So this is the first post about some of the goals I DID complete for my 101 things in 1001 days.
Dole Plantation Hedge Maze
Let’s start with a few pseudo-travel-related ones. While we were living in Hawaii, one of the items on the list was to go to the Dole Plantation and complete the Dole Hedge Maze. I went in with high expectations and, if I’m honest, that was probably my own fault. It was an absolute disappointment. Not really much of a maze as it had no beginning and no real end and, perhaps because it was in the pandemic, wasn’t overly well maintained. What wasn’t underwhelming? The Dole Whip. Holy sweet mouth tastings it was good! 10/10 recommend!
Stay in a nice Hawaiian Hotel
This was also an easy one to do while we were living in Hawaii. I say easy, but only because with the pandemic, there were essentially no tourists so hotels were readily available. Despite the fact there were no tourists, however, the prices did not go down. Anyway, we used a couple of free nights with Marriott and stayed at the lovely Princess Kaiulani (a Marriott hotel). We ordered takeout, room service, and essentially got fat ?. We did not have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner (I think we went with Cheesecake Factory since we had a gift certificate), but overall…a new few days!
Portland Japanese Gardens
This summer, we checked another off my list by going to the Japanese Gardens in Portland. It was packed and I was a bit of a grump during this time. My apologies to my ever-patient and loving wife. While the gardens are beautiful, I was also a bit underwhelmed as I hadn’t been there in over 15 years and I think I built it up in my head too much. Still a lovely place, but I don’t know if I’d go back. The Portland Zoo on the other hand…yeah, love that place!
Anyways, that’s a few of what we’ve got. There are a few other travel-related ones, but we’ll get into those later. Thanks for reading!