Today began with a sleep in for some of the boys – lucky them….my sleep has been all out of whack since I left home, and once I am awake I can’t get my mind to switch off and go back to sleep, which is a shame when I am waking just before or just after 6 every day 😩

But I digress….. Breakfast is served in the restaurant on level 4 each day here, with a very wide variety of foods including an omelette station where they are individually made according to the ingredients you announce. After breakfast we learned a shuttle was leaving at 10am to go directly to the Waikele Premium Outlets, so we joined that and went shopping!

The shuttle return trip was at a choice of 2pm or 4.30pm. We thought the later return time might be a bit long, so opted for 2pm, which was the right decision but we all had one or more shops we would have spent more time in if we had more time. Well….Tim and Sam were well and truly over the shopping after the first hour, so they sat in Hagen-Daaz with Ross and had milkshakes instead.

Jarrod and Abi like to plan ahead and think about their choices (which is my polite way of saying they can be indecisive and mull over decisions for a long time 😂), so they probably both needed more time, but Belle, Zac and I were satisfied with our purchases and length of time there. There was a Leonard’s Bakery food truck (amongst others) in the parking lot, so I did buy everyone a malasada to try (a type of donut Hawaii is famous for).

Upon our return, Tim watched a wedding online he should have been a guest at today, the other boys went to avail themselves of the gym on-site, Abi and Belle messaged friends and I DID LAUNDRY 🥳 The laundry room here is great, and open 24 hours (although I have lost my ability to stay up late – I’m nodding off early evenings because of our busy days and my lack of sleep!).

After the gym, the kids walked down to the beach for a swim, and then we went down the Beachwalk to Giovanni’s, a sports bar where I had booked dinner. Now as the tour director, I am trying to coordinate times and activities to maximise our experiences. I booked dinner early enough (and even discussed with our waitress how) to see the Friday night Fireworks, a tradition that has been put on by Hilton Hawaiian Village every Friday night since 1988. I had heard about and read about these fireworks, so my expectations were high.

We left the restaurant at 7.53pm and headed towards the beach. As we turned the corner we could see the reflection of the fireworks on a building as they began. Before they came into sight, we heard applause and I checked my watch and it was 8.04pm. We hadn’t made it to a viewing spot and the fireworks were over within 4 minutes?!?!?! (And the waitress had told me we didn’t need to hurry because they could go on for up to 30 minutes?!?!?!). Even if we HAD seen them, they did not look as impressive as the June long weekend fireworks our local soccer club puts on over Oyster Bay!

Back at our rooms, Jarrod and Zac went to the spa, the others showered and got ready for bed, while I looked up the internet for footage of the fireworks we missed while walking towards them. I have now sent on the family chat links to two TikTok’s which are videos filmed of the fireworks, and can go to sleep ticking that experience off my list!