Christmas break hike

Ever since we moved to our house on the beach, we've been a lot less gung-ho about going to other beaches. It's just so easy to go to the one we live by and we've been to so much of the island that the allure of unexplored places doesn't really call to us anymore. So after a few days of relaxing at home and for the first time in months, we went to a different beach.

We hiked to Fagatele Bay. It's always beautiful there and usually too rough to snorkel. Luckily for us it was nice and calm; unluckily for us, everyone knew it was usually rough so no one brought snorkel gear. Oh well, it was still a beautiful place to spend the afternoon.

Tisa's

Tisa's is always a good place to spend an afternoon - delicious pina coladas, a beautiful beach, and great snorkeling - at least on those rare occasions when the ava isn't trying to pull you out to sea. It wasn't a great day for snorkeling since the ava was pretty strong, but we hung out in the ava for a little bit and were able to see some beautiful fish while we were out there.

Ruth's "unexplained" head injury

Apparently I'm not the safest adult to hang around with and maybe shouldn't be trusted to look after my kid sister's well being. Because on the first sunny day we had in weeks (which just happened to be a Sunday and kind of cracked me up because I'm a dork like that) we decided to go to Larsen's. On the hike there Everett started telling Ruth about this vine that you can swing on that's on the side of the path. And no trip to a tropical island is complete without a little vine-swinging!

So I found the spot where we'd swung on the vine before. I couldn't remember which vine it was and I was loaded down with beach gear so I just gestured and said, "I think it's that one. Go pull on it to see." So she walked up to the vine, pulled on it, and there was a loud cracking sound, followed quickly by a 6 inch or so diameter branch which (of course) cracked over her head on its way to the ground. She was still standing and the branch was mostly rotted wood so undeterred, I told her to pull again just to be sure. I don't know what I was thinking - maybe that she'd want to swing on a vine so badly a little concussion wouldn't stop her? So she pulled again. It wasn't the right vine. It just came down out of the tree. We're going to have to find another vine for her to swing on before she leaves, but I'm guessing that next time she'll make me pull on the vine to test it.

Anyway, the beach was as beautiful as ever and the waves were huge that day, crashing up on the beach instead of out on the reef. Everett climbed up on this rock in the middle of the bay and pretended to control the waves. Ruth snorkeled for a bit, but then (strangely) had a bit of a headache and opted out of playing in the waves.

a rainy day at the beach

We went to $2 beach on one of the rainiest days we've had in weeks. When Clif handed the lady the money to use the beach, she looked up at the sky, looked at us, and shook her head. I'm sure she was thinking we were crazy palagis.

But it had been raining since Ruth got here and we figured we'd be wet anyway. We just needed to find a beach with fales to keep the towels dry. So we went to $2. It's a nice little beach on the East side of the island, just past Alega (Tisa's). There's a great little snorkel spot to the right of the little island that always has needlefish somewhere nearby. When I first headed out, I was surrounded by a circle of them that moved as I moved. I love how they stay close by, but are always just out of reach - there's nothing else like it. We also saw a bunch of cornetfish, which was especially fun since some of them were huge!

As an added bonus, we were able to get some pictures of Clif's favorite type of dog on the island. There are tons of dogs here, most are mangy and malnourished. It's pretty appalling. There are really just a few different patterns on the dogs here, and most tend to be similar in size and shape (small gene pool on a small island, go figure). There's a lot more I could say about the dog situation here, but I'll leave it at that for now -actually, I won't. I'll leave it to the Court to explain. Go to asbar.org, click legal resources, and search for Savage v. ASG, 1 ASR2d 102. It paints a pretty accurate picture of the dog problem here.

Anyway, Clif's favorite look on these island dogs, and probably my favorite too, are these that are white with brindled spots - pretty cool, huh?

and then there was Ruth

With my parents gone and only Ruth left to entertain and all the rain we've been having and 2.5 months to show her the island, things have slowed down a bit at our house. So we spent a drizzly evening at Amanave looking for shells - which is really just an excuse to get to the beach on those days when we don't necessarily want to get in the water.

Although I am pretty sure we have turned Ruth into a shell-collecting monster. Notice the bulging bag under the flip flops... it's full of shells. I think she has more than we do already!

The strangest thing about having a sister at my house, especially a sister that only lived in the same house as I did for 5 years (cuz she's 12 years younger and I left home at 17), is that we say the same things at the same time. All the time. It seems that we can't have a conversation without doing it. If we were playing "jinx," we'd always be silent or owing each other cokes (whichever rules you lived by).

Visitors!

For nearly a year we've been trying to convince friends and family to come see this beautiful island. We finally had someone take us up on the offer to crash on our couches and we didn't even make them sleep on the couch! My parents came for a few days this month so Clif and I took some days off work to be tour guides. The kids were so excited to show the island to their grandparents - they helped us plan our outings so we didn't miss out on any of their favorite spots (like the old WWII guns, which happen to be just about the coolest thing if you're a 6 or 8 year old boy).

The first day they were here, I put my mom to work. Our friends Moi and Polu were getting married and we heard that it's traditional for couples to wear matching outfits to weddings. All the sewing shops were so busy with outfits for graduations the same week that I ended up sewing my own puletasi. Unfortunately, I was sick the weekend before so I hadn't been able to get it done before my parents got here. Thank goodness my mom likes to sew! We finished up just in time for the wedding.

In the rush of getting to the wedding in time we forgot to take our camera. I wish we hadn't because it was amazing (see here and here for picture proof, including pictures of us in our matchy outfits)! Moi and Polu are such a great couple and I can't imagine a more beautiful setting for their wedding. We were so honored to be able to share their day with them.

And then the running around began! My dad vacations like no one else. If he can he'll wake up at the crack of dawn, run around all day seeing nearly a week's worth of sights in a day -barely stopping to munch some crackers for lunch en route to the next place and only really taking the time to eat after it's too dark or too late to see anything else. You see a lot of stuff that way, but you need a vacation to relax after your vacation to sight-see! I've gotten used to the laid-back Samoan pace so I was glad that it's a small island and, even if we wanted it to, that just can't happen here. We did manage to see a whole lot of island in a few short days, but I'm sure my dad would have liked to see more. I suppose that just means they'll have to come back ;)

First we stopped to check out the octopi on side of the road in Faga'alu. We've driven past these before, but hadn't ever stopped to see (and smell) them up close. Simon didn't seem too sure about it.

We hiked to the old WWII guns on Blunt's Point, with Everett leading the way. The first gun has been cleaned up and drained. The second one, a little higher on the hill, is absolutely full of toads! It was crazy to see how many were in there. Simon found a tiny one (on the leaf in the picture at the beginning of the post) that was about as big as a little black bean.

We drove the the end of the road on the East side of the island and stopped for a picnic in a fale at a beautiful beach with Aunu'u in the background.

We hiked out to see Pola Island in Vatia, snorkeled, hung out on the beach, and even got to see an amazing sunset over the mountains.

We hiked out to Airport Lagoon for some snorkeling and shell collecting. I'm sure I've said this many times, but airport is one of our favorite beaches on the island. The snorkeling is excellent and the hike is beautiful, especially at high tide when the blowholes are going crazy.

Then Ruth, my sister, came too. Ruth is staying until August! Everett and Simon have been talking about it for months, "our Aunt Ruth is coming and she's going to teach us school stuff and we're going to call her Miss Ruth" over and over. It's calmed down a bit lately, but not because they are any less excited!

The next morning we hiked Mount Alava in the National Park of American Samoa (described in more detail here). Everett was really excited about writing his name in the book in the fale at the top. The hike back down was much slower because Ruth showed Simon the grass that closes when you touch it. He tried to touch every single one he could see the whole way down, which, as you may imagine, slows down a 6-yr old just a little bit.

We hurried down the mountain (well, except for Simon who was too busy closing the grass) to get cleaned up and ready to eat dinner at Tisa's. Mmmmmm. I don't know how Candyman makes breadfruit taste so good - except that coconut cream is somehow involved, which makes everything taste better!
Then we snorkeled at Faga'alu and saw lots of cool stuff - tons of trumpetfish, moorish idols, and even an eel.

We shopped for souvenirs and then they left for Hawaii. Thanks for coming mom and dad!

Sailele

We hadn't been to Sailele in a while (previously blogged about in this post) so we decided to spend our Saturday there. It's a quiet village on the Northeast side of the island. When we go there, I can easily imagine what life would be like in a Samoan village a hundred years ago.

As we drove through, some of the villagers were sitting along the edge of the road pulling weeds and others were raking up leaves and other debris to burn. It's just a very idyllic setting. One of the older women was sitting in the water with some young kids. When we walked by the littlest started yelling, "palagi, palagi" and pointing at us while she tried (unsuccessfully) to get him to stop. The others just waved and smiled.

We had heard that there was good snorkeling near a rock by the beginning of the village. It wasn't a huge spot, but there were lots of different fish. I love longnose filefish - I can't really explain why. It's probably because when I first saw a pair of them it was so surprising. I had never seen a fish that shape before and the colors were so bright that it seemed unreal and cartoony. There were several pairs of them in the little pool in Sailele, along with a few juvenile emperor angelfish, Clif's favorite.

a beach with no name

On the way to palagi beach we pass this little beach, but this time we planned to stop here. As far as I know, it has no name, but I think the mini island that is out in the water is called Niuoleava Rock (the one in the foreground on the right in the first picture and on the left in the second).

It was a great place to spend an afternoon: fairly quiet and secluded, with just a little hike. And there was a small pool between the beach and the rock that was just deep enough to float around in.