Kandid Memories: Day 4...Mustang Sally!!

After 2 days of walking my foot called for mercy! So we decided to rent a Mustang Convertible and do some sight seeing on our own for the day! The car was AMAZING and we loved the wind, sights, sounds, and mist blowing through our hair! :D

We sure like to cheese it up! And yes..Jared's face really is that red. He got so burnt! LOL! Poor guy!

Before we left Arizona we had some friends give us tips on places that were a must see. The first one on the list was Leonard's Bakery.

It really doesn't look like much from the outside. It would be easy to pass this place by...and that would be TRAGIC!

They serve Malasadas here. They are a Portuguese donut. The best way I can explain them is a cross between a donut and a beignet. They are DIVINE!!!! We tried three flavors. One was coated in white sugar, one was coated with cinnamon, and the last one was coated in Li Sing Sugar. Li Sing Sugar is buttery sweet. It was by far my favorite of the 3!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it!!! LOL!

We also tried some of the filled Malasadas. We got coconut and custard. They weren't as good. Stick with the original!

The guide on the bus that took us to the Polynesian Cultrual Center recommended we visit the Bishop Museum... so we did.

In one of the several travel sites I read it said to go to Hilo Hatties. They give you a free shell lei, free samples of food, free drinks, and live entertainment!

They had a lot of great souvenirs there. I think we spent like 2 hours just looking at everything. It was worth stopping for.

We took the Pineapple Express train. It's about a 20 min. narrated ride. It takes you around the working pineapple farm and gives you an overview of how Dole came to be.

We drove up and around to the North Shore to Matsumoto Shave Ice. This place is legendary for their shave ice. In fact, they were on Diners, Drive-In's, and Dives on the Food Network!

A lot of people have said when they go they end up waiting for hours to get their shave ice. It must have been a slow day...I think we waited a total of 15 min!!! I'm not complaining!! :D

It was totally worth the 15 min. wait too! They shave the ice soooooo fine it's almost like powder. It melts in you mouth. If you get ice cream on the bottom and cream on the top you are in for a treat of a life time!!!! If you've ever had Bahama Bucks...this place puts them to shame! YUM!

The North Shore is everything you expect to see when you visit Hawaii. It's so green and lush. Such a dramatic difference from our AZ desert!

All we did was EAT! Hahaha! Our next stop was Ted's Bakery!! It said it was the home of the original chocolate haupia cream pie. And if you know me at all I'm forever in search of the perfect chocolate cream pie! :D

As you can see it looks like a typical chocolate cream pie. But if you look closely between the layer of chocolate and cream there is this layer that is almost jello like. That's the haupia. I thought it tasted a lot like the Mexican Almond Dessert I used to get as a kid at Matta's. Not sure if that helps explain it at all. It was good..but different. Jared didn't care for it though.

We decided we needed to get out of the car and try to walk off some of that food. We stopped at a few beaches to take in the views!

Does this bay look familiar to you? If you've ever seen Pirates of the Caribbean it should! And of course I have...they are my favorite movies of all time! This is the bay where they had the Black Pearl! :D

The island is breath taking. The weather is perfect. The company even better!!! We had an absolutely relaxing, food filled, go at our own pace, laugh filled, day in Paradise! Let's do this again....SOON! :D