Hawaii! Day 2 - I could get used to this!

Because of the 4 hour time difference, the morning of day two started out pretty early for me!  But that was ok, because I was SO excited to grab my camera and my hubby and take a walk around the resort!  It was a little cloudy in the morning when I took all of these pictures, but it was still so gorgeous and amazing.  Ahhh, paradise!

*Cue angels singing*

This was my first view of the lagoon.  Each building at the resort had its own lagoon, and there was a walkway that extended down the whole beach connecting them all together.  There were so many people out running and walking, and just taking advantage of the beautiful weather.  I was seriously in heaven!

The view of our lagoon from the other side.

Walkway to another lagoon.

Gorgeous!  One of those buildings that you can see in the distance is a Disney resort.  Their lagoon was also connected (I believe it's owned by Marriott also, but I'm not 100% sure).

It was a little bit windy that first morning, but it was still breathtaking.  The weather changed frequently while we were there, and I hear that's pretty standard.  The resort was built on the dryer side of the island, because apparently the weather is much more consistent there.  They make the resorts feel just as tropical, so I appreciated having better weather.  Plus, we took trips around the island so we were able to experience it all anyway!

I forgot to mention that we stayed on the island of O'ahu.  I'm sure you gathered that when I told you that we flew into Honolulu, but just in case you are like I was - pretty clueless about Hawaiian geography - there it is ;)

Our first steps into the beautiful lagoon.  The resort had all sorts of things that you could do!  We wanted to rent snorkels, because apparently the lagoons are perfect for that, but we never did get a chance to.  Just the swimming though was fine with me!  I absolutely love being in the water.

Up above the lagoon, the resort had tons of AMAZING pools!  This one is the "Serenity Pool" and was only for adults.  It is a really nice, quiet, peaceful place to sit down and read, or take a nap, or whatever.  You had to get there really early though, if you wanted a spot, because the chairs filled up quickly!

Another view of the Serenity Pool.  Right next to the pool, there was a restaurant, that we never ate at because it was super expensive.  But it was a fun atmosphere anyway.  They had live music at night, with torches burning, and just an overall beautiful setting.  One night we went and sat in the hot tub that was right by the restaurant, and it was such a peaceful, fun time.  We met a guy and his wife there that were staying at the resort for 2 weeks!  Holy smokes.  Lucky!

A pond with HUGE, beautiful koi fish at an entrance to our building.

This was another pool with a man-made beach!  Such a fun place for little kids!

The other end of the pool with the beach.  As you can see, there's basketball hoop, volley ball net, swimming lane, and in the mornings they would have water aerobics classes here for the old people :)

Pretty water feature located below the drop off zone, and between some of the pools.  Directly to the right is the view of the ocean.  It was so cool how everything was terraced so that you pretty much always had a view of the ocean, no matter where you were.

The handrails were all made of this gorgeous wood, that was polished and re-stained almost any time it rained.  I had to take a picture.  Beautiful!

The view from above the water feature.

My handsome husband :)

Another pool, complete with a water slide!  This pool was pretty cool because it wrapped around all sorts of difference places, and the upper levels flowed into the lower levels and there were tunnels and caves, and it was just awesome.  One night I came out and swam in one of these pools by myself and it was again, heavenly.

 

And this is the view from our balcony!  Brig said that the last time he was there, they had a direct view of the lagoon and the ocean, which would have been pretty cool, but I loved this view that we had too!

After our morning "tour" we ate breakfast and literally spent the rest of the day just relaxing.  I didn't take my good camera down to the lagoon because I was afraid of leaving it while we swam, but here are some good old phone pictures ;)

Reading, reading, reading :)

We swam for awhile and then just laid out on the beach.  Many of the times that we laid out, I didn't do anything at all, but sit there and take it all in.  For hours and hours.  That might seem boring to some, but it was EXACTLY what I needed; To just sit, and not do ANYTHING!

Brig was already tiring of my picture taking ;)

My amazing in-laws!!!!!

We were laughing at girls taking pictures of themselves at the beach, and I had to laugh that shamefully, I was one of them ;)  I am normally so not that way, in fact, I hate being in front of a camera, but I just wanted to remember the glorious-ness of the trip!

Kicking it back for lunch.

Let it be known, that we were on vacation and I ate whatever I wanted :)  Some sort of healthy things and some not so healthy things.  For example, I may or may not have consumed most of that jar of queso ;)

Day two was definitely a success!