I walked down the street from the hotel to the Alamo lot, and picked out a black Pontiac G6, with sunroof. Our first stop, just north of Honolulu, was the Dole plantation.
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Dole has a train tour, cleverly dubbed the "Pineapple Express", that chugs around the facilities, complete with automated narration.
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The narration went into the history of Dole and the pineapple industry in Hawaii, including some of the technology involved in the process. It turns out that they grow all kinds of weird stuff in addition to their primary crop.
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On a related note, I learned that pineapples grow on little, pointy plants, sort of like a bush. I think each plant only produces one fruit at a time.
The workers who pick the fruit have to wear heavy clothing, hats, goggles, and gloves to avoid being sliced by the hazardous foliage. It was above 80°, and they must have been miserable, but they waved when the train went by.
We finished our visit to the Dole compound with a visit to the gift shop, where we enjoyed tasty pineapple treats.
Moving right along, we came to the North Shore, where the waves are big and the surfers are reckless.
The entire northern and eastern shores of Oahu are dotted with beautiful beaches. There are so many beaches, so much sand real estate to go around, that none of them are crowded. Also, it's "winter", so that might have something to do with it.
"Winter", in fact, is what brings the rough surf to the North Shore. I got some more great video of surfing and crashing.
The North Shore is also peppered with sketchy-looking eateries, including many shrimp/seafood establishments like this one:
We also encountered a campus of Brigham Young University, which possibly explains the dozens of twenty-somethings on the beaches.
The rest of the afternoon was spent meandering along the coastline, stopping at beaches and look-out point here and there.
A few times, military bases got in the way of wandering. A large chunk of Oahu is owned by... I think every arm of the services is represented. In the span of a few hours, I accidentally ended up at security gates for an Air Force base and a Marine base. The Marine base is actually an entire island, including a golf course.
The eastern shore is littered with small islands, not far offshore. I think some of them are privately owned, and some are probably wildlife conservation areas.
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Around 7 PM, we had completed the circle and ended up back in Honolulu. We drove around for a long time, trying to find somewhere decent to eat dinner, but utterly failed, and ended up at Sizzler.
After gassing and returning the rental car, we returned to the airport and found the Delta Crown Room. This is the first I've seen (out of maybe 6 or 8 different ones) that had a self-serve bar. I chuckled when they pointed that out, and the receptionist woman sort of muttered "uh oh".
All day Saturday will be spent traveling, with stops in Los Angeles and Atlanta for a few hours.
Pictures start on page 122, after the couches.
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