The Brown Kiddos: Hawaii Vacation-Sept 20-Oahu Day 1

On Sunday, we went to church with Shayne & Billie in Hilo, and Lane did another great job preaching. After church, we ate lunch at KFC, and then headed back to the house to get packed for Lane and I to head out on our 3 day trip to the island of Oahu. Shayne and Billie were so gracious to, not only let us stay with them a whole week in Hilo, but also to keep our kids so that we could get away for an early 10 year anniversary trip. Thank y'all so much for that - it really means a lot, and we know that the kids had such a great time with you!

We flew out about 4:30 that afternoon, and arrived in Honolulu at 5:30. We picked up our rental car at the airport and made our way to check in at our hotel, the Hawaii Prince Hotel in Waikiki. While we were researching all the different tours in Oahu, we found that, even though most tours provided transportation from our hotel, they were all very expensive and also took too much time. So, instead, we decided to spring for a convertible mustang for our rental car, and we were able to drive all over the island and see everything that we were interested in seeing. It was so much fun, and it was a wonderful time together. I am so grateful that God brought Lane into my life to be my husband, and I am especially thankful for all of the wonderful blessings and opportunities that He has blessed our marriage with during these past ten years.

Lane got to drive first, but we really did share and took turns driving each day. It was really fun! These pictures were taken on our drive from the airport to the hotel.

We arrived at our hotel, and we were very pleased with it. We booked it through priceline.com, and we were very pleased with both the price and quality in our reservation. The hotel is situated on the far west end of Waikiki, which gave us easier access to other areas of Honolulu, without having to drive all the way through Waikiki and its traffic. It overlooked the marina, which was very pretty and made a nice picture out our window. We were on the 12th floor, in room 1212.

As we were getting ready to leave for dinner, I took this beautiful picture of the sunset from our hotel room window.

We had a hard time deciding where to eat dinner that night because there were so many choices. We parked our car down by the beach and walked up the main strip of Waikiki, along the beach and then by all of the restaurants and shops, until we finally decided on Jimmy Buffett's Beachcomber restaurant. We figured it would be fitting to have a "Cheeseburger in Paradise", and it was a great choice. I actually had one of the specials, a grilled flaky white fish, covered with a spicy lemon butter and garlic sauce. By far, the best fish I have ever eaten! Lane had a blackened fish sandwich. We sat up on the terrace upstairs, with no wait for a table. We also got to sit and enjoy some great live music. After dinner, we walked through an international market, where we negotiated a great price on a cute Hawaiian tote bag for me. It really was a nice way to start our Oahu getaway!