Hawaii: Pearl Harbor, Dole Plantation, Lanikai Beach (Day 2)

The second day of our trip, we visited Pearl Harbor for the USS Arizona memorial early in the morning.

There is still oil bubbling to the surface

Later in the day, we made our first visit to the Dole Plantation. Alisha was especially excited about getting a "Dole Whip" (it's not as painful as it sounds), which is pineapple-flavored soft-serve ice cream served in pineapple juice. They apparently only have it at Disneyland (where she got her first taste) and here in Hawaii.

We also went through the maze and saw pineapples growing around the grounds.

Dead end in the maze

A growing pineapple

We also threw feed into a pond full of large goldfish (possibly Koi?). I especially enjoyed the fish part, because the fish would jump out of the water onto the shore to grab the food.

Later in the day, we visited Lanikai Beach. In Alisha's research, she learned that this beach was rated as one of the best in the world. There wasn't much crowding, the sand was extra fine (almost like silt) and the color of the water was more "tropical looking" than anywhere else we saw on the islands:

We experienced a new food that day called "poke", which is basically delicately flavored raw fish, often served over rice (see a recipe here). To me it felt like a bowl of high-quality sushi. We had it several times for the rest of the trip, and our favorite was at Tamashiro Market in Oahu. The fish was so fresh that we saw them unpack and start cutting a whole Ahi tuna that they'd bought from the docks that morning. We ate poke on the balcony of the condo.