Michel and Julie: Hawaii Day 5: Horseback Riding and Ocean Fun

Our fourth day in Hawaii was one that I was especially looking forward to. We were going to Kualoa Ranch for a 2-hour horseback tour. On the tour you would get to see where movies such as Jurassic Park and 50 First Dates were filmed. 50 First Dates is one of my all-time favorite romantic comedies, so I was especially excited about this location.

We drove out to Kualoa Ranch which was about an hour away and got our horses. Michel and I joked that when we did a horseback riding tour two years ago as an excursion on our cruise we were paired with horses who shared our personalities - mine stopped to pee or poop every few minutes, and Michel's kept stopping to eat. This time proved no differently. Michel's horse was EXTREMELY stubborn and strong-willed, mine was pretty easy-going, go-with-the-flow, and a bit easily spooked - much like me!

Michel on his horse, Kula

My sad attempt of taking a picture of myself on the horse. As you can see, it didn't work out, but my horse was a gorgeous brown color and very easy to guide.

I teased Michel on the trip that his horse was so much like him because Michel was supposed to be the one leading the tour - just because he got saddled and to the gate first. I was right behind him. When the gate was opened for us, Michel's horse refused to move no matter how many times or how hard Michel kicked him. After a few times the tour guide suggested that we let my horse, Abendigo, go first, and he went! So I became the leader...scary, huh?

We saw some beautiful scenery during our tour.

In the picture above you can see a big tree trunk lying down, and in the right side of the picture you can see a green bus...

I was never able to get a great picture of this, but this fallen tree trunk is where they filmed a scene in Jurassic Park. Remember when the kids were waiting in the car and then a T-rex came out of the trees?? That scene was filmed here! The whole movie was supposed to be filmed on Oahu, but Oahu had a hurricane hit, and the rest of the movie actually ended up being filmed in Kauai.

OK, so remember a couple pictures up where I pointed out that green bus over to the side of the picture? That was a tour bus from the ranch that must have just broken down. The reason that I pointed this out is because I said that my horse was easy to guide, but was easily spooked? He would not go anywhere near that bus! He just stopped and refused to move, so our guide had to go to the front of the line and take the lead until we got around the bus, and then my horse willingly followed behind her and her horse. It's funny how horses are so smart, but so timid. In fact, later one of those same tour buses (the one that my horse was spooked by) passed us on the road full of tourists and my horse wasn't phased by it at all. It was the empty tour bus sitting on the side of the road that was spooky to him.

Anyways, on to more sights. After we passed Jurassic Park we saw Godzilla's footprints! We also learned that the American version of Godzilla had three toes while the Japanese version of Godzilla had four toes. Pretty interesting, huh?

Right past Godzilla's footprints were what excited me most...the set for 50 First Dates!! The whole movie wasn't filmed here, but a few scenes were. The road that we rode our horses along was the road that featured Drew Barrymore driving down when she was going to the Hukilau Cafe. Alongside that road, Adam Sandler pretended to shut it down for road work, put his penguin in the middle of the road, and pretended that Rob Schneider was beating him up on the side of the road. In the scene immediately following when Drew Barrymore chases Rob Schneider into a big, open field with a baseball bat....

...it was this field!! Kinda cool :)

One of the coolest things that we discovered, though, is that the Hukilau Cafe is real! We tried eating lunch there, but after making the 25 minute drive out of our way to find it we were disappointed to find that it was closed on Sundays. Well...I'm not disappointed that it's closed on a Sunday; I'm disappointed that we made the half hour trek out there and it was closed.

Every time I mention or say the words Hukilau Cafe it makes me thing of the Adam Sandler song that he sings in the movie. Anybody else big fans of 50 First Dates or is that just me?

Anyways, we also saw several old military bunkers from WWII. In this first picture there's a cow standing beside it. The cattle here are raised for beef.

After our tour we stopped into Boston's Pizza for lunch, and it was delicious! We were both starving by the time we got here, anyways, but the food really was good.

We headed back to our cottage, let our food settle some, and headed down to the beach. I will admit that I haven't been a huge fan of our side of the ocean so far. We're on the windward side of Oahu, so we have waves that break around the shoreline. They're not huge - probably about 3 feet tall, but they're not my favorite. Even on a boogie board they're a bit rough for me. But I still go out there everyday and try it for a few minutes. And when I've had enough waves, I lay out on the beach and watch Michel take on the waves.

Here's a few pictures of our beach fun!