We were technically scheduled to depart Hawaii on day five, but our flight was a night one, so we still had a whole day to enjoy. It was a little tricky because we had to be packed and checked out of our hotel by noon. We spent the morning taking a mile or maybe two (who really knows when you're strolling through sand with water lapping at your feet?) walk down the stretch of beach that connected our hotel to Black Rock. We hopped in for dip, watched paddle surfers and shared our favorite memories.
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We were so excited to find this Maui Gold Pineapple Tour for the afternoon of our final day. A pineapple bus picked us up and drove us out to the fields while a friendly tour guide named Carlos gave us lots of information and history about Hawaii and its pineapple exporting. We were surprised to learn that Hawaii is actually only responsible for about 7% of the world's pineapple growing. And though Maui Gold still owns half of Maui, they use only a small fraction of it to actually produce the fruit. It's much more profitable for them to make money off their land with tourism. Makes sense, I guess, but was surprising. Within a few years, the pineapple industry will be completely obsolete in Hawaii.
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We exited the bus into the fragrant fields to watch workers actually harvesting and hear giant-machete-wielding Carlos tell us more about the fruit. Pineapples are given a 1 to 5 rating based on ripeness with 1 being green and 5 being golden and most ripe. Most pineapples picked and shipped (the ones we eat from the store) are ones or twos. Carlos chopped up samples for us from each rating. By number 5 we were in pineapple heaven. Nothing has ever tasted so incredible! How will be ever go back to eating regular pineapple?!
We were told to wander around and select as many pineapples as we were able to carry home. Carlos said, "Don't pick the pineapple, let the pineapple pick you." Dave and I found 6 that jumped out at us, the perfect combo of gold and green. Sure enough, the ones we have eaten so far have been heavenly.
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Stuffed with pineapple, we headed over to Lahaina, the shopping, restaurant and gallery district. We spent the afternoon wandering around this town picking our souvenirs and eating a Hawaii classic, Shave Ice. Day 5 was perfect.
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Of course the overnight plane ride home felt long, but the time in Hawaii was just right. We were ready to say "Aloha" to our tropical paradise and "Hello!" to our girls. Ella and Delia had such a good time with Grandma and Grandpa. They didn't appear to miss us at all. We gave them their presents (these dresses and hair clips and some hula girl dolls) and told them all about Mommy and Daddy's vacation. Who knows? Maybe we'll make it back some day with the girls...but not for a long while. For now, I'll call this the trip of a lifetime.
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2 comments:
What an awesome vacation!!! We'll have to contact you when we decide to make Hawaii our destination! So glad you had fun and that everything went smoothly. We enjoyed your pictures and following along on your activities. Hope you have adjusted back to "reality" a little bit. It's always hard to get back to normal. Hello to everyone!
Sheri (and fam)
Love all the pics, and love those dresses for the girls! Good thing I didn't know I was having a girl...I would have had to do some shopping, too. :)
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