May Part 11: Oahu Day 5

Sunday, May 31, 2026

Brian and I went for a walk up by the entrance to BYU-Hawaii, around the temple and across to the beach. It was lovely but very hot. Naturally, we saw lots of chickens along the way. 

After we got back, everyone took showers, got ready for church, walked to church, worshipped during sacrament meeting, came home, ate scraps/leftovers for lunch, and then headed to Kualoa Ranch, where they filmed many films, including scenes from Jurassic Park, Jurassic World, 50 First Dates, Skull Island, Pirates of the Caribbean, and others.

We got all checked in for our UTV tour, and divided the twelve of us between the 3 UTVs. Brian and Lara decided that the OG Savilles would all ride in one, Greg would drive one, and I would drive the other. Michael was bummed he was too young to drive. I ended up with Michael and the girls, and Greg got Gabe and Mack in his.   

We had about 3 spots where we stopped and got out of our vehicles to take pictures. This was our first stop. 

Our guide helped us record a fun video of us running from dinosaurs, and Brian and I filmed a reenactment of the scene from Jurassic Park where they first see the dinosaurs, with Elise, Mack, and Gabe starring as the dinosaurs, and Michael and Julia being Alan and Ellie, respectively. 

Our next stop had some props from Jurassic World, and the kids had to escape being stuck in a cage with dinosaurs. 

Legend has it that this mountain range is a tail-less lizard. 

This spot was so gorgeous, and our tour guide took this picture of Rachel and I. 

Soon, we were back in the vehicles. At this point, our guide said we were halfway done, and I was incredibly disappointed because we'd only been going about an hour, and I thought it was a 3 hour ride. 

We saw more props leftover from movies. 

We passed an old World War II bunker that they had used for a set on a movie, but we didn't get to go inside or stop. 

At this point, we thought we were headed back to the parking lot, and then the guide took us to this whole other valley, and it was so beautiful! 

Here's our guide-I don't remember his name, but he was really cool. 

Here's our group by the China Man hat. 

After we made it back (after actually going 3 hours!), they directed us to sinks to wash up. I particularly needed to wash my face. 

We had dinner at a food truck place, where some friends of Lara's met up with us. 

After dinner, we went back to our rental place and just hung out the rest of the night. Everyone watched Maleficent 2 together, except for me, because I'd never seen Maleficent 1 and didn't want to watch the second before the first. We did some laundry, and tried to get as many things packed up as possible. We checked on Rachel's back, and it looked SO MUCH BETTER!

We asked the kids what their favorite part of the trip so far was. Rachel said swimming in the ocean (despite it giving her 2nd degree burns) and Gabe said the ocean. Michael said the food was really good, and then he said the Aviation Museum was his favorite thing.