A little advise for your next vacation, Ask for the upgrade! we started out with a ocean view room…meaning as long as you can see a sliver of the water…ocean view. We were upgraded to an ocean front room meaning all you can see is water. we can walk out on to the lanai or balcony and almost touch the top of the palm trees and we can listen to the waves of the ocean while we sleep. The first night was amazing but the first morning/day was incredible when we got to actually see the view!

We started off the day with a complimentary breakfast (which included pineapple, and so has every meal since. apparently they’re grown around here or something) and a quick 2 hour introduction to the islands. Here we listened to a native tour guide tell us about all sorts of wonderful things to do that we either already knew about or already had scheduled. We did however get some good recommendations and decided to take advantage.

Once we decided on a few things to do we determined that today would be a good day to climb/hike Diamond Head. Rachel was a little uneasy with the thought of hiking in a dress but we were assured that the hike was not that demanding so we trekked on. We’re certainly glad that we did. The views from the way up were awesome and the views from the top were astounding. It provides a perfect vantage point to view Waikiki Beach.

After the hike we grabbed some lunch and took it easy for the rest of the day. We took a walk on the beach and did a little bit of shopping.

At sunset we had reservations at d.k Steakhouse. If you ever have the chance at dining at one of the d.k Restaurants I highly recommend it. Our steaks were easily the best I’ve ever had. I had the Sensei Filet Mignon and Rachel had the Filet Mignon and Oscar.

After dinner we had a quick stroll along the beach back to our Ocean Front hotel room, and then crashed (which is why we’re not posting until now).

with Love,
Randy and Rachel