As Yogi Berra said, deja vu all over again. We were here in April (Day 74 of our journey), and at that time we visited for two days. We rented a scooter and drove around the island twice, and Mike went diving with spotted eagle rays. The history of Bora Bora, and its meaning, are discussed on that page. Today we went after some obscure facts to go with our beyond-gorgeous photos.

Bora Bora is surrounded by a lagoon and a barrier reef. In the photos, you can see several layers of blue water, which is the sand deepening around the outer reef. It, along with all of Tahiti, is extremely secluded, and expensive to get to. To put that in perspective, Hawaii gets more visitors in 10 days than all of French Polynesia gets in a year! Bora Bora has no poisonous snakes or insects, meaning you can freely sit or sleep on the spectacular white sand beaches without risk. There are black pearls for sale everywhere in Tahiti! No escaping pearls in every imaginable setting…earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rings…it gets more creative every time we visit!

During World War II, the US chose Bora Bora as a supply outpost for its South Pacific Fleet. It acted as an oil depot, airstrip, and seaplane base, and defensive fortifications were constructed around it.

We had the equivalent of about $25 US in Tahitian francs that we wanted to get rid of, since we don’t know when we will return to French Polynesia. And since we only carry backpacks, we really don’t have room for coinage. So we went to the local village today and bought a few necessities just to get rid of our currency. We were left with the equivalent of about $2.50. We planned to put it in the poor box of the local church, but the doors were locked. So we thought we might just give it to any children we saw, but they were all in school. Then we passed an old, world-weary woman selling bunches of tiny bananas, about 5 inches long. We decided that although we didn’t need them, we would buy two of them for all the rest our money, as we can get all the fruit we want on board our ship. We don’t speak French, and the woman didn’t speak English, so we picked out two of the midget bananas and tried to pay her. She brushed us off, gesturing us to just take them, and added a third. But from her, we wanted the favor of getting rid of our heavy coins. So she must have thought we were nuts to pay $2.50 for them, but in the end, we all won. We got a small delicious snack, and she got a great profit margin from her backyard fruit. You can see our Bonanza Bananas in the last photo!

POP-EE-AAY-TAY. Not Pap-eet or Pap-iti, as we heard it mispronounced. In these parts, you pronounce every vowel. Knowing that, try saying the name of Papeete’s Airport, Faa’a. Yes, it is Fah-ah-ah. Interesting, and you get much farther with the locals when you try to pronounce place names correctly. Of course, a Bon Jour also goes a long way, as 90 percent of Tahitians speak French as their first language.

In popular culture, Papeete is mentioned in Crosby, Stills & Nash’s song, Southern Cross. It is a setting in the novel, Mutiny on the Bounty, and where Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Ebb Tide begins. In the movie Endless Summer, the beach in Papeete is dubbed “Ins and Outs” because the steep shore causes waves to break in both directions…toward the beach and out to sea.

We love the first photo because who ever heard of a tattooed mannequin? Only in French Polynesia! And except for the tattoo on the arm, who would ever see his other tattoos? The lovely…tattooed…painted lady is on a building a block from the port, and the lovely palm frond Welcome sign was just across the street from the ship, at the entrance to the shopping district. We wandered through the Marche Papeete, the central market. As you can see, for sale was the morning’s catch and more bananas than we’ve ever seen. Items are generally fairly pricey in Tahiti…in the photo of the Fresh Fruit vendor, a liter of water costs almost $5.00 US. But the fruit juices are more reasonable, $3-4 US.

You can see some colonial-type architecture in the building with covered walkways all around, and this was just down the street from the thatched hut building. The last three photos were taken from our ship, a gorgeous view of the mountains looming over the city. But the last photo gave us a laugh, as everyone was talking about it…the yacht docked alongside our ship with its own helicopter! We were wondering which James Bond villain was in town with us…

Ahh, Moorea…the most beautiful island on earth, at least of all those we have seen so far. But Arthur Frommer, who writes the popular travel guides, agrees with us. It was raining today, so the photos are a little different from when we were here earlier this year. These are of the cloudy and stormy variety, but still interesting. During the day, it alternately poured, rained, sprinkled, and had full shining sun!…quite normal for tropical islands. Once again, as in Nuku Hiva, we were greeted with live music by local musicians. There is a short video of them at the end of the photos. All of the women wore wreaths on their heads, some as elaborate as the older woman in the photo near the end, filled with flowers, and others just woven palms. Both women and men wore colorful pareos, or wrap-around skirts, along with colorful shirts.

Moorea means “yellow lizard” in the Tahitian language. Located only 11 miles from the island of Tahiti, it is an easy day trip from Tahiti and is a honeymoon destination. Normally, when looking out from its beaches, you can see 20-30 colors of blue as the ocean deepens. Charles Darwin found inspiration for his theory on coral formation as he looked at Moorea from a mountain in Tahiti. Referring to the barrier reef surrounding Moorea, he described it as a “picture in a frame”….which it is, it is!

Lots of words and places in the title! We are in French Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean (sometimes called a continent in water!), on the largest island of the Marquesas, Nuku Hiva, in its capital city, Taiohae. Nuku Hiva was the filming destination for the fourth season of the reality show, Survivor. The population is about 3,000 people, and the first people to arrive here came from Samoa about 2,000 years ago. Only later did they colonize Tahiti, Hawaii, New Zealand, and the Cook Islands. Both Robert Louis Stevenson and Herman Melville visited the islands and based books and stories on their experiences in the Marquesas Islands. The islands have a history of cannibalism and fierce tattooed warriors. The Americans arrived in 1813, built a fort, and went to war with the natives. The French took over in 1842, and it remains an overseas territory of France today.

Sailing up to these islands is a magnificent experience, as the mountains just rise up out of the ocean, and you see steep cliffs covered in vegetation. There are no docking facilities for large cruise ships, so our ship dropped anchor in Taiohae Bay, and we were “tendered” to shore by the ship’s lifeboats, also called tenders (seen in the last photo). The village is very peaceful and tropical, with flowers and flowering trees growing everywhere. We were greeted with local music and dancers, as you will see in some of the photos and the first video. Their native greeting included conch shells being blown, drums sounding, and women calling out. It was very moving to have such an unusual greeting and experience their cultural tradition.

Two very thin, slow-moving dogs roamed around the port, but never approached anyone. Hundreds of bananas were hanging by the hands, as well as other tropical fruits. Native statues were everywhere we looked, celebrating their local culture. Views from the top of a small hill near the dock show the inlet, the beaches, and our cruise ship anchored in the bay. As you can see, we also found the Leaning Lamppost of Taiohae! Tattoos are traditional in Polynesia, as historically there was no writing in their culture; tattoos are used to express both identity and personality. Most artistic depictions show figures with tattoos, and can also be seen on the men blowing the horns and the beautiful Woman in Red. Various shirts and blankets with local drawings were for sale.

Honolulu is the most remote city of its size on the planet and is the westernmost major US city. The name Honolulu means “sheltered harbor,” and its old name is Kou. It is second only to Auckland as the most populous city in Polynesia.

We hung around the downtown area today, as we brought Jan’s mom here to Oahu for her 90th birthday 8 years ago. At that time, we saw all of Oahu’s famous tourist sites: Diamond Head, Iolani Palace, the North Shore, Polynesian Cultural Center (along with a luau), and the Dole Plantation. So today was for walking, a little shopping, and taking photos for this website! By the way, we just figured out how to reinstall our “Subscribe” button. If you are enjoying our travels, simply go to the Contact page and enter your email at the bottom to subscribe and follow us. Whenever we publish a new post, you will receive an email informing you of the fact.

The first several photos were taken at Ala Moana Park. Volleyball and sunbathing were in full swing! It was a gorgeous day, 80 degrees, puffy clouds….hard to look at the East Coast snow photos! We loved the red ginger growing wild, along with plumeria and palm trees everywhere. The building architecture gets wilder and wilder as you move west, and Honolulu is no different. We enjoyed looking at all the office and residential buildings. The last two photos were taken at Ala Moana Shopping Center, a huge outdoor mall with every retail store brand you can think of. We thought our readers in snowy locations would get a kick out of the Christmas tree surrounded by palm trees, on a sunny day, with everyone in shorts! But our favorite scene of the day, which elicited a big laugh from us, is shown in the very last photo. There was a little hill built of artificial turf for children to play on. This brother and sister unfolded maps of the mall…just big enough for them to sit on….and slid down the artificial turf hill, bursting into laughter when they got to the bottom. It brought memories of grabbing cafeteria trays to use for sledding in the snow growing up, and delighted us so much.

It was a dark and stormy night….No, no, that was Edward Bulwer-Lytton writing in 1830. But it is apt to our day in Kahului, as it was a dark and stormy….morning! Yep, all these photos were taken before noon. It rained and the wind blew and it was all quite dramatic.

We were a little disappointed with this first port of call on the cruise. In the past, we have docked in Lahaina, which is a very cute, laid-back, quintessential Hawaiian town. Known as a historical whaling center, Lahaina is now a tourist center. It is just 23 miles from here, but another passenger said a taxi driver wanted to charge him $87 for a one-way trip! Kahului is more of a working port, as you can see the shipping containers and port facilities along our route to town. We passed an auto junk/salvage yard, and our pedestrian walkway was flooded. The town had a few big stores in the outdoor mall, a grocery store, and some pharmacies, and that was about it. So….not too impressed. In the last photo, you can see some people kiteboarding. It was rainy and gloomy, but there must have been about 100 colorful kites pulling people along on the water. Very surprising!

One of the activities we were thinking of for today was renting a car and driving the famous Road to Hana, filled with many twists, turns, and glorious viewpoints. However, it takes 3-4 hours one way, and we are only in port until 8 pm. So rather than risking the car breaking down or some other calamity, we decided to drive it when we are in Maui longer than a few hours. And since it was such a dark and rainy day, we made the right decision! We just looked up Kahului on Wikipedia to see whether it is noteworthy for any reason. It is right there on the Internet, so it must be true: “Kahului is not generally considered a tourist destination.” Enough said!

We are on our way, free at last of our final major possession, our Toyota truck, which took us 16,000 miles around the US and Canada over the past 6-7 months. We sold it on our way to the port yesterday!…our last “chore” before setting ourselves loose in the world. As you can see in the first two photos, all we own in the world is a backpack each with some clothing, iPads, cell phones, wires and chargers, and a year’s worth of prescriptions. Someone asked if this meant that we did lots of hiking and camping around the world. Nooooo….we stay in hotels or on cruise ships every day of the year. It is just easier to get around with everything we own on our backs rather than on wheels. The stuff we carry is thus limited, and our ability to run down a set of stairs and up another to make a train, for example, is greatly enhanced. We feel very free, very light. Is it strange to go to so many exotic and unusual places in the world and not be able to shop? Yes. But we have no home or storage unit in which to place a single thing. We can only buy food or necessities. We take comfort in knowing that by being free from encumbrances, we can travel wherever we wish with no need to worry about, or return to, a home.

For a month, we stayed at the Hampton Inn in Cypress, CA. It truly is “home” for us whenever we return to see family and friends. The breakfast food services team, Norma and Julie, are the finest women and workers we have ever encountered in a hotel. They are thoughtful, kind, and caring, and they keep everything sparkling clean and replenished. They are amazing, and remember our favorite flavor of yogurt, the fruit we like, and the breakfast foods that we enjoy most. They are always clearing the tables and keeping everything fresh. Most touching of all was yesterday at breakfast, our last day there before leaving for 13 months. They decorated our breakfast table with a globe and the note in the third photo. We were overwhelmed. What great, decent human beings! Believe it or not, they even used part of their lunch break to walk outside with us and wave to us as we departed. We will never forget sweet Norma and sweet Julie!

The ship we are on is the Oceania Regatta. It is much, much smaller than all the other cruise ships we have sailed….only 680 passengers rather than the usual 2-3,000…OR the 6,400-passenger Royal Caribbean ships, the largest in the world (fun in a much different way!). Check-in, which usually entails waiting in line for 30-60 minutes, took about 5 minutes, as there was no line. This cruise line “up sells” very little – just excursions and wine packages – and is very discreet in doing so. On other cruises, every corridor typically has many tables set up, with crew members selling photo packages, bingo cards, spa items and services, souvenirs, beverage packages, specialty dining meals, artwork, premium coffee packages, and even…are you ready?…lottery tickets! In contrast, this ship is very low-key, very adult. Nothing is being pushed or hawked, which is so refreshing. The food has been excellent…definitely several notches above the more-common cruise lines (Princess, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, for example). The coffee bar is free, as are soft drinks and even bottled water. The last photo is the elegant and decadent Dessert Cart at Afternoon Tea! There are many quiet places to sit and read, a daily lecture, a daily trivia game, a classical music quartet, and a daily theater show. We haven’t yet seen anyone under the age of about 40…i.e., no children. The rest of the photos were all taken around the ship this afternoon, and it really is as tranquil as it looks.

What a fun place! Sitting at the extreme Left Coast of the US, on the edge of the world, Santa Monica has great views of the ocean, a world-famous pier, and great shopping, particularly on the Third Street Promenade. Originally called Kecheek, it was renamed after St. Monica, likely due to Serra Springs, reminiscent of St. Monica’s tears over her son’s (St. Augustine) early debauchery. Beach volleyball was developed in Santa Monica in the 1920s by the famous surfer, Duke Kahanamoku.

On to the photos. The first ones are all taken of, on, or from the Santa Monica Pier, which was built in 1909. As you can see from the sign, the pier is the western end of Route 66. You can buy one of several thousand t-shirts proclaiming this reality, even though Route 66 has seen better days! The pier has rides, carnival games, buskers (look it up!), souvenir shops, ice cream shops, funnel cakes, small kiosks (get your name written on a grain of rice!), restaurants, and areas set aside for fishing. It is part state fair, part local kitsch, and it is wonderful. The carousel is a National Historic Landmark. Saint Monica’s statue is at the terminus of Wilshire Boulevard.

Next are photos of the Third Street Promenade, a pedestrian-only shopping area that is decorated with topiary dinosaurs and billions of lights. There is an in-tune piano along the way with a sign inviting, “Play me.” There is a beanbag toss game. There are comfortable Adirondack chairs to it in for as long as you wish. There are astroturf areas for children to play on. There are crazy spinning chairs to sit on and balance yourself, as you can see in the last photo. We tried them, and it was so much fun…you feel that you will probably tip over and crack your head open (isn’t that a nice thought?)….but you don’t!

Hmmm….SURF CITY USA. The title belongs to our (former) city, Huntington Beach, because….the city paid for the trademark!! Because of their surfing cultures, both Santa Cruz and Huntington Beach used the name, Surf City. Santa Cruz was given the name in 1927 by Hawaiians who found some of the best surfing waves in the world there. Huntington Beach was the place Jan and Dean had in mind when they recorded the song, Surf City USA. Both have surfing museums, but the U.S. Open of Surfing is in Huntington Beach. So it filed for a trademark in 2004 with the Patent Office, which was granted in 2006. Santa Cruz tried to prevent the trademark award from being granted to Huntington Beach, which then sent cease-and-desist letters to stores selling items depicting Santa Cruz as Surf City. In turn, two Santa Cruz stores sued Huntington Beach so they could continue to use the name. Messy, huh? Eventually, a confidential settlement was agreed to in 2008. All lawsuits and counterclaims were dismissed, and both cities use the term.

The first several photos are from around Main Street in downtown. All along Main Street, the sidewalk is imbedded with the Huntington Beach Surfing Walk of Fame plaques. It was warm (mid-70s, as it is most of the year) with a little breeze and was just a stunning day. People were eating and drinking at all the outdoor venues, and it felt very summery. The surfers were out catching some afternoon waves. It was quite idyllic.

Down on the bike/pedestrian walk that runs for about 20 miles along the Pacific, we felt very nostalgic. We had spent many days riding our bikes here and having breakfast or lunch afterwards…great memories. There is a photo of the famous pier, and at the end is Ruby’s Diner, where we had lunch today. I always recommend Ruby’s to visitors, as the walk along the long, clean pier is fun and gorgeous (and you get to watch the surfers and the volleyball players), and the food is very good. Best of all, hovering at the edge of the pier as it does, you almost feel like you’re on a cruise ship, with the ocean all around you.

It was pretty clear today. In the photo before the one-legged bird on the pier, you can see a white dome in the middle of the image as well as buildings….that is Long Beach, about 10 miles to the north, and the white dome was built to house Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose when it was in place next to the Queen Mary.

We were amused to see a bride getting photos taken at the ocean’s edge. We are guessing it was after the wedding, since the hem of her gown was wet and sandy. We also enjoyed the man getting buried in the sand by his wife. We loved the photo of the four women and a baby sitting on a bench on the pier, talking away and having snacks. But the last two images are my very favorites of the day, one a photo of the best kite we have ever seen, followed by a very short video of that kite. A guarantee from us: you will be smiling after watching the video!

Dia de Los Muertos…Day of the Dead. We paid solemn tribute on this grave day!

Many people have been writing us to ask why we haven’t been posting. Until we leave to travel around the world next weekend, we have been running errands in our old stomping grounds…doctor’s appointments, obtaining a year’s worth of prescriptions, driver’s license renewals, selling our truck, purging ourselves of the few extra pieces of clothing we own, getting an International Driver’s License. What is that? It is a $30 fee paid to AAA for a piece of paper saying you are licensed to drive in the US and good to drive in other countries. Some countries say they require one, so….just another hoop through which we needed to jump! We may post during this next week before we leave if we finish our errands and do something fun, or may just wait until we are on our way.

The photos are from ArcLight Hollywood, where we have seen some excellent movies, movies we read about that aren’t playing anywhere else. While it shows blockbuster movies, its niche is as an art house theater. The lobby is big enough for displays and memorabilia. First up in the photos is Halloween….they built a house in the lobby for Michael Myers, and the clothing is from the movie. Ditto with the Freddie Mercury display from Bohemian Rhapsody…the clothing you see was actually worn in the film. There is a floor-to-ceiling screen for movie previews in the lobby that changes constantly, and Eddie Redmayne was up when we snapped the photo. The last two photos are part of an art installation in the lobby. We got very close to the images and couldn’t believe it….Dennis Hopper and Frank Sinatra are depicted with newsprint cut to “draw” their faces, along with just a few swipes of black ink. (The newsprint consists of articles about each actor or artist.) Incredible!