Ahhh, Tahiti

I flew into LA on Friday and took a shuttle out to Joe's parents house (Wally & Linda). I met Joe's new brother bird named Sydney. Sadly, I just realized no pictures of Sydney. Joe and Tracy made it in just an hour or so later. We had a nice time chatting on Friday night. Before we went to bed, Wally told me the code to the alarm system. I thought to myself, I am not gonna leave the house, but good information to have. So, early Saturday morning when I could not sleep any longer, I get up. When I looked out the window, it was very foggy and the parking lot across the way looked so cool! After taking my picture, I open the door and tip toe VERY QUIETLY make my way downstairs to take a shower. After all, if I go downstairs, the noise I make shouldn't wake anybody up. Well, about halfway down the stairs, the alarm starts SCREAMING! I of course am bolting back up the stairs to find the panel. Luckily, Joe was awake and had heard me tip toeing down the hall and was just getting up in case I forgot about the alarm. That is one hell of a way to wake everybody up!!

With everybody WIDE AWAKE, we get packed and head to LAX. What a zoo! The only international flying I have ever done was to Mexico, so these procedures are new to me. We go to the ticket counter and get our boarding passes, then stand in another line to have your luggage x-rayed and checked by TSA. I was diverted to another line. Luckily, it moved fairly quickly ... eventually. I kept getting closer to the front of the line. But not because peoples bags were being processed. Rather they were leaving to find a different line. My patience paid off and I was ready to head to the gate. I found Joe & Tracy in the line I was originally going to stand in. We made our way slowly. A TSA agent came and said "Everybody behind this point follow me!" When questioned, she gave an emphatic and authoritative command, "FOLLOW ME" and she took off. I follow them to their next line and then head back to the previous line where our fellow travellers Charles & Elizabeth were at the end of the line. I let them know where we are going to meet and head up to the food court to wait. Joe & Tracy were there in fairly short order and apparently Charles & Elizabeth were stuck in LINE HELL! Eventually, they finally make it up and we head to the gate and make it through a very chaotic final security check.

As we board the plane, I am doing the mental check list of what I have to occupy my time for the next 8 1/2 hours till we get to our destination, Papeete Tahiti. Luckily, there was a very cool monitor on the seatback ahead that had videos, games and a monitor of the planes progress, speed and other conditions. I didn't even need my iPod or other items. Just read and watched movies and ate when they brought us food.

As we make our approach into Papeete, you can see the island of Tahiti Nui just as darkness is setting in. Very impressive. Lots of small mountiains. We make it off the planes, through customs and Joe, Tracy & I get our bags. We notice that Charles & Elizabeth aren't there yet. They had moved to the back of the plane to get more room and therefore made it off nearly last and more time in LINE HELL. Actually, it probably wasn't that bad, but sound better :)

We are shuttled off to the Sofitel hotel where we were going to spend Saturday night. We went to the rooms, changed and met out by the pool for some drinks. We enjoyed the local Hinano beer.

And thus ended the first day of the vacation ... Ahhhh Tahiti!

PS: I can't get my photos uploaded yet. The wired connection doesn't work in my room and the wireless is just flaky enough that uploading wasn't working. When I get a better connection, there will be pictures!!