We always worry way too much before we travel. This time, we worried we might get sick (well, we always worry about this one!) We worried we might have to deal with a strike by the hotel workers. We worried we might get hit with a hurricane. But none of these things happened and we had a fabulous trip to Honolulu! OK, we had a side swipe by Hurricane Hone, but it wasn't bad!
Todd and I were sitting separate from the kids so we couldn't do our usual family selfie on the airplane - so we did it in the gate area (with the Honolulu sign in the background!)
I'm not gonna lie. It's a LONG flight. But this is what welcomes you when you arrive. That and a very blustery landing where the right wing of your aircraft nearly touches the ground and you skid in semi-sideways... but hey, you've got those mai tai's waiting for you to compensate!
We were able to check in immediately and go to our room in the Tapa Tower of the Hilton Hawaiian Village! Let's goooo!
Todd is so funny. After our cruise experience, he knew that he should join the "Hilton Hawaiian Village FB group" - and when he did, he said people always leave floaties in the hallways for other people to pick up so they don't have to buy them. Boy, we SCORED some serious beach swag when we were there, including this floatie that we found LITERALLY right when we got off the elevator on our floor! Other goodies later included another floatie, a boogie board, a noodle, several cans of reef safe sunscreen AND a bottle of aloe that Natalie needed after she got sunburned! We may have scored a cool hat too - more on that in another post!
This was the view from our room, straight ahead. I spy blue water!
If you look to the right, you could also see the ocean. And the Tapa Pool was right below us!
Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Go straight to the Tapa Bar and order two mai tai's and two virgin Pina Coladas, stat!
Happy first moments of vacation!
Oh of course, I almost forgot we were doing this.
Let's go to the beach! Queue up some Nicki Minaj!
This was the first time Natalie and Grant had ever been in the Pacific Ocean, which they got to do just down the beach from Diamond Head, the famous volcanic crater that we planned to hike up later in the week.
This is the view of (some of) our resort from the beach. The Hilton Hawaiian Village is the second largest Hilton property in the world! Superlative, check!
We broke out the snorkeling gear for a look around under water. Later in the week, we used the snorkeling gear a lot more - particularly to the west of this area where there is a reef that is frequented by tropical fish and sea turtles.
That's it. I'm never coming home.
There are so many ponds with interesting fish on the Hilton Hawaiian Village property. Apparently, they used to house a few black footed penguins, but they have since moved them to the Baltimore Zoo.
The HHV property is so pretty and tropical!
After some time at the beach and some exploration of the hotel property, we went to dinner at the Waikiki Brewing Company. This is a view of our tower from the street!
And since we were SO tired at dinner, we didn't take any pictures although the meal was excellent. So here, I will leave you with another picture that Natalie took from our afternoon happy hour!
It was an exhausting but fun first day in Oahu!
No comments:
Post a Comment