The Hilton

Our first three nights were spent at the Hilton. It was so nice! I would have to say that I was a little surprised by the beaches. I'm used to the white powder you find in the Gulf or on the East Coast. When we went out to the beach the sand was really coarse like breadcrumbs. Then when you would walk out into the water there was a lot of broken up coral that made it very unpleasant to walk on. It was great if you got a floaty and just drifted, as long as you didn't have to walk on the bottom barefoot you would be fine. But I was a little surprised and I guess disappointed that it wasn't all smooth. This is Diamond Head in the background, not that guy right in the middle of my shot. We rode into the crater of it, and you can actually hike it, but with two kids that we would have to strap onto our backs and one that might beg to be held also, we didn't think it sounded like too much fun. We drove in and drove out. "We're inside an old volcano Tobie!" "And now we're out."
They had all kinds of cool animals inside the hotel. They had penguins that we passed everyday on our way out to the beach, breakfast or just going to get the car. It was pretty cool. They fed them at 8am every morning so we tried to get there for that every morning. They also had pink flamingos, but they didn't turn out in the picture. Their ponds were filled with huge Koi, and this pond here with the penguins had turtles. They were so cute!
Here the kids are running out to the beach first thing in the morning. We were actually headed to breakfast, but once the kids saw the beach and the ocean they just took off running. It took us a while to coax them back. It was a really pretty sight to see every morning.
This was by the lobby. It's all open so you see straight back to the ocean while you are checking in.
Every Friday night they have a show with hula dancers and this guy that does all these cool tricks with fire. He spins them and even ate the fire a little. This was as close as we could get and the best picture that was taken out of the whole 30 min. Then they had a fireworks show that was really awesome!
Inside the hotel you really felt like you were inside some fantasy tropical island. With all the exotic birds just wandering around and the beautiful plants, but as soon as you left you were immediately in the city of Waikiki. It was pretty surreal. I really loved the Hilton and I was a little sad to leave it, but it was just too darn expensive!