Friday was our last full day in Hawaii. Our plane is due to leave at 8pm on Saturday so we wanted to make the most of the day.
First on the list was breakfast, which has become a sacred time for us here in paradise. It's time to wake up, shake off the Mai Tai's from the previous night and plan the day ahead while tucking into something egg and bacon like. Today we tried the most famous dining spot on O'ahu (apparently), Anna Miller's 24 diner.
Apparently this place hasn't closed for business since sometime in the 70's and given the decor I wouldn't be surprised! The food was great though. Eggs Benedict for Ruthie, a spam omelette for me and we split the world's most incredible blueberry pancakes. God bless these yank-tastic combinations (not so much the portion sizes... I'm back on veggies and the weight pile on Monday!).
After breaky we hit the road and went up through the middle of the island, through the valley, to the Dole Plantation. A little put off by the number of tourists emptying out of their cars in the car park and the line for the ticket booth, we sneaked into the pineapple fields that line the side of the highway to capture a few snaps of the fruit... the fields looked like they went on for miles and miles and miles... millions of pineapples. Here are a few of them...
Next... from pineapple plantation to sugar plantation... Down by Pearl City and the ocean is a museum and tribute to the sugar plantations of the 19th and 20th centuries. For 30 mins we watched a video presentation of the history of Hawaii's sugar industry, it was absolutely fascinating. 1000s of years ago sugar cane had been brought to Hawaii by the early settlers from Indonesia. Along come the Europeans in the 18 and 19th century and see an opportunity. They leased acres and acres of land from the Hawaiian royal family for $300 a year (!) and created the first Hawaiian sugar plantations. 43,000 locals started to work on the first sugar plantations however the majority of them died from the new diseases brought to island by the Western Euros (classic). So like Britain and many of the other European countries did back West with the contract workers from India, Pakistan and Africa, the Hawaiian plantation owners contracted in cheap labour from China, Japan and some of the other Polynesian islands. This was essentially the beginning of today's multi-cultural Hawaiian society... My Dad (history teacher) would have LOVED this place, as we did, I'm sure.
There were replica houses and working areas, but the tour was 2 hours and we didn't have the energy or the stamina! We took in the presentation and the museum, took and few snaps of the village then hit the road once again... next stop, the only Royal Palace on US soil...
Now... forgive me for being the cynic, but the Hawaiian Royal Palace wasn't very Hawaiian. It looked like a Victorian mansion, the type you would find in Oxfordshire or anywhere in the England for that matter, that was built in the late 1800's. Also, the paintings of the Hawaiian Royal family had them all dressed in Price Albert like clothing... but the building was beautiful none the less and seeing any royal building has a kind of humbling effect...
After the palace it was time to chill for a little while at the hotel before our last night out on the town... a 5 course tasting menu extravaganza at another so-called famous eatery... Alan Wong's.
This place had the look and feel of a Gordon Ramsey restaurant, and the food wasn't bad either! It was delicious in fact. We had 5 courses, each more impressive and delicious than the last! Example - 'soup and sandwich'... this was toasted brioche with gruyere cheese and fois gras, served on a bed of toasted cheese on top of a martini glass which had a cold carrot and tomato soup, mixed together in the glass in a ying/yang shape. Sensational.
Completely stuffed and half regretting the moment we started eating the first course, we bailed on the restaurant and went back to the hotel for an early night! :o)
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