A Morning in Waikiki

This week we have friends staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki and we decided to meet up with them there and enjoy the hotel pool. We went mainly to swim, but that turned out to be only part of the fun.

The grounds of the hotel are like a miniature zoo and my kids enjoyed seeing the koi fish, flamingos, macaw parrots, turtles and even penguins!

Right next to the hotel on the Diamond Head side we found this great little playground that the kids and their friends enjoyed playing on.

After all that fun we headed to the pool, but our morning in Waikiki would have been great even if we had never gotten wet.

Do it yourself:

• There's free parking by the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor, and a sidewalk leads from there to Hilton Hawaiian Village. If the free parking is full, the hourly parking is very reasonable.

• The playground is between Hilton Hawaiian Village and the Hale Koa

• We had to leave early to head to swimming lessons, but if you want lunch or a snack you can spend big bucks and eat at one of the snack bars at the Hilton Hawaiian Village or walk next door to the Hale Koa and eat at their snack bar which is much cheaper. Walking into the hotel from the beach it will be on your left. The hotel is for military but the snack bar is open to the public.

• If you don't know anyone staying at the hotel and are thinking of sneaking into the pool, they require wristbands be worn so you probably would get caught pretty quickly. Personally, I hate getting "yelled at" for inadvertently being somewhere I'm not supposed to be but if that doesn't bother you then hey, give it a try and let me know how it goes.