We arrived around 6pm Hawaii time (10pm Utah time) on Tuesday night and went to pick up the car. We thought we would be getting a small beater car, but when the car rental place brought out a Dodge Charger we were pretty excited! By the time we ate something and found the hotel we were exhausted and ready for bed!
The Next day we were up at like 5am because of the time change. We waited for a couple hours so it wasn't so early and went to the store to get some food! Then we decided to go exploring and walk down to the beach. It was so incredibly crowded that we decided to go get the car and go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay! We saw lots of really cool fish and a big Sea turtle, unfortunately we didn't have an underwater camera yet!
After snorkeling we found this really cool viewing place off the side of the road and climbed down the rocks to the water. It was so pretty!
Thursday we found a really good deal to take a tour of Kualoa Ranch! They have filmed a ton of movies on Kualoa ranch. While we were there they said that the 4th Pirates of the Caribbean was being filmed about 10 min. away. We where on a bus so we couldn't go check it out. These pictures are only, some of the movies they have filmed there. We got to take a tour of the Ranch, ride 4-wheelers and horse back ride! They also fed us lunch. Kualoa Ranch is one of the most Historical places on Oahu.
In the Movie Pearl Harbor this picture is when they wake up in the car and see everything being bombed. This site was not only used in the movie though. During World War II, some of the ranch was used as an auxiliary airstrip with many of the large monkeypod trees providing natural hangars for small planes. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor they actually flew right through these mountains in order to hide and have the element of surprise.
This is what is remaining of some of the bunkers.
Jurassic Park
This is the fallin down tree that the little boy hides under!
50 First Dates
This is where Drew Barrymore runs over the Penguin and also chases Adam Sandler's friend with a bat.
If you look closely at the rocks/mountains on the right it looks like two gorilla's about to kiss!
This mountain also looks like a big Gorilla face. They also filmed King Kong here!
Lost
Most of the TV series Lost was filmed here.
This is where Hurley finds an old van and gets it started by pushing/driving it down this hill.
This is where "The Others" kept their submarine.
To the left of this little beach front was where they filmed some of the beach scenes. Also if you look out on the left hand side there is a long dock that they used in Season 5 to dock a boat and it is also the same dock that is used in 50 First Dates!
Us on the four-wheelers. We couldn't go very fast and had to stay in a line but it was still fun!
Another Part of history is the Kualoa Sugar Mill. It was built in 1863. The mill was closed around 1870 after years of rainfall that effectively brought an end to sugar farming in Hawaii. This is what's left.
Can you tell what this Island looks like?
Kualoa Ranch was probably our favorite place, we had a blast.
Long story short we only had the hotel in Waikiki from the 3rd through the 5th and then the 8th to the 10th, so we had 2 nights that we needed to find somewhere to stay.So on Friday we checked out of our hotel and decided to make our way over to Laie to see the BYU campus and find a hotel around there. We stopped at the Dole Plantation. They had all kinds of stuff to do like the Worlds Largest Maze and Pineapple Express train. My favorite was the pineapple Dole Whip! It was amazingly yummy, it's a good thing I don't live near there or I would want it all the time.
Then we stopped at Sharks Cove to do some more snorkeling. This time we came prepared with an underwater camera. There wasn't much to see so we thought we'd go back to Hanauma Bay another day to see if we could get some better pics.
We then stopped at BYU and the Temple grounds but the temple was under construction so there wasn't much to see. Finding a Hotel was quite the adventure. Porter looked on his phone and all we could find was Turtle Bay, which all that was available was $400 a night, and A little Country Inn for $100 a night. So we called the Inn and put the address into the phone gps. It said it was only like 20 min. away so pretty soon the gps was saying we where there as it took us down into a neighborhood. We didn't see any sort of sign or hotel anywhere so we decided to call. They told us that we needed to pass where the Pirate ship (from Pirates of the Caribbean) was docked and a mall then turn left at an old church and it would be on the right. So we turned the gps off because obviously it was wrong. We then drove for like an hour when we passed the mall we came to a highway so I called them and they said we weren't even close and that we still needed to pass the mall. She was kind of short with me and just told us to put the address in the gps, so I couldn't explain where we had been and get clear directions. So we put the same address back into the gps and headed back the other way. Well finally after another hour of driving and still not finding it I called again and made sure they understood where we were. The whole time they thought we where coming from the North but we had been coming from the South. So we got better directions followed the gps and went back down into the neighborhood. By this time we where so frustrated and called again, all of a sudden a women from the hotel came walking up a big steep driveway. The Hotel had been there the whole time! We felt so stupid! So after driving all day we finally found it! Here are some pictures of the place.
At first we were a little worried but it turned out to be great! Our room was on the other side of this little house. We had a deck right on the water.
This is the view from the balcony!
After checking in we where exhausted but we had to do something, and Porter was so ready to get on his boogie board. So back into the car we went to find a beach!
On Saturday we decided to go check out the ship from Pirates! We couldn't get too close but we got some pretty good pictures! One night we went by and they where filming! There was a huge group of people gathered around with all kinds of signs and stuff! Johnny Depp was supposed to be arriving at 1 am, which was in 2 hours. We decided to pass since it was already 3am our time and he would just be driving through not signing autographs or anything.
When we got home we had a little visitor on our deck!
As Porter would get closer it would hiss at him!
The rest of the day we spent at the Polynesian Cultural Center!
This was the Men's workhouse
Woman's workhouse!
We got to weave a little fish!
Porter started a fire with just wood and kindling.
The Luau!
We had a great day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. That night we had another little visitor!
Sunday we didn't have to check out until 1pm so we got ready and found a church to go to! It was great! After we checked out we slowly drove back to Waikiki, stopping at different viewing points along the way.
Monday we went back to Hanauma Bay for more snorkeling then found a beach that had awesome waves! They where crashing right on the beach so I didn't go out much and we only had the disposable camera so the pictures aren't as good!
On Tuesday we checked out of the hotel and drove to Pearl Harbor! Unfortunately the fairy to the Arizona was closed, So all we got where pictures from afar!
Our Flight didn't leave until 8 o'clock that night so we decided to go to the movie Inception! It was fun and we had such a great vacation, but we were ready to be home and see oaklee again!
2 comments:
Was that the main land? That makes me so excited to go to Hawaii! That would have been fun if we went the same time!
Yeah it was! We had so much fun! When are you guys going? That would be so fun to go on a vacation with you guys, we should do it sometime!
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