We didn't have anything scheduled since we were flying out that evening, but decided to spend the day exploring the North Shore. We rented a car and started making our way to Laie.
As we were trying to find the temple, the road we were on came to a dead end at these beautiful rock outcroppings- perfect photo opp! The wind was obnoxious, but it sure was pretty.
The Laie Hawaii LDS temple had been closed for 2 years while it underwent major structural and seismic upgrades and restoration of some of its original murals. The temple had just reopened and was available for the public to tour for a couple of weeks before it was rededicated. We felt really lucky that we were able to be there during the open house and see the whole inside.
The temple itself is really old, having been completed in 1919. Apparently it hasn't been renovated since the '70's, so I imagine this was long overdue.
Interesting fact: "Construction of the Laie Hawaii Temple came to a standstill when the supply of lumber ran out. Prayers were uttered, and two days later, a freighter was discovered stranded on a nearby coral reef. The captain offered his entire cargo to the saints if they would unload it for him. His cargo? Lumber—enough to complete the temple." (More info can be found here.)
After the temple tour we kept going north along the coast. We stopped at Sunset Beach where a surfing competition was being filmed.
In Haleiwa we had some lunch, window shopped and bought some authentic Hawaiian shave ice.
Since the weather wasn't nice enough to explore Waimea Falls like we'd planned, we headed south again and stopped in at the Dole Plantation. There were pineapple fields as far as you could see.
Apparently pineapple is no longer a viable industry in Hawaii, so I'm not sure how much longer Dole will have their lease to grow there.
In a courtyard they have this little garden where they grow different varieties of pineapples from all over the world.
I thought these pink ones were pretty cool, though I couldn't tell you now where they're from.
Yes, I took a picture of a tree. But look at the bark! It looks like it belongs in a Dr. Seuss book.
And of course we had to pick up a pineapple while we were there.
We managed to get back to Waikiki to return the rental just in time to catch our shuttle to the airport. We thought we'd given ourselves plenty of time but it turned out to be a very close call.Since the plane ride back was so late (we took off around 9:15 pm) we didn't get much sleep so by the time we got back to Salt Lake we were both pretty exhausted. After a nice nap we went to lunch with Keith & Rachelle. We did some shopping and caught a movie and really enjoyed our ease back into "real life" before Mom brought the kids back to us that evening. We sure did miss those weirdos.
Seriously, I don't know if that trip could have been more perfect. The weather wasn't all that great, but it was November afterall. We've decided, though, that next time we want to bring our kids!
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