to celebrate Big C's 10th birthday! It just so happened that B-real planned this trip to coincide with her birthday but wasn't exactly a birthday present. When Little c got wind of the trip being over her sister's birthday she wondered where we would go for her birthday? She thought New York would be a nice option!
We just returned from 8 days on the Big Island staying at the most awesome of awesome resorts. It is called the Hilton Wakioloa Village. Check out some photos:
This is one of the five pools the Hilton has on their sixty some acres of property in Wakioloa Village. We hung out daily under the rickety bridge because it was some of the only pool side shade.
Since the resort is so large and spread out, the Hilton has a tram to take you around the property. They also have these beautiful wood boats to get you around too. The water below is fed from the Pacific Ocean so it's also fun to look down and see various fish. We were able to catch the boat on the main floor of our hotel tower.
Let me tell you about cool. Below is the lagoon, which is fed from the Pacific ocean too. It's completely protected from the large waves though so it makes for a perfect place to teach your kids to snorkel. Big C and I had a blast and got to swim with a giant sea turtle. We saw all kinds of pretty fish too. Sadly, we learned Little c has some reaction to salt water and broke out into a horrible itch. No snorkeling for her. B-real took Claire another day and they witnessed sea turtles rolling around in the bubbles created by the waterfall. Big C has no fear, she'll dive down into the lagoon to check stuff out and is not afraid to go face to face with a giant turtle. Next up, she says, is learning to scuba dive. I don't doubt she'd love it!
Here are some of the waterfalls at the main hotel pool. They also had a pretty cool water slide! All of us had fun going down it. The hotel was so quiet that we could get off the slide, run up the stairs, and slide back down again. The girls were at an ideal age for this type of vacation because they are both confident enough swimmers to be somewhat independent in the pool. The other thing Hilton figured out was to make the pool no more than 3 1/2 feet deep anywhere.
Our room looked out over the ocean as well as the dolphin pool. It was really neat to be able to sit on our deck and watch the dolphins swim all day and sometimes in the middle of the night. I had a hard time with the time difference for a few nights and found it quite peaceful to sit outside and watch the dolphins. Since our airfare and hotel were free we decided to treat the girls to a swim with the dolphins experience. I thought it was done really well and they were able to spend about 45 minutes interacting with them. Big C said kissing a dolphin is just like kissing a hot dog. Big C was torn between learning to surf or swimming with the dolphins on her birthday.
October is most definitely the time to visit as we nearly had the place to ourselves. B-real talked to some of the pool employees who said when it's busy at the hotel, it's busy. The capacity of the pool we used is 2,200 people and there are 1000 pool chairs set up around the pool. B-real's friend said in December and over spring break-y time every chair is full. I don't think it would be as much fun then.
We are home and I am tired. We flew overnight from Kona to L.A. and then back home. Neither B-real nor I sleep on planes so we are feeling the effects today. We lucked out on the plane and each had a row to ourselves with one girl. Fortunately the girls were able to lay down to sleep.
More soon, once I have a chance to download our photos!
