Christmas in Hawaii...

Christmas Day was a quiet day for relaxing and taking it easy. We did the usual Christmas thing of opening the presents that were piled under the beautifully decorated Christmas Lamp. The hotel is pretty full so there were still lots of people around and all the shops in Waikiki were open for business.

Lunch was down at the restaurant on the beach at the back of the hotel. Christmas dinner was the very traditional fare of burgers and chips. After lunch we went for a walk around Waikiki again before coming back to the hotel where the boys tried their hand at paddle boarding while Trace and I had a dip in the ocean - thus ticking off swimming at Waikiki from our bucket lists. This side of the island has very small surf so it is very calm and perfect for floating around in the warm water.

The hotels 'own' the section of beach in front of them so they put out beach lounges and umbrellas for people to rent and you can also order drinks and food if you want. Trace and I just grabbed a patch of sand and watched the people walking past.

A few points about Waikiki.
1. It was originally swamp land that was used to grow rice and the like
2. They dug a canal around the back of it that drained the swamp
3. If the sand in the photos looks familiar it should, they imported the sand from Australia and California
4. The beach is very long, shallow and very narrow in parts - like around our hotel
5. It is also on a reef so you can't walk out very far 'cos it hurts your feet!

Anyway the boys mastered paddle boarding pretty easily, the incentive of landing on the coral if you fell off had the desired effect. Trace and I also had a go and managed to get around OK.

Dinner was a pretty quiet affair in the Hotel.

Tomorrow we manage to get out of Waikiki!Read more