Hawaii: Arrival and Westin Princeville

We flew out early last Wednesday morning for our 8 day Hawaiian vacation! Marcus won a spot in his company's President's Club, so they sent us to Hawaii for 5 days to celebrate. We added on 4 days at the start of the trip to enjoy a little extra time. When you are already in Hawaii, why not extend a few days?

So, we arrived about 2 PM Hawaii time (5 hours earlier than Texas time) and immediately grabbed our rental car and drove north to Kapa'a Town. We found a cute little cafe on the 2nd story with a great breeze and cool beer! I had a burger with cantaloupe- the sweetest! Marcus ate a fish burger and learned he liked Longboard Lager, a local light beer.

Afterward, we walked the shops in Kapa'a and I had my first shaved ice. Yummy!

Our car was pretty amazing- a brand new Chevy Cruz. It didn't require a key, it started with the push of a button and your keys nearby. It unlocked the doors when the key was close and had a USB port and touch screen for playing DJ.

We left Kapa'a and drove to Princeville where our condo was located. We bought a few grocery items and then checked in. The first morning we awoke early, like 3:45 early (8:45 at home) and captured sunrise off the cliff on the edge of the island.

Our condo was pretty sweet- we would totally come back with Abby! We were upgraded for free to a one bedroom, so it was the size of a nice apartment with a full kitchen. They also had lots of grills on property. Lots of families must fill it in the summer- it was pretty light since it was October.

The "main house" had a market, Starbucks, workout center, activity center for the kids and a restaurant. Since we declined housekeeping service, we were given $10 voucher for the market or restaurant each day. We used it to buy coffee and snacks each day.

As  you would expect in Hawaii there was the most beautiful flowers throughout the property.I'll do a whole post on the flowers I saw soon! These were some of my favorites.

We stayed here Wednesday through Sunday and spent most days at the pool. They had 3 different pools, one was just 10 steps from our door. It was nice to make a drink with "grocery" supplies and then take that and a bag of chips to the pool. We were smart and packed our Tervis Tumblers!

I'll share more Hawaii soon- I took over 500 pictures so I wanted to break it up into a couple of logical posts :) We had a wonderful time overall and can't wait to go back and hopefully take Abby one day.