Pictured: We flew Alaska Ailines to Kona. That’s my husband walking off the plane. The airport is out of an old Hollywood film. It’s all outdoors and filled with palm trees. So dreamy!

We landed in Hawaii! We are so excited! This is the first time we have taken the kids to Hawaii, and to say they are excited, would be an understatement. We took an early flight from San Jose to Kona, so we had just enough time to check into our hotel, and then venture out to lunch.

We checked into the Marriott Courtyard King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel which is located on the beach! Yay! It is also right there in town, so we could easily walk anywhere in town we wanted to go. Double yay!

You can see the hotel in this photo. Our room is in the east wing which is overlooking the street. All the beach view rooms were already taken. As an elite member, they apologized to me. I’m OK with it because the beach is right outside the hotel! I don’t need to see it from the window too.

pictures: See that white building in the photos above? It’s a building I see all the time in photos of the Big Island, but for the life of me I can’t remember which TV show or movie it’s featured in. Do you know?

After checking into our hotel, we walked across the street to Splashers Bar & Grill for lunch. The food was SO YUMMY and we also had a fabulous view of the ocean. I enjoyed the avocado poki with rice croquette’s and an ice tea, so good! Welcome to Hawaii!

The excitement continued to build for our family. We felt so relaxed and happy to be in Hawaii; and away from the office! (Away from school for the kids, haha) After lunch, we took a walk and explored the area where our hotel was located. We couldn’t believe how beautiful everything was. After exploring, we headed to the hotel pool to relax and unwind. We had been up since 5am San Jose time, which was 2am Hawaii time; so to say we were slightly tired was an understatement!

This is what I wore on the airplane, and for exploring on our first day on the Big Island. From top: sunglasses / summer lipstick / bold earrings c/o Chico’s / white tee (under $25) / print wide leg pants (so comfy for travel!) / woven convertible bag c/o Chico’s / summer nail polish / ivory wedge espadrilles (wore sneakers on the plane and switches shoes when we got to the hotel)

The pool was perfect after waking up early, flying for five hours, and then walking around. We felt so refreshed! After the pool, we headed out to dinner at another waterfront restaurant, Paradise Brewing Company Tap & Grill. I had a pineapple drink! It was really fun to have a drink in a pineapple, so much fun, that I barely drank it because I kept holding it instead. Haha, can’t take me anywhere!! My kids loved the fact that my drink was served in a pineapple too, they were pretty bummed they couldn’t take a sip. My Pineapple drink was for adults only 😉 haha

I enjoyed the Shrimp Scampi and my pineapple drink-which I forgot the name of! Eeeek! It was good, but I only drank about 1/4 of it. I was too busy looking at the pineapple and talking about it with my kids. LOL

Shop my travel look for my flight from San Jose to Hawaii:

Well, after dinner we hit the hay! Our Hawaiian adventure was about to begin! Stay tuned for all my Hawaiian vacation coverage here on the blog, and feel free to check out my insta-stories for more fun Hawaiian adventures! I have everything saved in my highlights.

Thanks for stopping by!

Aloha!

Cathy