Stationed in Hawaii with Kids: Dole Plantation

In case you've been wondering what we've been up to since hubby came home from his extended stay in the Sandbox, we've been off doing family things.  He's been here for a number of years and hasn't been to the Dole Plantation... which I was kind of surprised about until I realized the last time I'd been here, my son was just a few years older than my daughter is now.  (And in case you lost track, they're almost ten years apart.)  So off we went.

The Dole Plantation is an actual working plantation so it's out in the boonies.  I guess if you're stationed at Schofield it's not that far.  (But we aren't, so it is.)  It's actually pretty easy to find, it's just that in Hawaii, any trip that takes more than 30 minutes seems like it's a REALLY long trip.  We lucked out and found parking in the first row.  That was cool.  Then we ran into the World's Largest Maze (according to the 2008 Guinness Book of World Records).  When you buy a ticket, it prints your start time on the stub.  There are several stencils hidden in the maze.  There is generally a prize for the person who has the fastest completion time for the day, as long as you don't take a map at the start.  My son finished in 32 minutes, but because we took a map, his score didn't count for the day's contest.  The maze was a lot smaller and not as grown in the last time I was here.  So this was a nice upgrade for myself and the older kid.  Daddy got stuck pushing the toddler in the stroller.

Anyway, it was a little hot in the maze, so we got some drinks and waited to meet up with some friends for lunch.  Lunch was really good, but pricey.  By the way, there is no way to buy just a cheeseburger.  Just thought I'd warn you.  My almost 3 year old wanted a cheeseburger and I ended up ordering an entire combo.  Anyway, whatever.  She barely touched it so I got to eat it.  It was a decent burger, considering the price.

The other main attraction at the Dole Plantation is the Pineapple Express train ride.  It leaves every 30 minutes or so, so we bought tickets and fed the koi while waiting for our train to arrive.  Bring quarters.  The koi food is dispensed in these gumball machines and the koi are crazy.  They were swimming all over each other trying to get the food.  Koi are pretty ravenous eaters to begin with, but never in my life have I ever seen such aggressive koi!!!  Anyway, we ran out of quarters so it was back to the train platform.

The train ride is a nice long ride through what used to be a lot of pineapple fields.  Dole doesn't grow many of their pineapples out here anymore, but they are growing dozens of different species of pineapples, tropical flowers, and fruit trees as a sort of tropical botanical garden on steroids.  The kids were happy to see all the different equipment and plantation hands at work.  So anyway, it was a nice ride through the property.  Pretty standard, but worth the money to see all the different plants.  The coolest one (in my opinion) was the bright pink pineapple.  Super cool.  Wish I got a picture of it, but I was too busy pointing it out to the kids.

We ended our outing with some Dole Whip.  I love this stuff.  There is no way I was going to share mine with the almost 3 year old.  It was hot.  This stuff melts fast.  I took the airline oxygen mask approach and scarfed mine down while she made a huge mess.  Daddy got a good chunk of her Dole Whip, much to her chagrin.  Hey, what else was he supposed to do?

But anyway, by then it was definitely past nap time and time to head back home.  So we did.  :)


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