Sunday, May 30, 2010

The Dole Pineapple Plantation

Our first day on Oahu was jam packed with as many tourist traps as we could fit in. We finished off our day with a trip to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. It was on and off raining, so we didn't spend too much time there. Plus we were in a hurry to make our way up to the Northshore to settle into our room at Turtle Bay.

We started out with the maze. I took the lead and led us through the first half of it. When they say it's the world's largest maze, they aren't kidding. After finding the first 4 posts we decided to not spend time looking for the other ones. We wanted to see some of the other attractions and they were closing soon, so we found openings in the hedges and cheated our way back out.

After exiting the maze we made our way into the cafeteria for some Dole Whips. Our trips to Disneyland are never complete without one of these treats outside of the Tiki Room so we were not going to miss the chance to devour one at the birthplace of the Dole Whip. We went for the floats that came in fun pineapple cups. They were of course totally delicious.
While waiting for the Pineapple Express (a train tour of the plantation fields) we wandered some of the grounds and checked out the variations of pineapples they were growing. I had no idea how many varieties there really were. Some are red, some are tiny, and some are even both.

While on the train we learned a lot of interesting facts about growing pineapple and the history of The Dole Company. Along with pineapple fields, they also grow bananas, sugar cane, macadamia nuts, and a countless number of different fruit trees on the plantation. It was a nice little ride.

The plantation was a bit smaller than I imagined since they don't actually use that land for their main crops anymore. But it was a good place to visit. We learned a lot, the grounds are really pretty, and it was a fun little stop.

1 comment:

Micah and Kim Storer said...

Ooohh, just reading this makes me want a big cone of pineapple whip. It was sooo good!