Papeete- Day 1 and 2

Warning: The posts for this trip may be excessively long! Maybe just skip to see the amazing pictures if you want. Unfortunately I have 1 or 2 family members who will want every detail and in truth these blogs are for our family history later so someday I'll be glad I wrote more instead of less.

You saw most of Saturday in the previous post. Once we boarded the ship and settled in we took naps (again), explored the ship, and then had our first dinner together. Our seating time was 8:15PM. Yep, you read that right. We got to eat dinner every night at 8:15PM! Apparently my 3 little boys were outnumbered by the rest of the teenagers, young couples, and adults in our 23 person family reunion party. I was skeptical but it actually worked out fine since most days we were off the ship on adventures during the day, boarded around 5pm, took naps and showered and then were fine for dinner that late. And the ipods helped. The wait staff brought the kids their dinners within the first 5 minutes of sitting down so they were able to eat and then do whatever they wanted on their ipods. The kid center also helped. Ethan spent every night we let him, skipping dinner with the family to go there and hang out with kids his age and do whatever games or activities they did. Isaac was old enough to go and he went along about half the time and came with us the other half. There weren't really other little kids his age so he wasn't as excited to go. It was honestly one of the small miracles of the 10 day cruise that not once did Taylor or I have a frustrating dinner trying to control our kids. They really were excellent the whole time. Apparently eat then ipod is a good combo for them.

Every Christmas Taylor's parents hold their own family reunion trip. This started the year after Taylor went off to college because apparently he came home that Christmas and spent almost all of his time at friends' homes. So his dad vowed they'd never again spend Christmas at home and they haven't. Some years the trips are stateside (which we love- much easier with kids/traveling/logistics) and other years they're more extravagant (Costa Rica, Bermuda, Portugal). Last year Taylor's aunt told his parents that her family would be going to Tahiti on this cruise and said how fun it would be if we could turn the trip into a Servoss family reunion (Taylor's mom's side- she has 2 sisters and there are 6 cousins). No one thought they'd actually pull it off. Getting 23 people's schedules to line up is rare, but the allure of Tahiti and a year to plan and schedule vacation time was apparently enough. So what was normally a Woodbury Christmas family reunion became the Servoss Christmas family reunion.
The Woodburys arrived Saturday morning and the Keithley's and Austins got in Saturday night and Sunday morning.
Sunday morning, bright and early, we all headed off to a tour with all 23 of us. Actually really nice to have us all together because then my kids had their favorite cousins to play with and everyone kind of watched out for them.
Our first stop was a museum inside the home of Charles Norman Hall who wrote Mutiny on the Bounty, which truthfully I knew and know nothing about but it was neat to see the memorabilia and the book is now on my to read list.
The kids were so excited to have their favorite cousin Sofia there!

And Miles entertained himself by downing at least 3 cans of mango juice. Just look at that doped out look on his face.

Can't wait for the diapers from that!

Then we headed off to Venus Point where Captain Cook landed in French Polynesia and observed the transit of the planet Venus. I'm not sure exactly what that is but it happens every few hundred years and is something about the sun and Venus passing and apparently this is THE place to watch it. Who knew? My kids were more excited to go out on the beach UNTIL they discovered that it is black sand and that black sand is HOT. I mean REALLY HOT! Apparently black sand beaches are only found on "newer" islands where the lava formed rocks are still being broken down and white sand beaches are from the coral being broken down. Again, who knew?

Small things kept amazing me- like we're standing in the ocean and there are beautiful tropical flowers just floating around randomly. I'm sure it's because they're just growing everywhere, but it was beautiful.

Then we headed off to see one of the few waterfalls in all of French Polynesia. Huge!

As with any less developed country, the safety standards are not always in place, and since our kids are slightly reckless and definitely cannot resist climbing rocks and trees, we spent much of our time pulling them back from dropoffs or off of boulders. Of course I'm the negligent parent taking pictures while Taylor saves Isaac's life.

There! That's a better spot to stand. I was severely tempted to go jump in that water though.

More rocks! Must be climbed! Must have our picture taken too!

We snagged some of the local bananas as we left. Miles calls them "tiny nanas" and they really are small, actually very Milo sized. Isaac miraculously ate one and then couldn't get enough of them. They taste slightly different than American bananas and are about 1/3-1/2 the size. Isaac spent the rest of the time scarfing them down and begging for more. This from a child who has NEVER in his life eaten an American banana.

Then we were off to see a blowhole where the ocean has eroded away the rock and there's a cave underneath.

This is what we spent 20 minutes staring at, just waiting.

And then finally were rewarded with this. I lucked out on the picture. I took at least 40 others thinking it was going to explode but it ended up being just wave after wave until it filled up enough.

Then off to one last spot to get a good lookout on the main bay of the island. Gorgeous!

And then it was back to the ship in time for lunch, naps, and a little rain and rainbows to enjoy while we sailed off for our 1st stop on the cruise.

Not a bad view. Taylor's aunt is a VP for Princess Cruises so she got the entire family some MAJOR discounts for the trip. They don't allow you to put more than 4 people in 1 room and since our little family already has 5, it meant we had to take 2 rooms. Actually not a bad deal since it costs the same- just more space for us. Taylor took Ethan and Isaac in his room and they all had twin beds (poor Taylor). I took Miles in with me and since he slept in a pack and play I got a king size bed all to myself (I think Taylor was trying to pamper me a little knowing I was pregnant and also about to be seasick A LOT). Still a good husband.

The port at Papeete. We were their during their summer season and the temperature was generally in the high 80's with LOTS of humidity. We actually appreciate the torrential downpours that came through most days.

Milo and me in our room.