The Beginning

Well it all began in my second grade year when my music teacher Mrs. Crump had us learn the show tunes for South Pacific. Being a second grader I was like thinking what is the South Pacific ? And that is were it all began. Bali Hai may call you .... and it has been calling me since then. Then there was Elvis and his Hawaiian and Pacific movies and I just became obsessed with the South Pacific.
My husband and I love to travel and have been many places but for the last 20 years I have been wanting to visit Tahiti and her Society Islands. We have never been able to do it until now and yes it is unfortunate the economy is bad but it a great time to travel and get deals! So finally after a long time waiting we are now able to do it. We booked the trip in November of 2010 and i have had time to read a few more books on French Polynesia though i feel like i have already been there due to all of the research and reading i have done that is quite al right because i still want to see her live and in person.
On March 5th i started preparing my clothing and things i needed to put out for packing, for the remainder of the week i continued this process until i was happy with what i has laid out, seems like and easy place to pack for but still alot goes into this process when you are going to be gone for 16 days. Our departure date was March 12 and we chose to break up the flying time to 5 1/2 hours for the first segment and stay in Loma Linda California to visit Mikes grand ma. This was great because we were able to adjust to to time change of 3 hours instead of jumping into a 6 hour time change. While in Cali we visited Palm Desert and stopped to have lunch at the Adobe Mexican restaurant at the beautiful La Quinta Resort. The weather was amazing it was 90 degrees and it was in the mid 60's in Loma Linda big change from the Desert.
So here we are today March 14th and it is our big day! I woke up and the first thing I said to Mike was my count down is finally "0" !!!! We had a smooth drive to the airport and we chose to get there 3 1/2 hours early to try to get an upgrade and hurray for us it worked there was an upgrade available and we took it, what a great way to start the trip. Now I am writing from the Air Tahiti Nui airplane and we are so glad we got the upgrade, can you say LEG ROOM!!! The second we sat in our seats they have been pampering us, we had cocktails to start with then an appetizer of either shrimp salad or pate then we had a choice for dinner of crab cakes, beef or chicken and of course I had a glass of Pinot Noir and finished it with petite pastries. Ahhhh so far so good.Those of you who are lushes out there would love it the liquor trays have been flowing by with unlimited alcohol. The flight attendants are wearing their Polynesian clothing with beautiful flowers in their hair and they are all very attractive, they know who to get you in the groove for were we are about to land.
At this point we only have 4 1/2 hours to go from a total of 8h and 10 min has has so far gone by pretty fast. Mike has been reading a book he got from our friend Suzy about Anthony Kiedis that seems a little weird but what ever he never get to just sit down and read and here I am writing to you guys even though I am sure you are not really that interested in my journey but I love to write and let it out so if you have gotten this far I guess I am doing a good job and have not bored you or you are a good friend that wants to ready what I am up to or just love to travel and want to join in my journey.
In a few hours we will be arriving in Papeete and we will be picked up by our Cruise ship concierge from the Paul Gauguin and he will escort us to the Intercontinental Resort. We are staying here for 2 nights because I thought it would be a great way to get acclimated to the new area and time before we got going on our cruise that departs on Wed March 16.
So that is all for now and I will keep you posted as we move along,everyone is napping on the plane, lots of snoring going on.
Nite nite for now
Joanne