Just go with the flow: Tahiti

Getting to Moorea was no simple task. It takes about 24 hours travel time to get from home to Paradise. From parking fiascos (thank goodness there was no traffic!) to delayed flights to SPRINTING through my least favorite airport (LAX) to find the mystery terminal and barely make our flight, we definitely started vacation out on our toes.

finally on the Tahiti flight!

With all this, we knew that the luggage was not going to make it on the flight. After all, luggage can't sprint to it's terminal. We were right. I was cursing United as we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off, not knowing that this was actually a blessing in disguise.

Catholic Church in Papeete

Once in Tahiti, lack of luggage allowed us to wander the island without bags in tow. We walked from the airport to Papeete (about 2.7 mi) and saw some local color. I probably wouldn't recommend this (my mother would be less than pleased to hear about this), as it might not have been the safest idea, but it was a ton of fun and we didn't encounter one malicious person. Even the stray dogs were friendly. It was 5:30 am after all.

We were able to walk around town before all the hustle and bustle began. It would have been nice to have some local currency, but our home bank and LAX were out of French Polynesian Francs and all the local banks were closed. Maybe we could have seen this movie in French:

Sunrise from runway overlook

Watching the sunrise over the Pacific was awe-inspiring. The goal of the trip was to just roll with the punches and leave everything behind. I had been waiting 5 years for this trip, and finally I was there. Everything felt surreal, it was happening so fast and each moment was hard to hold onto. I could feel myself changing and for the first time in a VERY long time, I felt like I was in control of my life and my destiny.