hawaii - day 1

today began the trip of a lifetime!

the girls were generously gifted a trip to celebrate their high school graduation (although for little sister, this gift is premature by 2 years!) from daddy's mom & stepdad. (aka, grandma & grandpa)  and lucky us, daddy and i got to tag along!!  after some debate between japan and various places in europe, the girls agreed that they wanted to see the tropical 50th state of hawaii.

we had an easy 8:40am flight, nonstop to honolulu, and grandma hooked us up with premium economy seats for the 8 hour flight.

wider seats, footrests, individual monitors.....we were all set.

  

still happy mid flight..... :-)

we landed around noon local time and had to wait about an hour for grandma & grandpa to arrive.  after picking up our five checked bags, we camped out in the lobby of the rental car place.

once we got the rental & the rest of our party, the six of us headed to the hotel.  it was a short 16 minute drive, and the first thing that caught my attention was the monkeypod tree.  it had such a unique shape, a full canopy the created so much shade from the sun below.  we don't see trees like this where we are from, and i thought it was beautiful.

 we soon arrived at the westin moana surfrider.  it was the first hotel opened on waikiki beach in 1901 and marked the beginning of tourism in waikiki.

we checked out our room for the next six nights in the historic banyan wing.  

and of course, we checked out the beach.

we explored the area around the hotel a little bit just to get acclimated to the area.  there was a large shopping area nearby with lots of restaurant choices, and there was gorgeous vegetation everywhere we turned.

we ate dinner at the banyan bar in the hotel's beach-facing courtyard.  knowing the clock said one time but our bodies were feeling 5 hours later, we may have turned in early for local time but we needed to rest up for more adventures.

today's step count: 8,625

miles flown: 3,776