pineapple plantation.

Edna with the walker we rented for her while in Hawaii.   She gets around pretty well with that.

Here comes the Pineapple Express.

Edna makes friends everywhere she goes.   While waiting for the train, she struck up a visit with a man stationed at Schoffield Barracks.  He wore the same insignia Leo wore during the war, so she motioned for Leo to come over and meet him.

Jesse Jackson with his daughters visiting with Leo

Brent

This baby was so adorable!   Jesse's wife was schooling and managing family, and he took the day off work to do Daddy with his girls and give her a break.  It was the cutest family.

Leo and Edna aboard the train

Me and Brent aboard the train

After the train ride, we wandered the gift shop and had their pineapple whip floats.  (A piece of heaven on a hot day!)  I found some windows to photograph.  Not sure why, but lately I've had fun documenting our vacations through the window views.

 Then Leo rested and waited at the gift shop while we took Edna through their botanical gardens:

Bananas

Let me know if you know what these are.

Pineapples, pineapples, everywhere!

We enjoyed our time at the plantation.

Then we went north to North Shore, and ended up driving the entire north east shoreline, past little communities, and past the temple in Laie, and BYU-Hawaii, and the Cultural Center and on down the road.  Right outside of the plantation we passed this sign.  (We were in a traffic jam and I was bored with a camera in hand).   What we found out later was that in taking the Hale'iwa bypass,we missed the famous Hawaiian shaved ice place that everyone told us we could not miss (Matsumoto's Shave Ice).   I guess we could miss it, after all.

Adding that to our list of must dos next time we make our way to Hawaii.  Just hope it's still there by then because it's going to take some time to save up enough to go again.

Fascinated by the way the trees grow in Hawaii!

Kaneohe, Oahu, Hawaii - this is the Windward side of the island, and everything was wonderfully green.  The Honolulu side was brown and parched.

Dinner at Pakele's in Kaneohe - a little Mom and Pop diner that served authentic Hawaiian food.  The green stuff wasn't wonderful but we enjoyed the Pork and the noodles a lot.

 We drove through a very long tunnel on the Likelike Highway going back to the hotel.  It went right through the mountain from green and verdant to dry and crowded in one long tunnel.

 Friday was a sweet day with good memories.  A great way to start our trip.