9 August 2011: Honolulu, Hawaii

We slept for over eleven hours and went downstairs for our free breakfast (one of the perks of Diamond status in the Hilton HHonors program :)). We then hiked over to Waikiki and relaxed on the beach, reading, for around seven hours, taking a good hour or so off in the middle for lunch at the nice poolside bar of the Hilton. The water here is beautiful, very clear and not as warm as you might think…it is very refreshing, especially in the really hot temperatures that you get when you’re sitting in the sun for so long. I spent a good amount of time in the water, swimming out pretty far and then just floating on my back for a while, eyes closed. Such a refreshing and relaxing feeling.

On the way back from the beach, once the heat got unbearable, we found the menu and a very helpful gentleman from Sergio’s Italian Table, the Italian restaurant at the Hilton (their webpage is here), and decided to set up a reservation for the night for dinner before heading back to the Doubletree to shower and rest up. After walking back, we had our dinner and both of us ordered off of the sunset special menu, which is a salad, entrée, and dessert, for $19.50. I had Spaghetti Bolognese, which was pretty good and got a large portion size. The set dessert was tiramsu, which was decent but this would not be the first choice for either Cin or myself. In total, the dinner was good but not great. The service, however, was awesome.

After dinner, we walked around the shops in the Hilton Hawaiian Village and stopped at the Tapa Bar, which is a really nice outdoor bar in the middle of the resort, for some delicious after-dinner drinks. A short walk back to the Doubletree and we watched a little television before deciding to head off to bed.