Hawaii | Part 1.

As soon as I started working at the hotel, I knew I wanted to go to Hawaii and take advantage of the cheap hotel rooms. It is soo hard to find discounted rooms in Hawaii and I searched daily for anything available. By some miracle, I found 2 rooms available at the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Oahu. I booked those rooms as soon as I found them and then called Austin and notified him of our pending Hawaii trip. I promised golf plus it is Hawaii so I figured he couldn't get too angry I booked without running it past him first. I asked my mom and dad if they wanted the second room and they quickly snagged it up. It was too good of a deal to pass up. Unfortunately, I had to book the rooms a whole year out. It was painful waiting for the vacation to approach but on the flip side, it gave us plenty of time to plan!

Austin's mom was sweet enough to watch the girls for us. She is the real MVP. I kept asking Kennadi if she wanted to go to Hawaii with us, and she kept telling me no. She was too excited to hang out with grandma for a whole week. I think it is natural to worry about the girls when we are away, but it sure made it easier knowing they were in good hands.

Austin, Madison, and I flew out on Monday. My mom and dad were on a different flight and we landed about the same time. We met up at the baggage claim, grabbed a rental car, and embarked on our week in paradise. We kept the first day super low key. We checked into our amazing resort and explored everything it had to offer. The resort is located right on Waikiki Beach and our rooms overlooked the ocean. It was so peaceful to sit on our balcony, hear the waves crashing, watch the surfers, and feel the ocean breeze. The resort was also home to 4 pools, water slides, a secluded lagoon, and a bunch of restaurants and shops. Because I am a Hilton Team Member, I got 50% off most of the food places, so we grabbed quite a few snacks there. Cheap rooms, Cheap food. What more could I need?

The next morning we woke up super early. Luckily it didn't feel super early because of the time change. We wanted to be at Sharks Cove early in the morning to go snorkeling. I read that this is one of the best snorkeling spots on the beach and they weren't wrong. The snorkeling was amazing. We had the whole cove to ourselves for most of the morning, which was a huge bonus. There was a good variety of fishes, and a large quantity of them as well. It was really rocky so we had to be aware so we didn't get scrapes and bruises, but it was so worth it. It was one of the highlights of the trip for me. After snorkeling, we kept exploring the North Shore. We stopped and had lunch at Ted's Bakery and had some of their famous chocolate haupia pie which wasn't too shabby. We tried boogie boarding at Sunset Beach, had the famous Matsumato Shaved Ice in Haleiwa, and then ventured to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. At the plantation we took a train ride through the plantation and ran through one of the largest mazes (Austin and I dominated my parents and Madison FYI). We finished the day off at Ko'olina. Madison insisted we visit Disney's Aulani and it wasn't disappointing. It is a huge resort and lets be real, I'll probably never be able to afford staying there so it was fun to visit.

Stroll down Waikiki Beach

Sharks Cove

Sunset Beach

Matsumoto Shave Ice

Matsumoto Shave Ice

Dole Pineapple Plantation

Pink Pineapple!