Oahu - February 5-12, 2011

This was a much better week this year than last year. I, at least, was well and we were able to go places. Of course Sunday was spent watching the Super Bowl and it was raining outside so that was great. We stayed at the Marriott Ko’Olina and it was beautiful.


We continued our morning walks. We usually walked from the timeshare to the Marriott Hotel and back.

These two wedding chapels are right along the path we took.





We went north one day through the middle of Oahu. We stopped at the Dole plantation and it was very interesting.

We watched a pineapple cutting demonstration.


They plant 28,000 pineapples per acre and they take 18-22 months to grow. They plant year round so that pineapple is available all year for the markets.


I also picked a pearl out of an oyster and got black ones, two in one. We got a pair of earrings.

We continued to the north shore as far as Sunset Beach. We drove into Waimea Valley, a very beautiful area.




This is an ancient Hawaiian religious site or heiau. It dates back to 1470 a.d. and is the only fully restored heiau to this diety.

There is a hike to the water falls that we didn’t take. We stopped to take some pictures of the waves and the surfers. We never seem to tire of watching the waves.





We stopped in Haleiwa and the way back and had shaved ice for the first time. I really loved it but Bob wasn’t impressed.

We went to the Cultural Dinner Show called Fia Fia at the Marriott resort.

We had a delicious dinner and a wonderful show led by High Chief Sieiu Avea.


He had all couples married over 25 years to come on stage and we received flowers and then danced to the Hawaiian wedding song.



We have gone to a luau each time we have come to Hawaii and we thought that the Old Lahina Luau on Maui was the best until we saw this one.





It was an awesome evening.

We went into Honolulu and toured the ‘Iolani Palace.

It is the only royal residence on US soil. There are many, many items missing because they were sold or given away when the monarchy was replaced by the Hawaiian republic but there were quite a number that have been recovered. No pictures were allowed in the Palace but I particularly loved the quilt that was made by Queen Liliokalani during her imprisonment.

We were able to spend some time at the pool on two different days. We want to come back as there are more things to see in Honolulu and the rest of the north and east shore. We flew to the Big Island of Hawaii on Saturday, February 12.