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Hawaii, Day Two – Farms, Flowers, Fish and Pineapple

Our second day of vacation was spent doing some very touristy, yet fun things.

The first was our trip to Tropical Farms, which the kids call “the macadamia nut farm.”  There’s a show and a tour, but it all starts with the kids getting to smash macadamia nuts open with rocks.

Nut smashing time

More smashing

The tour bus ride and show were fantastic!  The kids got to see a coconut being husked, fire being started – and then danced with…

Fire!

(yes, that had the boys’ complete attention)…

… and everyone got braided headbands to wear.  The girls had flowers in theirs.

Ane and her headband

There was also shopping to do at the farm.  This is where we got to taste-test several different flavors of macadamia nut, and discovered that Thumper adored the cinnamon glazed ones.  (We bought some, but he’s not sharing many.)

At the entrance to the mac nut farm

After the farm, we drove over to Byodo-In Temple.  It’s so beautiful.

Byodo-In Temple

The kids got to ring the bell.

Ane rings the bell

And then Q-Bee bought fish food, and the kids got to feed both giant koi and the local birds.

Lots of koi!

the kids feed the koi

The birds are so tame, that they will even jump into your hands to eat.  Tad was thrilled when he managed to get a bird eating out of his hand.

Tad feeds the birds

In his hand!

After our stop at the temple, we headed back to the house… with a stop at Dole Pineapple Plantation.

Dole!

Because I was not going to miss out on Dole Pineapple Whip.

Dole Whip Float!

I love this stuff.

The kids posed in the giant pineapple.

Kids in a pineapple

And we shopped in the really fun store there – where we got a Hawaiian shirt for Rerun (he was the only boy who didn’t have one already), and we found a Hawaiian print sundress for me!  I had wanted to find one to wear at the luau (scheduled later in the vacation).  So after a full day of sightseeing, we headed back to the house.  It had been so much fun!

One Response to “Hawaii, Day Two – Farms, Flowers, Fish and Pineapple”

  1. Deanna's Corner » Blog Archive » When It Rains, We Go To The Zoo
    February 22nd, 2017 00:47
    1

    […] I don’t know where he got it into his head (maybe from our visit to the Byodo-In Temple?), but Rerun really was trying to stand perfectly still and convince a bird to hop onto his […]