Pineapple Park and Pi Day

Pineapple Park Cart 

It was rainy and windy, so we decided not to go to Hiji Falls. Mary suggested we visit Pineapple Park instead. What a wonderful place. Like an old Florida tourist stop, the park is a mixture of Kawaii, the Japanese idea of cuteness, and a botanical garden. 

From the parking lot, we took a yellow pineapple tram that drove us through pineapple fields to the entrance, where we got in our own electric pineapple cart that followed an in-ground track through the shade houses, all the time hearing the “Pa-pa-pa-pa-pineapple” theme song. Several places along the ride we were instructed to look to our left, then 1-2-3, smile for a picture which were already printed for us to buy when we got to the end of the line.After having a pineapple cream filled eclair and a pineapple popsicle, we strolled through two-story shade houses filled with anthurium, bromeliads, ferns, trees, palms, and place after place where we could setup our cameras for a selfie with a kawaii background. 

At the end was the gift store with pineapple cake, pineapple pie, pineapple wine, candy, cookies, vinegar, with samples of everything. We bought a pie in honor of National Pi Day and 2 bottles of wine, one pineapple and one sparkling shikuwasha, the Okinawa citrus. Bella had a pineapple soft ice cream cone. 

It reminded me of Busch Gardens when we would go in the 1960’s. After taking the factory tour, my father and mother would get their free samples of beer, and we would go see the bird show. I think that’s where we saw a cockatoo riding a bike on a wire. Today all the bird shows focus on education which is probably better for the birds but far less entertaining. I definitely remember a poor parrot that had plucked out all its feathers because it was depressed after its owner had died. The bird keepers were distressed but didn’t have a solution. Today there probably are bird anti-anxiety meds. 

Busch Gardens added more and more animals and became the Dark Continent. I never understood how the penguins fit into the theme. Their pool was around the bottom of the escalator we took to begin the tour. One year, our dog Bootsie jumped out of the car window and ran through the animals for quite a while before come back. My mother was sure she’d be killed by an ostrich kick; I’m pretty sure my father was hoping so. The next year, there was a double fence around the area. We always wondered if Bootsie helped that into being. 

Turban Shell Operculum  

At the restaurant that evening, there was a line of volleyball-sized turban shells on a shelf  and some odd rocklike things. I sent pictures to family and friends to identify. My friend Jane figured out they were the operculum of the turbans. My new beach combing goal.