Hawaii - Day Two

We woke up in Hawaii before the sun came up. Even after a long day of travel we were still on Illinois time. However, when the sun did come up we went out on the balcony and this is the view.

Obviously I zoomed in on the last two shots, but I want you to all feel as if you were there too.

After enjoying the view we headed to breakfast and then walked around the grounds of the hotel. Here are just a few of the sights.

Yes, we were truly in paradise. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa. The hotel and the grounds were absolutely gorgeous. Kauai is also known at the Garden Island, so there were plants, flowers and trees everywhere.

The hotel had a pool, another pool for adults only, a water slide, hot tub and a salt water lagoon. The lagoon had a beach-like setting and was perfect for Lili as she could easily wade out into the water or play in the sand.

The other nice thing about the lagoon was the hammocks. Lili and mommy enjoyed the sand and water while daddy relaxed under the shade of palm trees in a hammock. A fun time for all.

I think most of you know that this trip was the result of an award my husband's division won. Dave was one of the employees selected to go on the trip as a result of his hard work over the last year. On this particular evening all employees and their primary guest were required to attend a dinner event. This required that we get a baby sitter for Lili. Until this particular evening, Lili had never been left with a sitter and we weren't completely sure how she would handle being away from mom and dad for a few hours. We had been given contact information for two different sitter services prior to us leaving for Hawaii, so arrangements were made. Dave and I got ready for our evening and Lili was in her p.j.'s ready for the sitter. Dave was wearing his Hawaiian style shirt and I was wearing a Hawaiian style dress (no grass skirt). A few minutes before the sitter arrived we put an Elmo DVD in the portable DVD player and Lili was in Elmo world when the sitter arrived. We spent several minutes filling her in on Lili, her likes, dislikes, warning her about her temper, etc. and it was time to leave. Dave and I both gave Lili a kiss goodnight and told her we would be back later. We then headed toward the door and waited for the screaming and tears to start, but alas, Elmo was more important at that moment. We did find out after returning from our evening that Lili did in fact have a melt-down, but it was about an hour before we got back and was primarily due to her being extremely tired. The sitter, being a mom herself, handled it like a champ and Lili was down for the night. We crossed a major hurdle on this trip.

Our evening was wonderful. The hotel had closed the lagoon to guests earlier that afternoon to set everything up and when we arrived we were greeted at the entrance and a lei was placed around our neck. We were then escorted to a line to have our picture taken. After pictures we went to find the rest of our group. Along the way we saw table after table of food, bars and a stage with a live band. We had good food, good company, and a perfect Hawaiian evening. What made the evening even more special is that Dave and I were celebrating our 23rd wedding anniversary that day. It's an anniversary that we will never forget.

I hope you enjoyed reading about day one and seeing some of the sights via photo. Check back tomorrow to read more of our adventures on the Garden Island of Kauai.