We went to the Dole pineapple plantation today. on our way, we stopped at McDonald’s in Pearl City to get the kids some food and it was the most bizarre McDonald’s we’ve ever seen! When you order food in the drive-through, they send it on a conveyor belt from the main building to the little outbuilding where you get your food.
Rainbow eucalyptus tree with really neat smooth barkCool corn maze, but too hot to do that todayPineapple split, anyone? Yikes! We went with the cheaper optionsTastes just like the Dole Whips we get at Magic Kingdom!I had the Kalua barbecue pork sandwich with pineapple!So glad I got to see one of these really different Cardinals!Fields of pineapple plants!Really upscale shopping district in WaikikiWithin headed straight to Diamond Head volcano crater, just a couple of miles east of the hotel This is the part I was really looking forward to… Getting to drive through the wall of the volcano! Not something I ever imagined I would be able to do!This is inside, looking at the wall around us.ABC convenience/grocery/gift shop stores are literally everywhere! In the shopping district in Waikiki we counted six within a couple of blocks! I think we have shopped in at least three of them around the hotel. Here is a part of the hotel resort shopping and restaurant areaAOKI Teppanyaki for dinner!I like this little Japanese district within the hotel resort! Feels like an international district.
Day 7
This morning we headed to Kualoa Ranch for a Jurassic Park tour! The drive to the ranch was beautiful!
Gyrosphere ride platform from Jurassic WorldThe most beautiful view we’ve seen!Looks like concrete, huh? Plywood covered in plaster and styrofoam!Styrofoam tree branches from one of the movie scenes where a triceratops tramples a treeKong movie propsAwesome set from Jurassic World!Styrofoam-coated walls with dinosaur claw marks from Indominous RexNeat plant I found in the jungle!Getting ready for the hotel fireworks!Perfect end to our trip!
Day 8
Our flight wasn’t until 8:45 PM, so we had some time to kill today. We ate lunch at Spaghetti Factory again!
We drove over to Ko Olina to see the Disney Aulani resort
It was like we were transported to Disney World! Tripp even had a Mickey ice cream!
The Honolulu airport had Japanese, Chinese, and Hawaiian gardens!
Honolulu airport food prices are insane!!!Hours to kill before our delayed flight!Awesome view of the Grand Canyon from 35,000 feet up!
From the time we started packing at the hotel to the time we got back to Arkansas, it had been 24 hours and we only slept maybe two hours the whole time! Plane delays and issues both coming and going … Really glad to be home!
