The first thing you do (after posing in front of the giant pineapple) is load your party up on one of these pineapple golf carts and "drive" through the gardens. You can't see it in the photo, but the cart has a giant pineapple on top.
Noah LOVED getting to "drive" the cart. It really was great. Of course, the whole thing is automatic, but we wouldn't dare tell Noah. He was so happy and so very proud of himself!
And yes, they really do grow pineapples here... all different sizes... even some tiny ornamental ones that are so cute.
After the "drive," you enter straight into the (surprise!) gift shop! Souvenirs and trinkets of every kind! Then there was a kind of seashell museum of sorts... lots and lots of seashells on display. I really have no idea what seashells have to do with pineapple, but they were pretty. It's kind of like the indoor "mini" zoo that's near our house that's also an egg farm and a cream puff bakery...but I digress...
Anyway, after the seashell rooms come the tasting rooms... not seashell tasting -- I'm back to pineapple. Please try to keep up. First up, a view of the winery and samples of pineapple wines. Then come pineapple vinegars, pineapple jams and jellies, pineapple cakes, pineapple cookies, pickled pineapple (which, I'm sorry to say, tasted much like fish for some reason...), dried pineapple, pineapple chocolate, pineapple ice cream ... are you understanding what I'm saying? There were pineapple bath and body products like "Pineapple-Charcoal Soap" (not for tasting, of course). Not to mention, stuffed toy pineapples and pineapple figurines. (I bought a miniature pineapple golf cart for my shadow box to remember our trip.) Oh yeah, and for the purists like myself, there was actually diced fresh pineapple for sampling. My personal fave!!!!
We had a great time, spent some money, and enjoyed the ocean view as we headed off to our next stop...
The Ryogujo Butterfly Gardens.
You guessed it! Butterflies!!!
They love bright colors, and we really weren't wearing any that day. But this one found the bag of wipes in the stroller.
The most predominate variety was this... the Paper Kite Butterfly (AKA Rice Paper Butterfly).
I had joked with Noah before we went in about the butterflies possibly landing on his head or his arm or maybe even his nose. Little did I know that this thought would be a point of concern for him. He walked through much of the garden with his hand over his nose to make sure no butterfly would land on it.
I love my family!
Shisa water fountain on the grounds of Ocean Expo park. This is near where we sat and enjoyed ice cream following the presentation at the planetarium.
Noah enjoying his Beniimo ice cream... his choice... he loves it...
When should we tell him that a beniimo is a purple sweet potato...
I'm not tellin' him... YOU tell him...
Lovely view of one of the surrounding islands from Ocean Expo Park...
A full day of fun!!! And you would have thought that some people would've slept the whole way back home... but you'd have thought wrong. ;)
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