Our Honeymoon in Oahu, Hawaii part two

If you read my blog post the other day about part one of our honeymoon, you would have seen we went to San Diego to start our trip! Our second part as you can see from the title was Oahu! I am not sure if Hawaii was always on my list of places to go but over the last few years it had become more magical to me. I knew Jurassic Park was filmed somewhere in Hawaii so I thought how awesome would it be to go see where they filmed? And just have a relaxing time. While Lex and I agreed we probably couldn’t live in Hawaii we definitely want to go back someday.

Having never been to Oahu I found a hotel in the Waikiki area of Honolulu. This was definitely the more touristy area FULL of shops, malls, people, food, etc. Our hotel was great and had just as amazing views as our hotel in San Diego did. While we enjoyed our stay at Hilton Waikiki Beach we ended up driving out to the North Shore of the island the majority of the time! That area was definitely more us. I am glad though we stayed in Waikiki, if we had stayed at Turtle Bay (which is pretty awesome, we walked through the hotel quickly) we probably wouldn’t have rented a car since there was so much to do there. We could have gotten a ride to our ATV tours at Kualoa Ranch and walked to the stables on the resort for horseback riding. We probably also wouldn’t have ventured to Waikiki because the North Shore was so awesome. So this gave us a great opportunity to explore and drive all over the island. Plus we were able to get a jeep which was pretty fun to drive around in. We initially only planned to rent a car for 2 days but we decided to book it for the whole week. Definitely worth it! We drove to the other side of the island almost every day.

One of the best things by far we did was do a session through Flytographer. We added it to our registry so we could hire a photographer in Hawaii and it worked out perfectly. Reese from Reese and Renee Photography was the photographer and just nailed it. It was so nice to take an hour to just hang out together and let Reese do the capturing and documenting of our trip. Now we will forever have these beautiful photos from our time there. I would 100% recommend doing something like this on any trip. Selfies are great but these photos are special. Feel free to bring me along to any trip ;) Or reach out to Reese if you are in Oahu and tell him Mackenzie and Lex sent you!

As I mentioned before, another favorite part of our trip was just exploring the North Shore. There were TONS of roadside stands and food trucks to stop at, it was amazing. I am all about supporting small businesses and just loved how excited they were to have us stop by. Some of my favorites include the Sunrise Shack which has a second location in Waikiki, The Mill, which is basically a dirt parking lot full of food trucks, and Kahuku Land Farms stand ( I got amazing banana bread there). If you go The Mill, for sure check out Seven Brothers. I had one of the best burgers I have ever had in my life there.

I promised Lex we would get to go horseback riding if we got to go to Hawaii! Lex LOVES horses so I was so happy we got to do this. There was a bunch of different options of places but I felt like Turtle Bay Stables was the best choice. And it was awesome. We did a 45 minute tour but probably could have done the 2 hour one. Initially I thought 2 hours sitting on a horse might be painful but 45 minutes wasn’t enough. We got to ride through the jungle and by the beach, see where Lost, Jumanji, The Hunger Games, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall were filmed. We would love next time to maybe stay a few days at Turtle Bay so we can do more exploring there.

Another of my favorite things we did in Hawaii was the 2 hour ATV tour at the Kualoa Ranch. It was worth every penny and the hour and 20 minute drive from our hotel. Riding ATVs is pretty awesome to begin with but when you get to do it where Jurassic Park, Lost, Jurrasic World, Kong Skull Island, 50 First Dates, etc were filmed and its one of the most incredible views its basically the greatest day ever. We had SO much fun and are very appreciative to those who gifted us money to do this (and the horseback riding) on our trip. I bought a Jurassic Park t-shirt from there and now its the only thing I want to wear. So don’t be surprised if you see me wearing it. Funny thing is though that the only scene filmed in Jurassic Park at the ranch was the scene where they hide under the log. Our tour guides were laughing. Most was filmed in Kauai but don’t let that stop you from going if you are a big fan! Most of the Jurassic World island scenes were filmed here.

We’ve only been home a few days but are dreaming up our next adventure! Stayed tuned to see where we go next.