Day 12 - Honolulu and Disembark the Ship

Didn't sleep very well at all.  I felt like I was awake for most of the night.  Perhaps it was because I knew we had to be awake early to get out of our room by 8:00, perhaps it was because the ship was rocking and rolling around on our trip to Honolulu, or perhaps I was excited.  Regardless, I was tired in the morning, and grew more tired as the day advanced.

The alarm went off at 6:15, and we were showered and ready to leave by 7:20.  Pretty quick for us, after the past 10 days.Up to the buffet for our final breakfast - no waffles for me today - just something light - fruit and a couple pastries.

Then we exercised our rights as Platinum card holders to go upstairs to the Pacific Lounge to wait for our call to get off the boat.  That came at 8:20, and we went down to deck 4 to get checked out and leave.  We had booked a shuttle bus to the airport so we could pick up a car there, so we collected our luggage, boarded the bus, and were finished with Princess.

At the airport, the test is to get to the car rental locations.  The bus driver gave us directions, but never having been here before, it is difficult to understand what someone is telling you.  Finally, we got to the location where we then had to call for a shuttle to take us to the rental location.  Everything worked out - our car was ready, we upgraded to a larger car so our bags would fit, and then had to figure out how to get out of the parking lot - another test of wills because event though we had our GPS, there was quite a bit of construction and the roads didn't necessarily run where GPS Jill wanted us to drive.

Finally we got out of the parking lot and onto the freeway.  We headed toward our hotel to see how to access it.  It took about 20 minutes to get there, and as we drove past, we now knew where to go (well the GPS did).  Then we found a place to stop and looked for something interesting to do.  I punched in Waikiki Beach, and had her take us there.  We went through a very expensive shopping area (Gucci, Louis Vutton, Victoria's Secret, etc) which is very close to our hotel, and then went to the beach, just a few blocks away.  It was beautiful to see, but there wasn't any place for us to park.

The Dole Plantation

So, on to plan B.  We punched in the Dole Pineapple Plantation, and went there to see it and to taste fresh pineapple.  That was about a 40 minute drive, towards the mountains and the rain that was clearly falling there.  When we arrived, it had stopped raining, and the sun was coming out.  There wasn't an admission charge, but it was pretty commercial inside the store.  We walked around, looking at the things that were for sale, and ended up by a booth where they were giving away free pineapple samples.  Boy was it delicious.

Growing Pineapples

Train Ride

Then we went outside and paid for a ride on the small train that took a short, 20 minute tour around the plantation.  It was quite interesting and took us through areas marked as sugar cane fields, pineapple fields, banana fields, and various parts of the gardens around the site.  It was interesting to learn about the red soil (decomposed volcanic ash that had lots of iron in it), how pineapples were planted, the growing process, and the harvesting process.

Our purchase to eat

Young Pineapples

At the end of the ride, we walked through a small garden area with various types of pineapple.  We were able to see some pineapples growing, and how they fall over when too heavy, and are ready for harvest.  Then we went back into the shop and purchased some pineapple to eat.  It was cold, and very sweet.  What a treat.

Garden in the Plantation

After that, it was back to the city.  We again tried to visit Waikiki beach, but it was just as busy, so we couldn't go. I was really tired, and needed to get back to the hotel for a rest.  Our hotel is only a few blocks from the beach so it didn't take long.  We went in, and rested for a while.  It was nice to get my shoes off and cool off my feet.  So we sat there and watched the rest of Sunday Night Football.  Boy, Dallas really hammered New Orleans.

Neither of us had eaten since breakfast and were starting to get a bit hungry.  We didn't know where any restaurants were near us, so I went down to look around the hotel to see if there was something.  The hotel itself has a Japanese restaurant, but I wasn't overly excited about the menu.  There is a Korean restaurant, around the corner and down the alley, but it looked pretty seedy to me.  There was a bar a half a block away, and it looked like it had some decent choices on the menu.  Across the street was another bar, this one Irish.  It also looked pretty good.

We decided to go to the bar on our side of the street.  The food was pretty good, and it was certainly much more than we needed, despite how hungry we were.

After that, it was back to the room to work on the computer before going to bed.  Got some emails read, wrote some of the blog for the day, and then couldn't take it any longer.  Sleep was calling and off I went.