Oahu: Welcome to Paradise

Well, we have been home a week now and I figured it was finally time to blog about the ol' Hawaii trip. Can't let 3 months go by before I even think about blogging it. Kinda like the Orlando trip of December 2010. One of these days those photos will have their day in the sun. So for now I begin the fun task of sharing our Oahu Adventures with you. So as not to overwhelm you (at least not all at once) but still cover all of the ground with which I would like to cover, I am warning you now that it will probably be a solid week of Oahu posts. So, there you have it, you have been warned. :)

We were invited by Nate's parents about 15 months ago, they had the opportunity to use an amazing time share on Waikiki Beach. We figured, "Why not? We haven't been to Hawaii yet. Sounds awesome!" When people hear that we were going to Hawaii with one of our parents they kinda give us a look. Well, let me tell you, it's not like that. They are awesome to travel with. We had fun together and totally went off on our own to have some time just for the two of us. We were delighted to hear that Nate's 86 year old Grandma Lundberg would also be joining us. I just love her to pieces! She is exactly who I want to grow up to be. She is spunky, smart, sassy, a fashionista, you name it! LOVE her! The photo from yesterday's Wordless Wednesday shows just how much fun she is. That photo was NOT photo shopped by the way. She was literally on that board WITH her walker out on the water! Love her.

So, today's post are photos from when we first arrived on Oahu. It was late in the afternoon. Nate and I had just arrived to the hotel. It was the Grand Waikikian in Hilton's Hawaiian Village right on Waikiki Beach. When we got up to the room Janet, LaVere and Gma L. were all gone to the Commissary at Pearl Harbor doing the grocery shopping. We were immediately drawn to the balcony. It was absolutely spectacular! I miss it so much.

This was the view to the right on the balcony. You can see the Ocean, the public beach and the hotels private Lagoon. To the right of the Lagoon was like one of seven swimming pool areas. It was heaven. We were on the tenth floor. As a side note we got home about a day and a half before the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. So we missed all of that drama. We have been told that our hotel evacuated the bottom five floors of their towers, so we would have had a front row seat to all of the tsunami action in Hawaii. That still trips me out!

This is a photo of a Wedding Chapel that they have on their 22 acre property at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. It is gorgeous!

Everywhere you turned you were greeted with waterfalls and ponds and beautiful gardens. It was making me seriously rethink about adding a water feature to our yard. LOVED it!

This is overlooking the swimming pool area closest to our tower. We spent most of our pool swimming time here. They had 4 water slides, two hot tubs, multiple waterfalls, and huge pools. Super beautiful! From here you can also see the Lagoon, beach and Ocean.

Standing in the pool area overlooking the Lagoon.

The tower second from the left is where we were. We were walking out to the marina to watch the sunset. The Lagoon is on the right.

The Marina at sunset.

We enjoyed watching the sunset (and some sunrises) that week. They were all just spectacular. Stay tuned to see some more!