Dole, Bonzai Pipeline & Hike, Garlic shrimp, dinner at Deck

Today we set our sights on the Northern side of Oahu, getting out of the crush of the touristy downtown Beach area. 

First stop of the morning was the Dole plantation, where pineapples were first grown on an industrial scale. The grounds are beautifully planted with tropical plants. The building however is a touristy set of kiosks and counters selling all the knickknacks a Hawaiian visitor could want, plus very many they couldn't possibly want. Eek. As an avid non-consumer it was more than I could bear. Get outside!

We took the self guided garden your, basically some posters and a free app with a dozen descriptions of plantation life and the development of Dole. It was worth getting some descriptions of Hawaiian plants and their native uses. The descriptions of the plantation conditions and workers were of the "slavery was good for the slaves" type. There was definitely some whitewashing going on. But the plants were great. 

Bromeliads

There were geckos! 

We got to see papaya, fox tail palm, date palm, Ti plant, purple water lilies, red ginger, sugar cane and Norfolk pines. 

Papaya

Fox tail palm

Ki or To plants. Essentially ceremonial in use.

Water lilies

Red Ginger

Sugarcane. There's green (this one) and red. 

Norfolk pine. Planted on islands around the world by ship captains as they traveled. The main trunk grows straight up with no branching, great for making a mast for a sailing ship. 

The Kukui or candlenut. Each nut has enough oil to burn for five minutes as a candle. Fisherman's lore says you can chew up the nut, then spit out the bits and oil on the water, thus calming the water to see the fish down below.

We saved the best for last, Dole whipped pineapple. Like soft-serve ice cream but it is just pineapple. Delicious and worth the cold headache! 

Next stop was the north coast of the island. The national weather service has reported a strong wind and heavy surf advisory there, so the waves ought to be surf ready for the best surfers. 

Our immediate goal is to hike up to the ridge line where we can see the full north coast and all the waves breaking. It's a "15 minute" hike. Some kind soul left hiking sticks at the bottom which we gladly used. And someone else has strung ropes as handrails in the worst sections. Thank goodness today and recent post days are all dry -- this hike would be a slippery, muddy mess after some rain. 

On the way up. 

Roots and rocks actually make the slick mud easier to navigate, both up and down.

At the top. We think this might be the feathery leafed tree the ancient Hawaiians used to make cloth.

Saw several of these butterflies along the way. iNaturalist thinks this might be the Gulf Fritillary.

The WWII pillbox for observation and gunnery defense. 

Can you spot the surfers? The waves looked about 15'-20' tall. 

Back down the hill we drove over to Hale'iwa for some garlic shrimp. I liked the lemon pepper shrimp the best. Yum!!!

Then back to the condo, get freshened up for dinner at the Deck. Really nice to be out on vacation together and with Pat.  Another 1.5 miles walk home afterwards, including a detour through the Royal Hawaiian, affectionately known as the pink palace. We stayed there 30 years ago and loved it. 

And finally one sign for Erica's sign collection. Not just head for high ground, but which floor of the building to aim for (4th) and how much headroom to give yourself (10 stories). Good to know!