Day One In Paradise

On Saturday morning we left VA, kiddos in tow, and made the 9 hour trek to Ohio.  Early Sunday morning we left the kids in Ohio with Reeds sister and her family (Thank you Murry's)  and headed to the Columbus airport where we embarked upon the first leg of our journey into paradise. We flew from Columbus to Chicago, from Chicago to Honolulu, and finally on a small plane to our finally destination Lanai Island. It had been a long day of travel when we arrived in our hotel around 6 pm local time, so we grabbed a quick dinner and went right to sleep.

The next morning we awoke to a beautiful sunny day. We had breakfast at the hotel and enjoyed this beautiful view.

After breakfast Reed had a meeting to go to (his only meeting on this trip), so I headed out on my own to explore and take pictures. This is a courtyard that we walk through on our way to our room.

This is the view right outside the lobby on the way to the pool and then down to the beach. We enjoyed an amazing dinner right here by the pool last night. 

I went down to the beach and explored around some of the rocks and tide pools where I saw little fish and crabs. The water is so clear you can see right through the waves as they crash onto the sand. And the sand is like walking on velvet it is so soft and fine. I sat and read a book until it was time to meet Reed up in the conference room where we were given the low down on activities and amenities. After that we were free to do as we pleased.

First we headed into Lanai City where we picked up a few groceries for the rest of the week and had lunch. Then back to the room to change into our suites and down to the beach!  

Awe...

As we sat on the beach we decided it's a good thing we don't live here, we really would do nothing but sit on the beach for the rest of our lives. They even have a guy that comes around and brings cold wet towels and sprays you with water to cool you off. We could get used to this. 

A panoramic view of beach

We enjoyed some really beautiful views as the sun went down

Time to snorkel!

The snorkel gear is complementary from the hotel, so we decided to interrupt our relaxing and venture out into the blue.

We invested in a water proof camera and really enjoyed it...

On our way back to our room we saw this flock of wild turkeys hanging out on the grounds.

 Today we are going to take a hike out to "Sweet heart rock", then more relaxing on the beach, scuba diving at 2, and a luau tonight!