For spring break, my parents invited us (Tara, Shawn, Corbin, Jennie, Tyler, and I) to go to Samoa and American Samoa. OF COURSE we said yes! To get there, we had a spend a night in Vegas. We stayed at the Golden Nugget! We visited the Mormon Fort in Vegas. It was pretty cool!
They had these old neon signs on display.
The Golden Nugget has this sweet slide that goes through a shark tank! The pool was closed because there were super high winds that day. Tyler was DYING! He wanted to go through that shark tank SO bad!!
Sweet cut-out at one of the shops in Vegas.
Our hotel!
We went to this restaurant called Serendipity, and had the frozen hot chocolate. It was AMAZING!
Tyler wasn't going to have any originally, then he caved.
Skip ahead a while..... we stopped over in Hawaii for a couple of hours, then headed on to American Samoa. Here we are, after the huge line to get through customs, waiting for our bags. It was SO hot. I've NEVER been anywhere so hot and humid in all my life!!!
Finally! We're at the hotel in American Samoa!
The stage outside where they have the weekly shows.
Back at the airport! We're headed for Samoa.
The view, on the way to "Western" Samoa.
The planes are kinda small....
There's the cockpit.
The airport in Samoa! That's all of it.... really....
The plane we just got off. It's REALLY that small... They weigh you before you get on, so they know where to place you on the plane.
Here's the baggage claim! We didn't get our bags for over 24 hours. They just couldn't fit them on the plane.
Walking to our room at the famous Aggie Grey's hotel!
One of the local markets in downtown Apia. It was SO hot. I bought a fan that I carried around constantly.
Walking back to the hotel.
Check out the walkways in the hotel! All hand-wrapped.
Outside our room.
Inside our room. VERY FESTIVE!! They put live flowers all over the room. This looks very pretty, but sure does bring in a lot of bugs!
Our nightly dinner at Scoops restaurant. They were cheap, and actually not too bad!
The local shop where we bought our daily lunch- PB&J.
We went to Piula Pool on our first full day in Apia. We used to go here when we were little, every time we went to Samoa. This is a freshwater spring that comes out of two caves. Here's one of them. The water is pretty cold, but it's SUPER hot, so the water feels great! There's also a little tunnel from the back of this cave, over to another cave. The boys swam between the caves, even though the girls told them not to..... we were scared they'd get stuck.
Lunch! More PB&J. ALSO, mom and dad brought this AWESOME stick of beef from Hawaii. It was so greasy, but it tasted AMAZING!!
Here's the other cave that the tunnel goes to, it's just around the mountain from the first cave.
Here we are, walking back up the super steep steps to get back to the car.
There's this church at the top of the hill. The pool is technically at the church school. We took a Christmas picture on the steps of this church one year.
Here's everyone from the school playing cricket! This is pretty much the national passtime of Samoa. That and rugby. It's pretty much the only time guys where shorts. Other than this, they're in lavalavas pretty much all the time.
We stopped by this village called Sauniatu. It's an old Mormon village started by David O. McKay.
Here's one of the monuments.
The village is in this beautiful mountain setting with its own waterfall and river!
Check out the rules! Curfew hours include 30 minutes in the evening. This is typically all over Samoa. Isn't that a cool idea? They even have large guys standing along the roads to make sure everyone is inside.
Here I am in front of Scoops!
On this day, we drove around the island...
...and went to the Aggie Grey's beach resort. It's owned by the same company as the hotel we stayed in in Apia, but it's brand new, and very nice! Recognize that little island? It's in the opening credits of Survivor Samoa!
We LOVE looking for shells.... and there were TONS on this beach!!
AND a bunch of hermit crabs!
The next day, we went to a place called sliding rock. You have to walk down this HUGE flight of stairs and the waterfalls are at the very bottom.
We finally made it!
Corbin LOVES rocks! He was in HEAVEN!!!
Here's Tyler heading down the top waterfall.
A view back up the hill
The boys at the top
Waiting for daddy!
Jennie, going down the middle "slide"
Finally, the bottom, and LARGEST slide!
Here we are at the sign... back at the top of the hill!
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the temple and snapped some pictures. This temple is pretty much in downtown Apia so it was right by our hotel, but since they didn't have clothing rental, we weren't able to do any work.
Here we are at the downtown outdoor shopping area where you can buy handmade items for pretty cheap!
On the walk back, we stopped by this library. Isn't it a cool building!?
The big building on the right is the government building. See the fale on top?
The next day, we headed over to Savai'i on a ferry. We left at about 3:00 am, so we watched the sunrise from the boat.
And mostly tried to sleep!
When we got there, we looked around for the "large" van they promised..... it wasn't very big. Here we are, all crammed in there.
Kids don't ride in carseats in Samoa. Corbin LOVED looking out the windows!
Our first stop in Savai'i was to this little place where my dad went when he was a kid.
We hiked out to a church that was pretty much the only building left after a massive lava flow back in 1905. When the lava came down the hill, everyone living on this side of the island ran for the beach and swam to another island to get away. The ferry ride to that island took us 2 hours. Image how long it would have taken to swim!
2010
MaiTy
Then we walked to the "Virgin's Grave." This is a sacred place because when the lava flow came, something like 12 feet thick, it went right around the grave of this little girl and left it completely untouched. For the people of Savai'i, it was a miracle.
Back passed the church on our way out.
Then we stopped for lunch and the guides husked us some fresh coconuts to drink.
The water actually tasted like sprite. I've never had coconut water like that before. We didn't drink it all.....
Our next stop was a huge tree-house type thing, supposedly used for a challenge in Survivor Samoa. We had to hike to get to it. The forest was beautiful!
There it is, looking up. You couldn't even see the top from the ground. But you CAN see the "sky walkway" that was supposed to connect 2 trees together. It was currently under renovation.
On the way up
Here's the sky walkway when we were about level with it.
The railings weren't exactly "sturdy" so I was a little freaked out. Plus there were holes in the floor. Corbin was up there too!
There's that sky walkway, all the way down there... We were REALLY, REALLY high.
The view from the top
On the way back down....
Our last picture in Savai'i!!
Here's the fale where the weekly show takes place.
Before the show we played phase 10! :)
Corbin danced with the guys the whole show. He copied everything they did. It was SO cute! Don't you love his outfit?!
They called these kids up from the audience, had them take their shirts off, and taught them to do a "haka" or a Maori war dance! They were awesome!
This was the grand finale.
They threw the burning spears up three floors!!
Check out this dinner.
The next day we went for a drive, and on the way, we stopped by to see this SUPER tall waterfall.
Then we made our way to Togitogiga Waterfall
We had to take a short walk through the woods to get there
The walk was totally worth it! This is just the top waterfall
Here's Ty jumping off the lower falls. We used to jump there when we were little. I haven't been here in forever.
Lunch!
Dad, filming everybody
Ty, jumping
Tyler, throwing Corbin to Shawn..... I was a little scared, but he didn't even make a sound! He wasn't scared at all!
Further around the island. This is the surf camp where John stayed last time they were in Samoa. It was completely wiped out by the tsunami, they're just beginning to rebuild.
There was this weird temple on the side of the road, so we stopped by for pictures.
At the temple, I went to the bathroom. There aren't ANY bathrooms in Samoa, so you take the opportunity when you can get it. Anyway, Jennie decided to use the bathroom too. She came in the door and all of a sudden started SCREAMING bloody murder! I was in the stall at the time, so now I'm freaked out because she just ran out without telling me why she was screaming.... this is what I found when I came out. I was expecting a giant bear or something byt he amount of screaming that came out of Jennie. It was pretty big though....
After we got back, we walked into town again. Samoa is the HOTTEST place in the world.... can you tell? We found a rare spot in the shade.
Our last day in Samoa! This is my parents fale where we would all get together for breakfast in the mornings, and movies on my dads ipod at night.
This is the roof of the fale. Check out that detail! It's all hand tied!
Here's the area between our rooms and my parents fale. You can see their fale in the background.
Here we are out in front of the hotel.
On our way back to American Samoa! Check out that view!!
Getting of the plane, back in Pago Pago, American Samoa.
The Samoa version of Costco
We drove to the side of the island that had been affected by the tsunami. This is one of the gorgeous "beaches" that you can't really swim in because of the rip tide.
We went to the awesome store full of all these weird things. The funnies part about the stuff in this store is that people in Samoa actually think people in the US buy crap like this!!!
Giant fly swatter/spanker
Super fancy his and her toilets :)
Funny vandalism....
Pago Pago Bay
Here's a view from the top of the hill. One one side is Pago Pago Bay (in the background), and on the other side is the National Park we're heading to next. Pago Bay is where a lot of the devastation happened when the tidal wave hit.
Check out the sign, that was a STEEEEEEEP hill!!
Did you know you can't buy baked Doritos in the US any more? BUT, you CAN buy them in SAMOA! I bought a couple bags and hand-carried them home! YUM!
Charlie the tuna! The factory here smells AWFUL, but we got to see Charlie!!
The last day in American Samoa. This view was shortly after we left the hotel. Isn't is beautiful?
Also, this is right before I rolled my foot. :)
This is one of the gorgeous views along our drive, on the way to the national park.
Here we are in the van!
The view of the national park from the top of the drive down.
Check out that view! This is a national park. Isn't it gorgeous?!?
My man :)
Tyler and my mom looking for fun things.
There were hermit crabs all over the beach! We tried to get them to fight each other, but they wouldn't...
Getting on the plane.... we walked right out to it. We're on our way home!
What a great trip!!!
