North Shore day 2

 the view from my [train] window today

Apparently it is a crime to come to the Dole plantation as we did yesterday and not part take of the famous Dole whip. I was chastised to this extent on a number of fronts so we returned today to remedy this gross misdemeanour and I am not to proud to say that, yes Jo and others you were 100% correct it was worth the return visit. We really enjoyed this little relaxing and informative train trip around the plantation. Who knew this was how pineapples arrived on our tables?!

And yes this stuff ... ummm so yum

so let me explain this last pic. This is my eldest Bec. She loves Hawaii. She loves her cousin. She can't quite wrap her head around the fact that Erin is here without her so I this is the next best thing, Bec comes to dinner etc. by proxy with us via this photo complete with glitter photos stand. We're exceptionally odd, us Allans, but to be fair the Bests did not bat an eye lid when I produced this pic for our first meal. they just said "this would be a better angle for the photo"

The next thing we did not do to acceptable standards yesterday was lunch. Food trucks are essential it seems and we're nothing if not compliant travellers so it was off to find a delicious lunch that we went after our delicious ice-cream breakfast. thanks to Yelp we found this deliciousness where we purchased our garlic butter shrimp (comes with rice salad and pineapple) and took it to the seaside, albeit past some scaryish murdery parts of town to enjoy

MGM was worried but this turned out to be okay

look at at the lava flow beach - bit ouchy on the feet I reckon

the weather was coming in so we headed home for a nap

Well MGM napped I did this

before we went out to Wendy's (no I'm not talking in the 3rd person - my SIL's) birthday dinner at the absolutely delightful PJ Changs. SO . GOOD.

How swish does it look!

I had the best smoked old fashioned (well two actually)

the service and the food was TDF, just look at this delicious cake

 and fortune cookies! hurrah!

I love the walking to and from for dinner and the people you meet. This lady was so happy to talk to us and let us pet her little Jack Russell, who actually rides on this scooter and surfs on a surf board. What a great happy holiday place this Hawaii is.