Serving with the Neighbors

Chris organized a service day with our neighborhood. Many of the neighbors provided food for us to cook at the OUR Center for lunch on Sunday afternoon.We had Steve and Carla Harbert to help cook the food.

Steve Strong came and spent most of the time washing dishes.

Misha and her girlfriend, Genevieve, came and helped with the cooking and serving as well.

A Weekend with Friends

Kristen and her group of friends—Maggie, Nicole, Paige—went with Paige's mom up to a cabin in the mountains for a fun weekend away.

They got to laugh, play, bake, hang out, stay up late, go to church, and hot tub together.

They left Friday after school and got back home again on Sunday afternoon.

Tahiti - Day Nine - Home

We had breakfast service on the plane.

We had hoped to go to the Polaris Lounge in San Francisco, but our luggage was 30 minutes delayed being offloaded and then somehow we both got randomly picked for an agriculture inspection—checking to see if we brought any fruits, baskets, farm goods back from Tahiti. We didn’t, but that didn’t stop the guy from going through all of our bags looking for shells and coral.

ALL OF OUR BAGS! 

I’m not very patient for things like that. Our flight was again late arriving from New York, so we took a quick stop to the lounge (not the Polaris Lounge), and got some more breakfast. It was a couple hours after our first breakfast at 5 am. It took awhile to clean and turn the plane around before the staff was ready for boarding. Lots of waiting.

We left about an hour late but were finally on our way home to the cold and snow of Colorado. Here’s hoping the roads are good getting home. There was no snow day or online learning day for our school district. Kristen said it was a pretty slippery drive to school. We’ll go from mid 80s and warm to cold and snowy and maybe 20 degrees.

Kristen was definitely happy to see us.

Tahiti - Day Eight

A huge chorus of roosters woke us up around 5:30 am. I was surprised when I woke up again at 7:30 that I had actually gone back to sleep. We enjoyed breakfast on the patio and then packed up for a long day in Tahiti and then a flight home at 10 pm.

This was going to be a long day, with only tentative plans. We had to check out of Linareva by 10 am. From there, we had scheduled the ferry for a 1:45 pm trip back to Papeete. 

Chris mapped us to the Afareaitu Waterfall Hike. We hiked with swim suits under our shorts and shirts because you could get in the water at the base of the falls. 

The water was quite murky, but felt cool after our hike up 500 feet of elevation over a half mile. We hiked in our water shoes as well, and while they were necessary to wear in the water at the falls, they were pretty slippery for hiking back down the mountain. 

We found a food truck "Mooz Lunch" for lunch just next to the ocean with amazing views of the turquoise blue water. Chris and I both had fish burgers. They were not like the kind you and I might find at Costco, but an actual cut of fish that was grilled and seasoned. Yum.

We drove to the ferry terminal and waited in line for about a half an hour before Chris drove the car onto the ferry and I walked on. I found a spot inside, not in the cafeteria, where we sat for the 45 minute trip back to the main island. We didn’t have a lot planned for the afternoon. It is hard when you have to check out of hotels so early in the day and the flight home is until 10 pm. 

We drove first to see the temple. 

Chris mapped our way to Venus Beach where we stayed for a couple of hours enjoying the water and the black sand beaches. I sat in the shade for most of the time since I didn’t want anymore sunburn to make my flight home uncomfortable. Chris hung out in the water.

We were running out of cash for our evening meal at more food trucks. We found a bank machine at the nearby hospital and then ordered more fish. Marlin this time. It was quite good. I ordered some kind of crazy Russian salad with potatoes, carrots, corn and beets. Since our servings were so huge, I ate the fish and some of Chris’ rice. The salad wasn't that great. 

We drove to the airport a little early, but that probably turned out to be a good thing. We had to return the rental car. While the Hertz agent checked out the car, we checked our bags and then paid the final bill on the car. 

The line was already developing for immigration and security so we got in line (after chatting with the Tahiti mission president and a missionary going home). We usually have bad line karma and end up waiting in the wrong line, but this time we lucked out with the right line. That is, AFTER all lines had slowed, a lady fainted from the heat between immigration and security, and we finally got moving again.

It was a pretty inefficient process for loading two airplanes at similar times with hundreds of passengers. We were able to visit the Air Tahiti Lounge with our Polaris pass and had a quick shower there in the air conditioned comfort. Our flight was delayed a bit since it arrived late. Chris and I both took sleeping pills about a half hour before boarding and once on board, we were quickly off to sleep. We missed the food service, but since it was after 11 pm, we weren’t really hungry anyway. I woke up about an hour before we landed and Chris shortly after that. So nice to get some sleep!

Tahiti - Day Seven

Sadly, we had to check out of the Hilton Moorea by 11 am. For the "rainy season" we really only two rain storms during our entire stay.

After breakfast we tried stand up paddle boarding in the lagoon. I figured I would much rather try it here and fall in the clear blue water of the lagoon over trying at the lake at home and falling into the not so clear water there!

Bonus! Neither one of us fell of our boards.

We had our snorkel tour pick up at 11:45. 

We packed up and left our luggage in the Hilton luggage storage for the day while we enjoyed our snorkel tour. We were with a guy from DC, 3 ladies from the UK, and an older couple from Texas. Leo was our captain (he's the one in the hat).

Our group stopped first at an area that is popular with black-tip sharks and morays. The sharks don’t bother people at all. From there, we snorkeled at a coral garden between two small islands off of Moorea. Chris and I had our own snorkel masks, but opted to borrow fins from Leo’s stash. Swimming with fins is so much easier. Especially when we were fighting against currents. 

The last stop of the day was at a spot where a local church had hidden Tiki statues in the water (they had since been replaced by replicas). Chris and I swam all around trying to find the 8 statues but didn’t find a one until we got back closer to the boat and there were three statues near by. At least it was fun and a good work out for us! 

It was a beautiful day (made better by Sun Bum sunscreen which is also reef safe to protect the coral and the fish). 

We were dropped of at Hilton where we pickup our luggage and continued around the island to get to our next stop at Linareva. Chris booked a suite for us that came with a canopy bed and a kitchen. It was a lot more "rustic" than the Hilton for sure. 

There was no toilet seat!

The view from the dock was pretty nice.

We ordered a breakfast after arriving that would be delivered to our cabana the next morning. We ate dinner at Restaurant Sunset et Pizzeria while sitting on the deck and watching the sunset. Couldn’t be more perfect! 

Kristen Check Up

Kristen needed to get her yearly check up so that she could get her sports physical paperwork handed in. The only time that would for her schedule was on the Monday (holiday from school) when Chris and I were in Tahiti.

Amy was kind enough to go with Kristen.

The doctor's office had to call us in Tahiti to get our permission for Kristen to get two shots. She wasn't thrilled.

Sister's Weekend

With Mom and Dad out of town and a four-day weekend, Amy flew home to spend some time with her sisters. Kristen was happy to not be all alone while we were away.

They had fun trying on prom dresses together.

They hot-tubbed with friends.

They went out to dinner together.

They went to church together.

They went to the Grizzly Rose in Denver for some country dancing and roping practice.

They took naps.

They just had fun hanging out!

Tahiti - Day Six

Another relaxing morning. 

We went for breakfast at 8:00 and I think everyone else was coming for Sunday breakfast as well, even people not staying at the hotel. Not surprised as it was a lovely buffet spread. I think their French toast was the best thing there. 

I learned that I like my eggs (if they don’t do egg whites), eggs over hard. That way, I can easily cut out the egg yolk. 

Today was a bit of a repeat of yesterday. Sunbathe, relax, snorkel. 

The window in the floor of the bungalow so you could see the fish swimming below.

Since we had a big breakfast, we just ate snacks and power bars throughout the day until dinner. 

We did go exploring up to Belvedere Point in the afternoon. We got some great pics, stopped for a short walk along a path. We were in flip flops, so when it appeared to be longer and somewhat slippery with our flip flops, we turned back.

Another amazing day in paradise.

We had dinner at The Rotui restaurant again. The service was a lot slower than our first night but the food was good and the view outstanding. I tried swordfish and Chris had a hamburger.