Today we got up made our way to the Ulu café for breakfast and then got ready to head to the Kualoa Ranch. We will have a character Birthday Breakfast tomorrow for Caroline. Its an hour drive across the island to the ranch. During the drive we stop at a small restaurant, Poi Factory, to get lunch to go. By the time we finally arrive at the ranch, food is all we can think about. Desi goes to check us in and everyone else sits down at a picnic table and we open our food, only to find that only one of the three items we ordered looks edible. We ordered pork, beef, and chicken. The pork was pulled pork, it was good, but needed sauce. The beef was the Loulou we had tried a previous night and was left untouched. The chicken was in some sort of soup with clear noodles, that were surprisingly good. When we were done eating we walked around the crowded gift shop for a few minutes then proceeded outside and waited for our truck. It started pouring rain for a bit, so we stayed under the eaves of the building before venturing over to where the tour would start from. About 10 minutes after we were supposed to get on the truck the truck driver/tour guide let us on. We started up the road, bouncing along to the blasting 80’s rock music. The tour guide was amazing and talked us through everything. Our first stop was a bunker, and we learned a lot about how the area was converted to different bunkers, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and movie sets in the last few decades. There were lots of little bits and pieces that were left from the different movies filmed there. After taking about 200 pictures we got back onto the tour truck and continued down our rather bumpy path. Along the way we stopped at several more bunkers and listened as our tour guide explained what had gone on where. We drove around some more and saw tons of cows. We stopped at the most famous dead tree ever: the log from Jurassic Park. We took some pictures there, then proceeded to take a video of us in slow mode running away from a “giant” dinosaur. We hopped back on the truck and went to the Hamster Ball Ride scene. There was. No hamster ball there, unfortunately, but it was still cool to be there. In the truck we went down a hill with some dramatic music. (May I mention that the tour guide was blasting the music) Some ways away from the hamster balls we ran into another dinosaur and learned what the set was mostly made of… Styrofoam and plywood, I know, shocking. We rode our way up to the control room, where everyone got little dinosaurs. Walking around, was interesting, the control room was the most impressive set we saw, with its fake iPads and giant window. There were two bright blue velociraptors. Selfies were taken, children were locked inside cages with the dinosaurs, the usual. When we were done, we continued down the path, stopping occasionally to take pictures at amazing views. There was an island that looked like a cross between a witch’s hat and a turtle. According to Hawaiian culture it is the tip of a lizard’s tail. About 10 minutes before we arrived back, the speakers gave out, which lead to a more boring trip back. (The more exciting the music the more exciting the trip) When we got back the tour guide asked everyone to say happy birthday to Caroline, she also got a dinosaur key chain. We went through the gift shop on our way out, then drove to a Costco and Target to pick up food. Before heading back to the west side of the island we drove along the coastline. While we were driving towards the highway when we found a shave ice place and stopped. We all split a ginormous pineapple, mango, strawberry. There were lots of chickens and some chicks. The highway was blocked so we turned around and went back to the hotel another way. For dinner we decided to just eat the chicken, broccoli, ziti that we had picked up from Costco. After the long day, it was a relatively early bedtime.

Tomorrow Dole Plantation