Honolulu Trip: Day 1: Kualoa Ranch and Kailua Beach

Monday, June 15, 2026

We left St. George just after 3:30pm and drove to Vegas for our flight. It was a 5 1/2 hour flight. Unfortunately, we didn’t have screens to help pass the time. I read my book and did some drawing in my sketchbook, and Ian and Elisa watched anime movies. Elisa also drew some flowers on my arm. We were served a warm turkey and cheese sandwich for dinner and a cookie for dessert. We got our bags pretty quickly, and, unlike France, it didn’t take too long to get our rental van—a Honda Odessey, just like ours at home. We stopped at Walmart to get some breakfast items and water bottles. Our Airbnb was an apartment on the 5th floor right by Waikiki.

Tuesday, June 16, 2026

I woke up around 7am, though I wish I could have slept longer. After showering, dressing, and eating breakfast, we headed out the door for our e-bike ride appointment at Kualoa Ranch. We applied sunscreen while Erik got the tickets. Unfortunately, Ian didn’t get his arms well enough because he developed an obvious sun burn. We received a quick e-bike tutorial from our guide before starting our 2-hour long ride through the beautiful Kualoa Ranch. This was our first time riding e-bikes but not our first time visiting the ranch; although we didn’t really see much of the ranch. The e-bikes were fun and easy to ride, even though a few people in our group had trouble figuring it out (much to my annoyance). We made several stops. Our first stop was at an old WWII bunker that was filled with props and memorabilia from all the movies that were filmed. We stopped a few more times to see the various animals on the ranch, such as pigs, chickens, and turkeys. The next stop was to see some of the leftover props from King Kong. Finally, we made our way back to the gift shop to finish our tour.

We had to take a "test" before heading out on the ebikes.

We bought a print-out of this picture, it now hangs on our wall.

The kids did a pretty good job riding those e-bikes for the first time!

A picture for our Christmas card?

We took lots of pictures along the way. It was so pretty and so green!

The props from the new King Kong movie were starting to fall apart.

I tried to take a good pic of Gabe, but the lighting wasn't very good.

We took lots of pictures!

We paid $20 for this picture as a souvenir.

For lunch, we drove to Yummy Huli Huli Chicken. Ian tried the shrimp, and I had the fish, but the chicken was definitely the best. In the bathroom, we changed into our swimsuits and drove to Kailua Beach where we spent about an hour in the water.

On the way to the beach stopped at Tropical Farms to try some macadamia nuts. We smashed them open with a big rock. They were yummy! There were chickens hanging around all over the place. I loved trying the macadamia nut samples and even bought a few bags--coffee ones for my sister and some honey flavored, because that was what Ian wanted. I also bought some Kona coffee syrup for my sister.

It was fun cracking these yummy nuts open!

While the kids and I swam, Erik sat on the beach and took these pictures. Usually I don't take very many pictures since its hard to swim and take pics at the same time! Erik eventually did get in the water.

This is our favorite Hawaiin beach!

Finally, we drove back to our apartment. We walked around Honolulu until we came to Paia fish. Erik got the snapper, Gabe had fish and chips, Elisa had clam chowder, and Ian shared his salmon with me. On the walk back to the apartment, we stopped at the ABC store and bought Ian some aloe vera for his little sunburn. We also walked through the International Marketplace on our way back to the apartment.

As we drove into Honolulu, we saw a rainbow right next to the road. It followed us as we got into town.

Delicious fish!

Being silly with Gabe

We had Elisa take this picture for us