Hawaii Day 5/ Installment 6 Second Maui Day(Kahulai)

The Alarm went off at 8:00 AM. I love this time zone! I called Tina so I could tell her about the day before and our trip up to Hana... Another day of plans! We did our usual breakfast at the buffet and then we were off to find the car where we parked it. It's warm but looking very rain threatening but it does that over the mountains most of the time. I've noticed if you try to look at the islands on Google you can almost never get a picture without clouds.


We were looking for a Pineapple Plantation, but found a VERY nice Tropical Plantation with a huge Gift shop and museum. We were there within minutes and the drizzling began, but not bad.
The park had a huge display of Tropical plants, fruits, nuts, flowers etc. There were two trains

for visitors with two adorable Hawaiian young women. One of them told us she was just 17, the other was probably a bit older.

It was breezy and misty but it didn't get in the way of the trip. The girls explained about the different flowers,


pineapples

and did a demonstration on coconuts. Found out that if the coconut milk is white that means it's had BUGS in it! It should be clear water.

(I remember my mother drinking that white milk! if she only knew!) They also explained how all the coconut is used, from the tree to the husk to the shell, the meat and the "milk". They said that the reason coconut is in so many beauty products is because it does make the skin smooth.

After the train tour we walked around the park on our own

for a bit and watched the little ducks in the pond.

One was an "only child" and quite pitiful! It started to rain pretty hard so we decided to go inside the shop.

My delightful husband purchased me a 14 k gold hibiscus ring and a sterling silver chained Tahitian pearl! They are so beautiful!

We got some more post cards and the rain had let up.

We detoured a bit and went to the beach where we could walk on the sand and comb for shells and rocks. It is just so beautiful there it takes my breath away. and it was warm and dry by then and felt so good to walk and sit on the beach.

We found a little walk up window place in a little strip mall on the way back and ate shish kabobs!

We traveled back to the town and turned in our most uncomfortable car and got the free shuttle back to the ship.

When we were arriving they announced that they were going to have some sort of Arts and Crafts for Adults and children in the theater so we decided to try that! It was fun! We made Lei's out of Kukui nuts!. Brownie did a much better job then I and think he wore his the rest of the day! Mine was more knots and ribbon then a lei! I saw where they sell them on Amazon for $15!!!!!!!!!!

As we were eating dinner the ship left Maui. This was an earlier departure then some days. Very sorry to leave. Maui is so beautiful and there was so much more I wanted to see.

Maui is for sure my 2ND favorite Island. I could easily have spent a week there. We barely scratched the surface...........onward and upward!

When we returned to our cabin we saw someone from the housekeeping staff and told them our room is just freezing. She told us we could turn the heat on to combat the cold blowing. No way to stop the fan from blowing cold air on us but at least we are no longer BLUE .

We got out our books and planned for our next big day.. we will be on the Big Island at HILO and that means we will see volcanoes! For some reason I always thought Honolulu was on the "Big Island" but what did I know :) I honestly had not given a lot of thought to Hawaii so it was all a wonderful surprise for me.