Travels

Why French Polynesia? Good question. Neither one of us knew the first thing about the place before we researched the trip. But when we were first tossing ideas around, Meagan mentioned Bora Bora. It sounded fun to me, and after checking a few travel sites out, I was sold. The images I stumbled across -- the unnaturally beautiful lagoons, the rustic but luxurious overwater bungalows, the exotic dress and warm smiles on the faces of the native people, they all cast a spell on me that has me rapt to this day. I spent several months researching the place to death, both online and on the telephone, and finally settled on an itinerary.

10/16/01 - Boarded a morning flight for L.A., where we rented a convertible (naturally -- hey, it was a lot cheaper than renting a compact car in NYC). We stopped into a funky deli/restaurant where we both had a large lunch, and noticed that we were not the only tourists in the joint. After lunch we drove up to Santa Barbara along the coast highway, through Santa Monica and Malibu, and up into some of the crazy canyon roads out there. I always have the irresistible urge to steer a car into the unknown, and here it paid off. Incredible scenery. Every curve is "Dead Man's Curve". If you find yourself in southern California, DO THIS. Unfortunately, we hadn't gotten into Japanese Tourist Mode yet, and we left the camera in the hotel. No pictures of the California coast. (the picture to the left comes courtesy of someone named Christina.) We drove around for several hours, stopping to take in the view, and occasionally creeping into "private" residential streets, and after all that flying and all that driving we finally headed back into town to rest and relax at the hotel.

We spent the night at the Sofitel in Beverly Hills. This is a pretty swanky hotel, one of the nicest I had ever stayed in (but not for long, as it turned out). Got a screaming deal through priceline.com, partly because the hotel was renovating the pool, and partly because people were still staying home a month after the terrorist attacks in September. We were still using up energy from the big lunch, and instead of getting dinner, we opted for dessert only. I don't remember what we ordered, but I DO remember it was goooood. At one point in the evening I took a stroll and discovered that I had access to the roof of the building (though I don't think I was supposed to), and so I hung around up there for a while, taking in the nighttime view of the Hollywood Hills, before passing out for the night.

Cool.
I think we're going to the Cook Islands for our hunnymoon. But your pictures make me want to go where you went.....do you think it's not as pretty there?

I'm sure it's every bit as pretty....
Maybe just with lotsa New Zealanders instead of Frenchies.

These were great photos, brought back alot of memories even after only 10 months since we went to French Polynesia, we went Feb, 13 to 26, 2002. We spent our 25th anniversary and you spent your honeymoon, what a great way to start out a marriage.......we spent 3 days on Tahiti, so most of your shots of the back side of Tahiti we have seen too, and then we spent 3 days on Bora Bora, but we stayed at the Le Meridien on the motu. Then back to Tahiti to board the Paul Gauguin ship and spent another 8 days touring the islands,, (Bora Bora again),,,which happens to be my favorite, but Moorea was beautiful, we parasailed in Cooks Bay,,,,, we also spent the day at the Tahiti Beachcomber with a great view like yours,,,,anyway thanks for the memories again.......(I got some great arial shots of the Bora Bora Lagoon and airport...you can see some of my shots at www.tahiti-explorer.com,,,go to the albumsPhotos, and go to Feb2002 25th Anniversary....bj

Hi -

Thanks so much for sharing these photos! We are going to Moorea, Bora Bora and Tahaa for our 5th anniversary in October! I came across your photos because we are considering staying at the Sofitel Motu - it looks amazing based on your pictures! I think that is where we will stay - although we were also considering Hotel Bora Bora.

Thanks again!
Karen Morneau

Indeed your pictures are beautiful and so are mine! Just returned from a week on Moorea two weeks ago - sunburned! I'm writing a book about our trip, and anyone who wants to read can find it at wordparade.com starting hopefully this weekend (11/15)- need a few days to get my pix on a disk. Name: THE NODDY BIRD: A Sojourn in Tahiti. It's full of advice on what to watch out for, as I kind of specialize in revealing the facts - from the slightly inconvenient to DISASTER! Thanks for making this website, it's great!

I’m not wohrty to be in the same forum. ROTFL

Wow! Great thininkg! JK