North Shore and More

Monday
Sadly Tiffany had to work on Monday and Wednesday this week so I was left to fend for myself for a few days. I decided to rest and recuperate on Monday and spent most of the day reading. I headed down to the Lagoon for a few hours of snorkeling but didn't do much else. It was actually quite nice to sit around and be lazy. I am so rarely lazy after all. However, after one day I was refreshed and ready to conquer North Shore on Tuesday!

Tuesday
And conquer we did! We started off at the Dole Banana Plantation. They had rainbow trees out front. The bark of the trees is multicolored and lovely so of course I had to include a picture. The plantation was cool but we only spent about 45 minutes there, long enough to see how pineapples grow and to buy some pineapple soft serve. Interesting fact, pineapples take about a year to grow... Who knew?!?!

Afterwards we headed to Papailoa Beach which should be the survivors beach from LOST (if you don't know what LOST is... I am not sure we can be friends anymore...) but instead of seeing the survivors or their camp we were greeted only with construction tape and a barren beach. I would have assumed we were at the wrong beach except Tiffany has been there before and seen the gloriousness. I was horribly shocked and disappointed at the lack of LOST. I am wondering if there is some plot twist in the coming season that would no longer require them to have a "survivor's beach"... Erin, thoughts?!?!

Though my LOST dreams were crushed, I did manage to see several turtles in the water. None of them were beached but they were close. I included a picture even though you can't make out that they are turtles... they are...


After an anticlimactic LOST beach we headed to lunch in Haleiwa (a historic town on the North Shore) for lunch and Matsumoto's famous snow cones. There are chickens everywhere on the island and I really thought a rooster was going to fight me for my meal... I ended up winning out but I have never before been threatened by food for food... The snow cones were wonderful and well worth the line. I can't wait to get another one on my trip! Mine was pina colada, tangerine, and strawberry, which is in my opinion a fantastic combination!


After lunch we went snorkeling at Shark's Cove. The snorkeling was fantastic and diving would be even better. There are several caves that you could explore if you had a tank. I have decided I am going to get scuba certified when I get back home. I want to dive!


To end the day we planned on going to Sunset Beach to (of all things) watch the sunset. When we got there we saw caution tape and a lump on the sand. As we got closer we realized it was a beached monk seal. It sat and sunbathed for a couple hours. Apparently they are relatively rare so I was excited to see one. I asked Tiffany where the other seals were and she said they travel alone (hence the name...). I would not like being a monk seal... Living a solitary life does not seem like fun.


We waited around for the sun to set and as the sun began to draw close to the horizon we realized that it was going to set below the clouds... Crap. Oh well... It was pretty anyway and I have seen two beautiful sunsets since I have been here, but it was ironic.... the sunset on Sunset Beach was not so good.