Rob and I are not typically morning people, but when your body hasn’t yet adjusted to being six hours behind your usual time, you find you wake up pretty early! I took advantage of this opportunity and got some early morning shots of our hotel, the Hilton Waikoloa Village, as the sun was rising.

This particular hotel stay is one of the ones we were most looking forward to, as we decided we wanted our first three nights of the trip to feel like we were truly “celebrating” retirement. Most of our stays will be in small studio air bnbs, but this place is a huge resort. They have multiple buildings along their stretch of the western coast of the Big Island, and an actual monorail that goes between the buildings. And y’all… they have a dolphin sanctuary on property! Be still my heart. ❤️

After breakfast, Rob headed to the pool and I headed to a kukui nut bracelet-making class held in the Hawaiian cultural center at our hotel (yes- I am a “joiner”- stop rolling your eyes at me SWS! 😂). The rest of our day was pool and more pool, and checking out all the sights in our beautiful hotel. We also saw two mongoose today! They are considered invasive here, but I was still thrilled. We sunscreened up, but are both a little red after our day in the sun. I told Rob that despite our amazing plans ahead, I am never leaving this resort. I live here now, and will be hiding when it is checkout time. Please foward my mail to Cabana Number 3. Mahalo!

Dinner tonight was seafood at one of the restaurants at our hotel, Kamuela Provision Company. We dined al fresco as the sun set, I could feel the beauty and peace of this place in my whole body. So grateful to be here.

Thanks for adventuring with us today!