20 Years Celebrated in TAHITI!

When you are married to the best man on planet earth, he spoils you, and takes

you to your #1 bucket list destination for your 20 year anniversary!

That place happened to be Tahiti! 
Oh Tahiti, you were worth the wait!!

Even though it has been months since returning, I still pinch myself that it

actually happened! 

It is as dreamy in person as it is in the pictures. 

Such a happy island!

I don't think there is any way you could ever be grumpy in such a beautiful place.

Our travels to and from went perfectly smooth,

 even though it is a bit of a jaunt to get there and back.

I  have to thank Costco for wrapping this trip up in a perfect package for us.

It was my first time using them to book a vacation. 

Let me tell you, it wont be the last!!

Especially for international travel. 

In all we had 5 plane rides, 3 ferries, and 2 bus transfers that they

took care of for us. 

Plus booking the resorts that had upgraded rooms that included free breakfasts and dinners!

When we talked to other people who did it on their own, they paid close to double

the price plus had to pay for their own meals.

They were sure jealous.

Costco for the win!!

Our flight out of LA to Papeete was at midnight.

We had a good 6 hours to kill once we landed from Phoenix.

At first I thought it would be too risky to leave the airport in fear

of not making it back in time and missing the flight!

However, it seemed like a long time to be doing nothing, so 

 last minute we got a wild hair and rented a car

and explored the town!

It ended up being really fun, and almost like a mini vacation to kick off the

real vacation!

Our first electric car rental!

And brand spanking new at that.

I think it had 12 miles on it.

I have to get donuts every time I travel!

For all of the many times I've been to CA, I have never tried

Randy's Donuts!

Crazy as it is such an iconic place.

Fritters will always be my top pick of donut!

It was a good 25 years since I had been to LA.

I remember driving the streets with my family in

the big ol' suburban.

I remember driving by the temple and thinking how big it was!

Not much has changed, still ginormous!

Super sad to see the parking lot basically empty.
 Especially on a Friday afternoon.

The Mesa temple parking lot is always bustling. 

So fun to drive the Beverly Hills area as well.

I could people and car watch for hours!!

SO many fancy things walking and driving each direction. 

I love the eye contact from the groom.

I got caught, ha!

I guess they put 1,400 flags honoring lives lost in the Oct. 7th Hamas attack on Israel.

A stark contrast from UCLA's protests blocking
Palestinian students from going on campus not that far away!

 

 

My dad gave me a suggestion on a restaurant.

I'm glad we took it, because it was EASILY the best 

Mexican food of our lives!

Sounds dramatic, but it was chefs kiss!! 

Run your heinie's to El Cayote if you are ever in the area!

We made it back to the airport with plenty of time to spare!

I went to grab last minute treats for the plane ride when I saw an

influencer I follow on instagram.

Walking back to our seat, sure enough there was his wife!

There they were, in the flesh.

Act cool, act cool.

Fullmhouse- Caleb and Kelsi were on our flight!!

They were also with their insta famous friends, Chris Loves Julia.

Nope, sure did not say anything to them!

I'm a chicken, plus I'm sure the last thing they would want to 

do is small talk with a peon like me on vacation.

Julia and Kelsi.

I sat down and instantly pulled up their page. ( I am such a geek).

What do you know, Casey made their stories!!

Settling in for the night!

I crashed right after take off and thankfully slept the WHOLE flight!!

We landed at 5am Tahiti time. 

It was still dark and luckily we were the only flight that had come in.

I had heard how long of a wait to get through customs it could be.

This is a TINY primitive airport.

It's open with no air conditioning and the humidity was thick!

They had one line and it took almost an hour to get through.

However it wasn't bad as we had entertainment.

Its not every day you have dancing and ukuleles at the airport!
What a neat welcome!

And I saw a stray dog or 2, even a chicken? Roaming around.

We found the shuttle bus and were greeted with leis. 

They also handed us a packet with all of our other transfer

information for the week set up by Costco!

Even though it was a small airport, it was bustling

and I am grateful we had everything lined out for us.

Made it so much easier!!

It was a short 10 minute drive to the boat dock where we boarded a

ferry to take us to Moorea.

Nothing is organized in Tahiti!
No signs, lines, or ticket booths.

We had no idea where our luggage was at this point.

We went with the flow of people and onto the boat!

It was a 20 minute ride to the island.

We got off to even more mass chaos!

At this point even though we weren't traveling with a group, we knew

familiar faces from our flight and stuck with them to get to the next step.

I want to say it felt like we were in another country... but we were!

We take for granted our countries systems.

This was island life at its finest.

Exhibit A: We found my suitcase underneath a weed whacker!!

I was loving every minute of it!

We shuffled our way to another bus that would drop us off at our resort.

A picture of the ferry as we drove away.

Moorea is a tiny island. 

Our bus driver told us that the government pays for the kids to take the ferry from Moorea 

to Papeete every morning for school. 

Since they need it for tourists, they have to go over at 4 am!

Bless those kids!

And we're off!

Cue psycho tourist leaning over taking pictures through the window at every

palm tree and beach in sight, lol!! 

I couldn't take it in fast enough!

We made our first stop to the people staying at the Sofitel.

Oh man, I was dying at their bungalows!!

I actually thought about staying there, but they were full.

Then our stop!

We stayed at the Hilton Moorea.

DREAMY!!

Fresh pineapple juice upon arrival.

We don't know how to be this fancy!!

This spoiled kitty living the dream at the activities desk!

We checked in but our room wasn't ready yet.

They had some light snacks for us to eat.

  Then we changed into swimsuits and found a place by the lagoon to relax.

How does such a beautiful place exist?!

I couldn't get over this tree!

It was so thick and provided the most amazing shade.

It's hard to tell but the underneath was completely flat. 

Almost like an umbrella tree, but it wasn't fake!

We had a garden villa bungalow.

And luckily all the rooms had AC, bless!!

Everything else did not, including the dining rooms.

All part of the experience, I guess. 

It was so quaint, with the coolest wicker roof that was pitched so high!

The best part, our own private pool!

That night was a Tahitian dinner show.

Their version of a luau.

Such a fun spread of different types of food!

Even Casey found plenty to eat even though he's not a sea food fan.

Real quickly we learned that poisson cru is a staple on the island.

It is everywhere!

Its a raw tuna dish.

The show was spectacular!

At first I was bummed we didn't have front row.

But with no air and sweaty, sweaty dancers and lots of spinning... glad my food was safe:)

Lets get this party started!!