Friday, March 18th
I set the alarm on my phone for 6:30am, but I'm pretty sure I was awake before it went off. I woke up at 4am each day of this trip, and then went back to sleep! It didn't take much to wake up the kids. We had some breakfast and got ready to go. My aim was to leave the hotel room by 7:30, and we pretty much were right on time. We headed to the Alamo counter once again, but this time there was actually someone in front of us in line. He had a reservation for a mini van starting the next day, but he wanted to rent it early - he had to wait until noon, since they didn't have one available yet. Finally, it was our turn, and it was the same, helpful, young man helping us as on Wednesday. This time I rented the car using my Air Miles and we were going to keep the car for 2 days.
Finally, we got our car at around 8am and drove towards the Byodo-In temple. Now, this spot was strictly on my list because it is featured in Lost and because it's on the way to the Kualoa Ranch. But wow, was I blown away! This is a must-do stop if you're driving around O'ahu! The whole area just took my breath away.
We arrived just before 9am and were able to enter without waiting. This was included on the Go Oahu card, but it was only $3 per adult and $1 per child admission. We saw several cats and chickens just hanging around. We wandered the grounds, took off our shoes to go inside and see the Buddha, and then visited the gift shop. The kids each chose a souvenir and I even found a cute tea strainer for myself. It's a manatee that you put loose tea in and it hold onto the side of the tea cup! We bought some fish food for $2 and then fed the koi. We spotted a few turtles on the grass and in the pond. After about 45 minutes, we were ready to leave. Just as we were leaving, 2 large tour buses pulled up! Before we left the grounds, though, we drove further up to the lookout point, walked around a bit and took some pictures.
Then we hopped back in the car and got on our way to Kualoa Ranch. I had booked the 11am Jungle Expedition. This is also included in the Go Oahu card, and I had to make a reservation ahead of time. They require a credit card to hold the reservation, but this is just for no-shows. They didn't actually charge my card. It didn't take long to get to the ranch - maybe 15 to 20 minutes. We saw several signs on the way saying "Keep the Country Country" and later our tour guide explained that the residents of this area are trying to make sure that the state doesn't put a freeway through the mountains.
We had plenty of time before our tour, so we checked in and then walked around the grounds. We saw a couple tortoises and goats in the petting zoo and then looked around in the gift shop. My kids are too young to do the horseback riding, ATVs and Zipline, unfortunately. It was very busy here, since they offer so many tours and activities. We looked around the gift shop and then headed over to the waiting area for our Jungle Expedition (each tour has a different waiting location.) There was one family ahead of us in the waiting area.
When our vehicle arrived, we all lined up to take family photos (which were available to purchase for $30. We didn't bother). Luckily for us, the family ahead of us was told to wait behind the vehicle, but after we had our photo, they sent us to a different vehicle. We waited at the bottom of the steps, and then someone shouted that we could get on. That family ahead of us was in the same vehicle, but we somehow ended up in front of them and we got the front row seats! I was a little worried that my kids would get motion sickness, so I wasn't willing to give up our spots (and hey, it wasn't my fault that there was confusion of where that other family was supposed to stand.) The dad from that group was kind of annoying, since he had a go-pro camera and he was holding it out the side of the truck for the whole drive!
Our tour guide explained a lot about Hawaiian culture and beliefs and went into great detail about the area. She also showed us some movie sets from Jurassic World and from an upcoming movie.
(This isn't a very flattering picture of her, unfortunately, but it shows a set from Jurassic World.)
We drove all the way up to a lookout point and then got out to walk around for about 15 minutes. We walked up a pretty steep trail, and one of the larger young men in our group ended up slipping in the mud on the way back down.
Once we got back to the ranch, it was 12:30, so we had some lunch before getting back in the rental car. It was pretty busy at the cafeteria, but we were able to find a seat. They didn't have any kids menu options (that I could see, anyway) so my kids shared the chicken strips. I had the buffet and Bryan had a burger.
After lunch, we headed all the way down the island to the southern tip to Sea Life Park. This was on Annie's to-do list - she really wanted to see dolphins. Sea Life Park was on my take-it-or-leave-it list, and after being there, it's definitely on my leave-it list. I'm really glad this was included on the Go Oahu card, because I wouldn't want to pay admission to go here. It was really kind of sad. The kids enjoyed it though.
The Sealion show was really cute, though. She seemed very smart!
We drove past some beautiful beaches on the way to Sea Life, so we kept these in mind for the next day. I had looked into staying at Waimanallo when we were booking this trip, and it looks like a really cute little area with a beautiful beach.
We headed back to the resort for dinner and spent a bit of time on the beach.
It was a busy Out and About day 2!
