Our first day on Guam

The view from our rooms at the Hilton--the Waikiki of Guam

Views from the balcony--Tumon Bay and the Philippine Sea with Two Lovers' Point jutting out into the sea

The largest pool at the Hilton

Panoramic view from our balcony

Slippin' and slidin'

The three musketeers!

The amazing workout room at the Hilton

The view from my treadmill

Another treadmill view

  Our first days in Guam were nice and relaxing.  We checked into the Hilton to two very nice rooms--with twin beds (?)  I think they offer that or to push them together to form a king.  Our rooms had balconies that looked right out over the pools and the Philippine Sea--a perfect vantage point for viewing the sunrise each morning.  After unloading our bags in the rooms, we headed downstairs for a look around, starting at the outdoor restaurant where they were in the midst of a free show.  We watched lots of Island dancers doing variations of the hula and the poor Asian tourists they had dragged up on stage to dance with them ("Just do what I do" are their instructions--yeah, right).  Very entertaining.  Then we took a break to check out the pools and water slide.  Came back to watch a little fire dancing.  We headed inside to discover a 24 hour cafe that served sandwiches, salads, scoopable ice cream, desserts, pastries and coffee drinks.  There were also several other restaurants, a gift shop, and business center.
   I started our first day with a workout in the fitness room or rooms, I should say--I had never seen such a workout facility in a hotel before.  It was huge!  Spinning cycles, recumbent bikes, a full set of weight machines, treadmills, ellipticals, TVs, a lounge, even a room for exercise classes.  So nice!  And it all looked out over the bay to Two Lovers' Point.  I decided then to splurge that first day and get the breakfast buffet, which would cost us over $60 for just me and the kids!  I had never even considered paying that for breakfast before.  The buffet was amazing--cereals, yogurt, a raw nut bar, salad bar, smoked salmon with toppings, lunch meats and cheeses, breads and pastries, miso soup, steamed rice, two types of dumplings, grilled salmon, mackerel, hash browns, bacon and sausage, fried fish, pancakes, french toast, waffles, strawberry and blueberry compote, whipped cream, chocolate sauce and creme anglaise for the bread pudding, steamed broccoli, Japanese and Korean favorites I didn't recognize, fresh melon and pineapple and canned fruit, juices, milk, water, coffee and tea.  We had some challenges that day with customer service, but I'll write about that in another post.
        After we'd each eaten enough for 3 people, we headed up to the room to dress for swimming.  Spent most of the day at the slide--the children must have come down it 100 times that first day.  They absolutely loved it.  On one of those times down the slide, Samuel decided to stop and stand up midway down.  Having zoomed down several times myself, I have no idea how he was able to do that.  Luke was headed down just behind him and, you guessed it, ran right into him with Luke's eyebrow colliding with Sam's knee.  Luke complained about it a little at the time, but I wasn't too concerned.  When he mentioned it an hour or so later, I looked to see a goose egg the size of a large walnut growing on his eyebrow.  I quickly checked his eye for signs of trauma--thankfully there were none.  Got a bag of ice from the poolside restaurant and had two lifeguards check him out.  We would watch for signs of a concussion and wait for the black eye to develop.