Four States, One Big Adventure: Day 8 - The Day We Had Dole Whips For Breakfast

[NatsyNoo]

Inevitably, we were awake early again, given the time difference. It wasn’t a bad thing though as we needed to get up early anyway. We woke up at 5.30am, and we got up at 6am.

Having looked at the breakfast offering at the hotel, we weren’t all that fussed, so we decided to skip it (we grabbed a couple of mini boxes of Lucky Charms to go) and headed straight to Pearl Harbor. With the traffic we experienced yesterday on our minds, we were keen to get there sooner rather than later.

We arrived at the USS Arizona Memorial visitor center at 7am and were worried we were too early, since our ticket time was 8am, but the line was already enormous! I mean seriously massive! It did go down quickly though. After we had dropped off our bag in the storage place ($3 per bag – we wanted to do this instead of leaving it in the car as car break-ins are commonplace in Hawaii), we picked up our tickets that we had prebooked (well worth the nominal booking fee to have secured them ahead of time!).

We had about 40-minutes to wait at this point, so we walked over to the USS Bowfin to take some photos, and then looked in the museums. These were quite Japanese centric which surprised us but they were interesting nonetheless.







At 7.50am, our tour time was called and we entered a theatre to begin our tour, which started with a 20-minute film about the events leading up to Pearl Harbor. It was really interesting, especially to someone who knew some information about the day but not too much (Matt on the other hand is a massive history buff so he didn’t really learn anything new but it was nice for him to watch a different documentary than the ones repeated over and over again on the History Channel!).

After the film, we were led out of the theatre and straight onto a boat to take us to the Arizona memorial. It was a fairly short boat ride there and back, and we were able to stay on the memorial for about 15 minutes before we were asked to leave ready for the next group. It is a very well run operation.

























Our time on the memorial was very moving. It is, needless to say, very peaceful and sombre. You are regularly reminded that the Arizona remains a tomb to those who went down with the ship on that day, and in fact, many of the survivors opt to have their final resting place with their comrades. The list of names was massively thought provoking.

I actually stood there for a lot of time, just looking at the names, taking it in. The oil still coming from the ship was also really surprising, it’s been almost 75 years!



After a final few photos, we picked up a magnet ($3) and retrieved my bag from the storage area, and we jumped in the car ready for our next stop…

[NatsyNoo]

…the Dole Plantation. We love Dole Whips in Disneyland so we were excited to go to the home of the Dole Whip!

We left at 9.30am and the journey took about 40-minutes. Trusty Googlemaps guided us well! Our first stop was obviously for a Dole Whip…for breakfast…amazing! I don’t have the exact price but I think it was around $12 for both of them: a Float for Matt and a Whip with Pineapple Topping for me. And it was super yummy! Well worth the 18-hour journey!











There isn’t too much that you can see on foot, so we had already decided to take the Pineapple Express tour to see the wider plantation. This was $19.90 for both of us. I maintain that this is expensive for what it is but we were glad we did it. The tour last about 20 minutes.



































There are no fruiting pineapples at the moment as I think they take about 20 months to grow but we saw plenty of other plants, and we did actually see some baby pineapples growing back near the main building after the tour.









We didn’t really stay too much longer as there wasn’t too much more to see here but plenty more on our list for the day! We stopped by the shop for the usual magnets, which came to $7.27.



Our next stop was Honolulu, and since we weren’t too hungry for lunch yet, we decided to go to the Ala Moana center first for a mooch around the shops before going for lunch. Our main reason for coming here was the Disney Store as it’s the only one in Hawaii, believe it or not! I was so excited to get this special merchandise - having wanted to come to Hawaii for so long, this really special merchandise meant the world. We bought the Lilo & Stitch Vinylmation set, four Hawaiian exclusive Tsum Tsums (three for me, one for my friend), a Hula Minnie plush, and a reusable shopper, which came to $88.64.





We also stopped by Bath & Body Works where I bought 15 hand sanitisers (I love this stuff!) and three holders for $21.99. Matt thought I was bonkers!

After this, we wandered down to Ala Moana Beach Park to see the Magic Island. Well, what can I say but this was very uninspiring. I wouldn’t say it’s worth the effort if visiting the island. It’s a man-made beach for starters and the beaches around the rest of the island frankly wipe the floor of it. Needless to say we didn’t stay long before heading back to the car.







We drove to the Aloha Marketplace where we parked and headed for lunch





at Hooters…this was for Matt - he loves the wings!



We started with Tater Tots and Mozzarella Sticks, Matt then had 10 Triple Dog Dare (their hottest sauce…they don’t get any hotter than that) and I had 10 Garlic & Parmesan wings, and we shared a curly fries between us. With two soda, the bill came to $57.10.

[NatsyNoo]

We were both feeling very full after this so we waddled over to the royal and state buildings that I had wanted to see in Honolulu. These included:

Ali Iolani Hale & King David Kamehameha Statue



Iolani Palace



Queen Liliuokalani Statue





State Capitol



Washington Place





These are all nicely clustered so not too much walking/waddling needed. Honolulu doesn’t have a huge amount else to offer (and neither of us were too fussed about visiting Chinatown) so we decided to make tracks from here.

On our way back to the car, we spotted a Walmart. I had initially thought it was a small one but once inside, it was massive. We bought some Chips Ahoy filled with Oreo crème, Cinnamon Bun Oreos (which we tried on Sunday night and are frankly a game changer…we need more of these pronto!), Mint Oreos (these have been on Matt’s ‘to try list for about 5 years…and then they released them in the UK when we got back from holiday with about 1000 of them!), Cheetos for Matt, Twinkies for my brother-in-law and a set of Disney Fisher Price Little People (which were on sale for $3.50) for my niece for Christmas for $22.01.



We paid for our parking ($4 with our validated ticket from Hooters) and drove back to the hotel. We dropped off our shopping, freshened up, and then wandered into Waikiki.

I had forgotten that tonight there was a big street festival on as part of the ‘Aloha Festival’. I had originally planned to avoid it as I thought it would be carnage but actually, the crowds were very manageable and the atmosphere was fantastic! We had a lovely evening wandering down Kalakaua Avenue, looking at the stands with food and things to buy, listening to the music, and just taking in the general spirit.

We got to the Duke Kahanamoku statue for the hula show at about 6.20pm to learn that the show had been cancelled because of the festival (doh!) so we just opted to spend the evening really exploring Waikiki. We got towards the top end of Kalakaua Avenue (where we grabbed two drinks for $3.35 from an ABC Store) when I turned around and spotted the stunning sunset. I got Matt’s attention and we went over to watch it. We agreed that we needed to get back here on time tomorrow to watch it in its full glory.





We wandered back down in the opposite direction, towards our hotel, and found the ‘Beach Walk’ down Lewers Street.

We loved the surfboard racks that were spread around the place



You can’t see it very well but there was a lovely waterfall feature



And there were these amazing trees too, they look like they’re made up of lots of mini trunks





We weren’t hungry given our big lunch, so Matt had a Nestle Tollhouse cookie sandwich from the ABC Store, and I grabbed an orange juice. I also picked up a couple of fridge magnets and a snow globe for a colleague of mine who collects them, which came to $23.25.

I was absolutely exhausted by this point, so I said to Matt that I was ready to crash, which he was ok with. We’d had a great day and lovely evening exploring Waikiki, but it was time to call it a day. We got back to the hotel, I had a shower, and climbed into bed, and was asleep not long after 9pm.

Steps: 25,690 (17.5km)

[TracyW]

Another great day, really busy!

[amymiller]

Ooh another action packed day!

I'm actually surprised Pearl Harbor was open so early, and that there was lots of people already there. Definitely an interesting and poignant place to visit.

I'm glad I'm not the not one with a hand sanitizer obsession, wish they had Bath and Body works in the UK.

[NatsyNoo]

Originally Posted by TracyW

Another great day, really busy!

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It was but we had a great time!

Originally Posted by amymiller

Ooh another action packed day!

I'm actually surprised Pearl Harbor was open so early, and that there was lots of people already there. Definitely an interesting and poignant place to visit.

I'm glad I'm not the not one with a hand sanitizer obsession, wish they had Bath and Body works in the UK.

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Yes I think the first tours are actually at 7.30am, our tour was at 8am and it was already really busy by that time! We just wanted to get it done, so to speak, before the crowds got too enormous and we could then move onto the rest of the day's events. Poignant is aboslutely the word!

Oh my I love my hand sanitiser! I wanted to buy more but was told, point blank, no. Silly hubby! I too wish there was one here!

[abiknox]

Another amazing day! Those tater tots look incredible!

All your photos are great too. How wonderful to go to Pearl Harbor.

[NatsyNoo]

Originally Posted by abiknox

Another amazing day! Those tater tots look incredible!

All your photos are great too. How wonderful to go to Pearl Harbor.

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The tater tots were quite special
Pearl Harbor was really special, I feel privileged to say I've been

[Guest]

Tater tots look yummy! More beautiful sunsets 😍😍😍

[SpectroGirl]

Fab day Pearl Harbor is certainly a special place to visit. It might have been busy at 7am as that's when they release the 1300 free walk-in tickets for the day & they tell people to get there early as its first come first served.