hawaii:day two

our journey of discovering oahu begins...

i did a lot of research on google and on hawaiis own site which is very very helpful!!!... about where to go and what to do... the gohawaii site forwarded me to many helpful military discounts... thank you gohawaii!

so between talking to friends and family who were also very helpful and the websites i found... we had a great trip planned...

so our first stop was to find the marine base and get our discount tickets for the pcc (polynesian cultural center)...

would we liked to be stationed in hawaii?

hard question...

it was so wonderful being there and the base was beautiful! it would be so much fun and i know we wouldnt be there forever, so i think we would have a lot of fun if it were to happen... but i think it would be really hard to be there while brent was deployed... who knows, it could happen someday... i wouldnt hate it... we would love the chance to live anywhere new and oahu is very adventurous place with so much to offer...

...

driving away from the base, these mountains were right to our left or west... they are amazing!!!!

after we stopped to get our discount pcc tickets we decided to take the long way to our next destination... we knew that jones would sleep and we could drive half the island and see what there is to offer... we drove from the marine base which is on the east and almost most southern part of the island all the way north on the windward side of the island then all the way across the north shore to the very northwest side of the island... we passed so many awesome places... and made notes as to where we should come back... a macadamia nut farm... so many different beach parks and beaches... the famous banzai pipeline... we stopped for a minute just to watch the waves... also famous north shore town of hale'iwa and so much more...

where jones finally woke up and we stopped at the mokule'ia beach for our first beach picture...

then back to the car to finally make it to the dole plantation...

i read about taking tours to see the plantation and that you can either walk or take a train... obviously we had to take the train... jones loves trains!

he was too involved to smile here...

so excited to try the sample pineapple after the ride around the plantation...

my oahu book that i bought, oahu revealed, said something like: a 20 min train ride through a pineapple field may be a little long for adults, the kids will love it and you will learn everything you ever wanted to know but were too afraid to ask...

although true... we loved it! jones was so happy! too bad there were not any tunnels... he kept asking every 30 seconds when we were going to go in a tunnel...

my little pineapple...

a couple more pineapples...

jones thought this was way too funny!

i love it when he says, "ha ha, thats funny!" then he sticks his two front teeth out like mater from cars...

feeding the gross fish... i hate these things... but for a quarter and a bunch of laughs from your son... how could we resist!

it is always so weird to me to see how pineapple grow... so funny looking in a bush...

cant visit without getting a dole whip... yum... the best pineapple we have ever eaten!!!!

.....

later that day we decided to find an authentic and i mean authentic... we were the only english speaking peps in the restaurant... ramen noodle place... wish we could go back... it was delish...

jones loves his noodles... he made such a mess... luckily everyone there thought that he was so funny eating his noodles they didnt care about how messy he was... i love that laughing is a universal language!

we later took a trip down the the beach...

we stayed at the aston hotel on waikiki beach which was just across the main street/boardwalk from the beach... loved the hotel... hated the only valet parking... i guess it was nice, just not paying $30 per diem... but thanks to priceline we only paid $86 a night when it should have been $240 or higher a night... so it all worked out...

then we walked around kalakaua to see the waikiki night life... it is always alive with so many people and street performers...

2/3/2010