Hawaii--the finale

I was sad to leave Hawaii. I'm not sure if I could live there--very expensive. Food, housing, gas, everything was more expensive that the 48 states. But, to vacation was fantastic. Here are some final pictures to warm us during the cold December.


Hawaii is known as the land of rainbows. It rained every day we were there. But the difference is that it was sunny also. After the rain ends, about 10-15 minutes, the rainbows can be seen. Here's a great one right above the place we stayed. You could usually see the full rainbow, although I found it difficult to capture on film.

We visited the only palace in America. Hawaii was once a monarchy and a beautiful palace was built sometime in 1800. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed.

We also visited the Dole Plantation. Wow, I never knew that pineapples could taste so sweet and different. I thought pineapples came in pineapple flavor. But, there are different varieties with slightly different flavors.



Pineapples don't grow on trees (as I thought--I'm such a Hoosier hick). It grows from a fern like stiff plant.


Have you seen "Little Shop of Horrors?" Here's Audrey III...E. is feeding it, LOL! This is actually a pineapple.


Is this not the coolest tree you've ever seen? It reminded me of something from a Dr. Seuss book. It's called a Rainbow Tree, for obvious reasons.


Aww, don't we look sweet? Friends since the beginning days of college and we still like each other. This was taken at the Dole Plantation...they had a botanical garden there with lots of plants and things that are indigenous to the area. Shortly after this picture was taken, her 10 year old daughter fell into the pond behind us and hurt her knee pretty badly. There was lots of blood and tears. The employees were so nice and kind to us after that. We got a lot of free things including the tour, pineapple ice cream, and gifts. Girlie got so much free, fun stuff, I was looking for a pond to fall into.

On the last day of vacation, my friend got stung/bit/attacked by a Portuguese Man o'War. I'm sure she won't appreciate me telling the story, but it's too funny not to share. She and her husband went snorkeling when she was stung. She didn't know what happened...she just knew something was on her arm and now her arm hurt very badly. The locals said that it was probably a jellyfish and that vinegar or urine would help take away the pain. So, her husband bravely stood up to rescue his fair maiden. She made him go into the bathroom with a cup to do his deed. As he was pouring his "rescue" on her arm, the kids kept saying, "Ooo! It's frothy!" and all she felt was really warm liquid. It was disgusting to her, so she kept chanting, "It's beer...it's beer..."

By the way, her pain didn't go away. Once she got home, she did some research and found out that she had an allergic reaction and that urine and vinegar (which she used as well) made it worse.

And so we come to the end of our tropical vacation. I really enjoyed Hawaii...I would go again. And I would recommend it to anyone.