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Eric thought we should stay up really late the night before our trip so that we could adjust to Hawaii time. The idea was to reset our sleep schedules on the plane and maximize our time in Hawaii. So we went to sleep at 4am and got up at 6:20 to leave for the airport by 7:15. Our flight left relatively on time from O'Hare and although it was very long…we made it to Honolulu in about 9 hours no worse for the wear. The Wiki-Wiki shuttle took us from the arrivals side of the airport to the inter-island area, where we caught a Hawaiian Airlines flight to Kaihlua-Kona.
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We arrived in Kona around 4pm and impatiently waited for the shuttle to the rent-a-car. While waiting we managed to chat a bit with some other newlyweds who were staying at the same hotel. The weather at the airport was overcast and warm but the hotel was sunny and breezy. Check-in was relatively uneventful, though our first trip to the room was an adventure.
We needed our bags to change for dinner so we decided to lug them ourselves. Fifteen tiring minutes later we finally found the room!Our first dinner was at Kirin, Hilton's Chinese restaurant. We split a General Tsao's chicken and finished with chocolate ice cream full of macadamia nuts. YUM!
Lining the walkway between buildings were beautiful tapestries, paintings and sculptures all semi-outdoors, so after dinner we toured the resort from one end to the other. When we returned to our room, we were greeted with a bottle of champagne chilling in ice, two champagne glasses and a note welcoming us to the hotel (very nice!) We were also introduced to the "Legends of Pele" cards we received every night when our bed was turned down. Relaxing in the room with our champagne, we discussed a few of the things we wanted to do in Hawaii… then had a great nights sleep.