hawaii - paddleboarding & last day

On Tuesday morning we decided to stop and explore the pineapple plantation.  We didn't want to pay for an extra tour or train ride through the fields, so we just wandered through the gardens and gift shop.  It's a very tourist-y place.  Our photo op in the big pineapple:

 I had no idea that pineapples came in the color red!  Apparently there are lots of varieties of pineapple.  Not sure what the taste difference would be like.

 One pineapple plant will produce 3 pineapples in its lifetime -- about 15-18 months, if I remember right.  All the pineapple planting and harvesting is done by hand.  A really good pineapple planter person can plant 1000 pineapples in one day.

 Of course we all had to have some pineapple ice cream!

Can you see the lizard on the pineapple leaf?  He blends right in!

 After our pineapple adventure, we headed over to Haliewa for our paddleboarding adventure!  We had a lot of fun learning this new sport.  This is Matthew in his lifejacket, all ready to go. He rode on a paddleboard with one of our guides, Heidi.  (She'll be in a lot of these pictures) Our other guide was Jodi and they were great!  Jodi took all the pictures.

We started out by paddling out into the ocean around a reef barrier that "separated" the ocean from a river, then onto the river, that had much smoother water.  This is Heidi with Matthew swimming along in the river behind her, holding onto the board.

 Jacob really learned to paddleboard quickly and had a great time "falling" off the board and hopping right back on!  A natural.

  More pictures of our adventure:

 

 Finally, we spotted a turtle in the river! Cool!  The first and only turtle I saw in Hawaii.  He was actually pretty big, the photo just doesn't show it that way.

When we finished our paddleboarding adventure, we took a drive out to Kaena Point.  This is a pretty remote and desert-ish part of the island -- very different.  The beach here had more waves and was more rocky.

We finished the day off by going to dinner at Kahuku Grill.  It was soooo yummy.  The kids had burgers, Mark had some grilled fish, and I had the best coconut shrimp! Too bad we didn't discover this place earlier in our trip!

 

For our last day of vacation, we got up early and headed to the beach near our condo.  Since we were there early in the morning, it was very quiet and hardly any people.  The water was still pretty warm, so we had a good time swimming and just relaxing on the beach.  After a light breakfast we checked out of the condo and drove to Honolulu to check out the swap meet at Aloha Stadium.  I loved looking at all the shops and checking out all the stuff and cheap prices.  Mark and the boys liked it too, for awhile.  Then all the shops started to look the same, so we hurried and grabbed a few souvenirs and got lunch.  Next we headed over to Chinatown.  Unfortunately, it is located in a section of town that is basically where the homeless population hang out.  It's a little seedy, what can I say?  Anyway, we found the "cultural center" -- a group of little shops & restaurants, like a mall, and Mark took Matthew into one of the shops to buy a souvenir and practice his Chinese.  Matthew chatted a bit with the shop owner and Mark enjoyed hearing him use his Chinese skills.  (The rest of us were resting on a bench in the courtyard -- lunch wasn't sitting too well).  So proud of Matthew being willing to try his language!  The shop lady was impressed.

Next we headed  back to the airport to return our rental van and wait for the plane.  Our flight was a red -eye to Salt Lake.  Jacob pretty much stayed up all night watching movies and thought it was the best thing ever!  Matthew fell asleep immediately and slept the whole flight.  The rest of us did a combination of both.  In Salt Lake, G&G Vawdrey met me, Ryan, Jacob, & Matthew at the airport and brought us home.  Mark & Jared took the next flight to Boise and spent the rest of the day driving home. 

We had a great time!  We all loved our vacation.  I think we'll remember it for a long time.  It's always fun to go new places and its always nice to come home too.