In June of 1993 a twelve year girl went to the movie theater with her best friend and her best friend’s brother and his best friend to see a critically acclaimed Steven Spielberg summer blockbuster that had just been released- Jurassic Park. The girl had no clue what the word “jurassic” meant and was just there because it was the movie that the best friend’s brother and his friend had chosen. Within the first thirty seconds of the movie the girl was captivated and spent the next two hours and seven minutes on the edge of her seat. She spent the rest of the summer drinking in everything Jurassic Park and dinosaur themed that she could, utterly enthralled with the idea of velociraptors, Tyrannosaurus Rexes, Michael Crichton, paleontology, Robert Bakker, the evolution of birds, DNA, chaos theory, Ford Explorers, Costa Rica, the music of John Williams, and Tonya Harding¹. The next week she got her hands on the 399 page novel and devoured it within days. She even dragged her mother to a music/movie store in the mall to preorder the VHS tape of the movie and then when it finally arrived, proceeded to watch the movie nearly every day for the next few months, being able to quote just about every line from it, which I am sure her family just loved and found quite charming. For Christmas that year there would be gifts of model Tyrannosaurus Rexes, and books about the making of Jurassic Park. The girl was obsessed. That girl was me.

Parts of Jurassic Park were filmed in Oahu at Kualoa Ranch so when I found out that we were going to Hawaii, a tour of the 4,000 acre ranch was one of the first things I booked. I picked the “Jurassic Adventure Tour” for us, so on Tuesday, November 8, that was the first order of business for Scott and I.

We arrived, checked in, and wandered around the visitors center area while we waited for our tour to start. This was the staging area for their trail rides so we got to see their string of horses (they all looked healthy and in good weight) and watch tourists get outfitted and acquainted with their steeds. There were pictures of the various movie stars and other famous people that have visited or filmed at Kualoa, as well as movie memorabilia from the many films that have been shot at this beautiful and sprawling ranch and it was fun to walk around and take it in. Some of the most well known movies/shows that have been filmed there are: Jurassic Park franchise (especially the Jurassic World installations), 50 First Dates, Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, Pearl Harbor, Lost, Jumanji, and Hawaii Five-0.

Unfortunately it was raining during our tour, which is par for the course on the windward side of Oahu, but we were good sports and spent the next two hours being driven around the ranch in an open-air truck, stopping at various notable sights where Jurassic Park was filmed. The land itself is beautiful and provides a stunning view of the Kaneohe Bay and the Ko’olau mountain range soars up seemingly from the middle of the property, creating an incredibly dramatic scene. During the World War 2 era, the ranch was an airfield, and defensive structures were built into the mountainside overlooking Kaneohe Bay. Post WWII, the land was returned to the family but the structures remain and have now been turned into a film museum of sorts with actual movie props. Getting to go inside the bunker was fun and also gave us a little break from the rain.

My Jurassic Park itch scratched, we left the ranch and headed across the street to Kualoa Beach Park. We set up hammocks and dried out in the sun while staring across Kaneohe Bay to the island called China Man’s Hat. Just as we finally got dry the rain started back up so we quickly packed our hammocks up and headed to get lunch (Teddy’s Bigger Burgers).

Remember our coffee situation at the apartment? It was a nice machine but the little pods were quite expensive and Scott is more of a volume consumer rather than appreciating the complex notes and flavors so we decided to pop into Target and buy a regular drip coffee pot for our stay. We figured that we could get a cheap one to use and just leave it at the Airbnb at the end of our trip. We found one for less than $20 but the real highlight of this Target trip was when Scott discovered that a feature of this particular two story store was a shopping cart escalator. He went and grabbed a shopping cart just so that he could try it out. There was a security guard posted near the escalator (probably for the Scotts of the world) and Scott asked him if he could ride along inside the shopping cart while it rode up the escalator, to which the security guard zanily quipped back “No children allowed.” Good one Mr. Target security guard!

Later in the day we decided to venture out and go south to explore the area from Kailua towards Honolulu along an area called the Kaiwi State Scenic Shoreline. We stopped at Waimanalo Beach first and sipped some local beers that we had picked up the day before while overlooking the ocean (they were a miss- I typically like nearly all beers, but these were too bitter even for me which meant that Scott certainly didn’t like it). Scott took a dip into the ocean before we packed up and carried on (bringing more sand into the rental car). We pulled off at the Koko Crater Arch trail and this was where I first discovered all the stray cats on the island, and shifted my obsessive attention off of feral chickens and onto wild cats. In the parking lot there was a sign announcing that you were prohibited from feeding both chickens and cats. We had only taken about ten steps when I spotted the first kitten and then when we got to the overlook I saw more climbing on the steep rocky cliffs rising above the ocean and declared this to be a terrible spot for kittens to be living. (Quotable quotes from Scott: “It’s like a kitty…. cathouse here” and “No Janna, you cannot take any of these kittens with us.”)

Continuing along the route we stopped at the Halona Blowhole at Halona Cove, Halona Cove being the beach made famous by the passionate love scene in the 1953 movie From Here to Eternity. Scott scampered out onto the rocks and down the slope to the beach while I watched safely from the overlook (in my defense I had on flip flops and didn’t want to break an ankle the day before I was supposed to start the certification- not that I want to break an ankle any other time, but in particular didn’t want that to happen this day). From there we ended up getting into the outskirts of Honolulu right at sunset and from the inside of the car while stopped in traffic, I caught one of the most iconic shots of our trip, palm trees along the water backlit with dramatic orange light from the setting Oahu sun.

Scott opted out of dinner and I found a takeout sushi place in Kailua. I made sure I had all my paperwork in order to start the certification the next day and we crashed, exhausted from another day of soaking up the sights of the island.