Dole Plantation

North Shore with Charisse

April 21, 2024 No Comments

The North Shore is a route I was very used to taking friends along to do, but this time we used the Shaka guide and we stopped at a couple new to me places. According to many I do the route backwards… but it’s my favorite way to do it.

So you start with Dole plantation and see all the pineapples. I liked my dole whip, Charisse did not. Crazy, I know.

Then you get up to the North Shore and see some turtles.

We stopped for a sandwich at a local fave, called Waialua Bakery. I remember only being mildly impressed myself but I may have bought the wrong thing.

And a stop at the North Shore soap factory! We had a great conversation with the worker- we talked about sustainability and they’re working on shampoo bars but apparently it’s a tricky recipe to master.

Then drive along the shore and basically sightsee. Maybe stop for shopping or foodie spots. Then we went to a new-to-me spot, which is a location where Forgetting Sarah Marshall was filmed. It’s called Kawela Bay Beach Park. There was a giant Banyan tree. I weirdly don’t have a picture of the bay. Oh well.

I weirdly don’t have any more pictures from this day, usually I’m beyond exhausted at this point, but regardless it was a good day adventuring around the Oahu perimeter as usual!

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Second time is definitely not the charm (so far)

December 3, 2021 No Comments

Now that Brian’s back, I’m trying to slowly get him to do things. Friday after Thanksgiving was supposed to have big North Shore swells, so we took a chance and took Jess with us to go watch. We stopped at Laniakea in hopes of seeing turtles, but it looks like the trend is either big swells and no turtles or small swells and turtles.

The beach was way busier this time around and there were a lot more opportunities for pictures.

Jess is a big fan of boogie boarding and appreciated these guys for making it look badass.

I think I’m making this experience out to be less exciting than it was. I really loved going back. I think the waves weren’t maybe quite as big, but really what difference does an extra two feet make when they look gigantic.

Brian slept while we were there. It’s kinda just how recuperating goes. I was thankful to have Jess there and surfers to keep me occupied.

Then we took off and tried to find turtles further down the coast where I thought my Aunt had said they saw a lot, but we didn’t find any. Then we took off for Dole Plantation, strictly to get Dole Whip (no touristy other parts). If you recall, last time I went to dole I didn’t get any camera pics because my SD card corrupted. I was successful this time!

I tried the chocolate coating this time around and that was the wrong choice. I think I’ve just been lucking out picking the right choice the first time! That doesn’t mean this was terrible, I just don’t think Chocolate is a good match. I think the fruit topping is, though.

I guess overall this was a great day, except we went on an adventure for turtles and didn’t see any.

The Dole Whip was amazing, as usual, and I just made the wrong choice.

There wasn’t a lot of traffic and we were able to find parking relatively easily. I hear this can be rough, but both times it has not yet been… it might be a benefit of COVID or timing, unclear which.

Maybe my expectations are just being set too high. Anyway, stay tuned for another post about the second round being not so great.

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October 4, 2021 2 Comments

Since Sunday was her only full weekend day here, we decided to make a day out of visiting the North Shore. We started by going all in at the Dole plantation and doing the train ride, garden, getting dole whip, and pineapple maze.

Well, we actually started by running into construction on the main highway there and having to take a detour. I was really nervous we’d need to go the long way around, but it was a short portion and we got on the highway a bit later. It was a bit serendipitous because we encountered a couple rainbows. (Erin believes this was all part of the plan 😉 ) (p.s. these are all Erin’s photos from her phone, RIP SD card)

I swear the plantation opened at 9am, so we aimed to leave the house at 8am. I was having a slow morning, and then there was a detour, so we ended up arriving at 9:15am. Which was perfect, because Dole doesn’t actually open until 9:30am. We were first in line for the train, which can have waits up to 2 hours. It was pretty rainy in the morning, but again we timed it perfectly up to this point to be in the car or on the train. Later it rained when we were in the garden for a bit.

The train lasts about 20 mins. Here’s us in the garden in front of a full blossomed hibiscus plant.

I would say if I were to go back with Brian, we do the train and dole whip and call it a day. Each activity costs money. They have a combo pass and I think it was $23, but not really necessary to get the full experience. The dole whip was SO GOOD. I think it has been under hyped. I definitely will be returning just for dole whip.

Fun things we learned: Pineapples don’t ripen any further after being picked. It can take almost two years for one plant to produce a pineapple. Dole bought the island of Lanai to grow pineapple.

So happy I knocked this off the bucket list, even if my SD card crapped out while taking pictures.