Today's excursion was provided by Stampin' Up! We had several choices to pick from, and the one that interested us the most was a visit to the Maui Gold Pineapple Plantation. We began this excursion at a restaurant across the street from the Pineapple plantation for lunch. We were treated to a lunch of macadamia nut crusted Mahi-mahi with pineapple salsa, braised short ribs off the bone with gravy and wasabi mashed potatoes, and baby carrots. This was my favorite meal of the trip (we'll talk more food in a later blog). Dessert was a chocolate caramel mousse over chocolate cake. Let's show you what those looked like:
Weird tidbit from lunch. We were sitting with 2 other SU demonstrators and husbands, plus a SU employee from the corporate office in Utah and her husband. The father of the husband of the SU employee was in the movie Napoleon Dynamite for any of you that may be a fan. His character name is Lyle. You can find it on You Tube. His father is not an actor but lived near the director of the movie, and just wanted people he knew in his movie.
After lunch we split off into smaller groups and went on the tour of the facility and then the pineapple fields. There was no production going on that day so we could see the whole plant in quiet mode. Our tour guide Ken explained the whole process once the picked pineapples come in from the field. What was most amazing to me is how much of the field work is done by hand. Ken also shared that most of the employees are "seasoned" veterans and not younger people. Here's some pictures from the tour. Not my fault if you suddenly have a hankering for fresh pineapple.
Todd and Steph with "Izzy", Ken's pineapple mascot.
The outside of the plant.
A baby pineapple. You can still see the purple flowers on the side.
A baby with a more mature pineapple.
A field of more mature pineapple.
A field of ripe ready to eat pineapple. Some of these are sold to a local winery and distillery to make pineapple wine and vodka.
I am NOT being paid by the pineapple plantation but here are your health benefits for eating pineapple.
Here's some Maui Gold ready to ship. Yes you can buy these online. Yes definitely more than you would pay at the store.
From the tour we each got a pineapple to bring home. It was a great idea, but the more I had to carry them all thru the 3 airports home, the less enthused I was. I also didn't share that we did eat fresh pineapple out in the field cut by Ken the tour guide (video posted on my Facebook page). Ken even gave each of us a small ripe pineapple to smuggle back to the resort. Problem with that is no knife to cut it. Feel free to ask Steph how she mangled ours. (Steph: haha! Let's just say I provided the entertainment for the evening with our demo friends! You really just had to be there! Fortunately, there's no video.)
Last thing for today's post is some pics of different flowers and plants I enjoyed. Most were on the resort property. (I wish they would come and tame my yard and landscaping).
Liz is a fan of succulents, and I am becoming one as well. We bought two for staging Dad's condo for sale. Once the sale was completed and we could move things out, I made first bid for them. (Steph: he called dibs BEFORE the condo sold! I'm not sure they even made it TO the condo before he made the announcement! 😀 ) They look great in the living room. (Steph: Yes, they do!! Todd even found adorable little pots to put them in that go perfectly with our "new" living room stuff! We kept some of dad's furniture and decor. Looks amazing. Todd says it was totally by accident, because he had limited choices where he shopped. Went somewhere else later that had a BIG selection and was disappointed. I told him what he found was perfect! So he says it was a good thing he didn't have more choices; he may have made the wrong one.)
Until next time….
Note: Less than 1% of all demonstrators earn the incentive trip each year.
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