For the last few nights of our trip, we decided to stay back near the ocean, just up from the Kona airport in Waikoloa. We stayed at the Hilton Kings Land, which are condo style units near the popular Hilton Waikoloa Village. By staying at Hilton Kings Land, it also gave us the ability to use the facilities at the Hilton Waikoloa Village Hotel, so we decided to go check out the hype. That hotel is HUGE, so big that it has a boat canal and a small monorail tram that goes around the property so guests don’t have to walk as far.
We started at the smaller pool area, which had a few slides and a lazy river with great views of the ocean and a large lawn for yoga, meditating, hammock time, etc.
Chris then read about a 175 foot water slide, so we were on the move. We walked over to the Kona pool, passing again by the large ocean lagoon on the way. They rent kayaks, snorkeling gear, water bikes, and paddle boats to use on the lagoon. We also walked past Dolphin Quest, where you can pay to swim with the dolphins. We settled for simply watching them swim and jump in their area before continuing to the pool. The Kona pool area was HUGE and had a waterfall area, a swinging bridge, a volleyball net, a shallow sandy bottom pool for kids, and of course, the piece de resistance, the 175 foot water slide!!!! We got Aly to go down the slide, and then we hung out in the cave area under the waterfalls for a while before she moved over to the sandy pool and met some friends to swim with. We spent most of the day at the pool, before Chris and I declared that we needed a little time out of the sun and went back to our room for a dinner of leftover pasta.
We had hyped up a night swim to Aly earlier that day, so after dinner, we went to the pool right next to our building that also had a slide and a hot tub. Aly had been practicing swimming down to touch the bottom of the pool earlier that day, so I suggested she might be able to do a front flip underwater, and sure enough, she immediately did it. Aly is definitely Chris’ daughter, because this turned into a 45 minute exercise in front flips and back flips underwater, and then eventually doing her first front flip jumping off the side of the pool! I don’t know where this little daredevil came from, but we sure had a lot of fun that night!