Day 332, Year 1: Happy Birthday to Justin
Date: Thursday, September 14, 2006
Weather: Beautiful Weather with Some Intermittent Showers
Location: Apia Harbor, Upolu Island, Samoa
By 9am this morning, we were all at the Harbor Master’s Office getting our pictures taken for our ID badges. We didn’t even have to show our passports to get the pictures taken, so we can’t see that this security measure is really going to help, but they are trying. The South Pacific Games are here next summer and this is a first step to make sure terrorists don’t enter the country by boat. We then walked to the internet café to check our email. From there, it was in to town to explore the local fruit and vegetable market and the local arts and crafts market. Both were wonderful. The fruit and vegetable market is huge but has only locally grown produce. That limits the selection to coconuts and anything made out of coconuts, Samoa koko (cocoa nuts), green beans, bok choy, cabbage, tomatoes, mangoes, papayas, star fruit, taro, breadfruit, and loads of bananas
We had a birthday lunch at Sails Restaurant. This site was the first home of Robert Louis Stevenson when he lived here. The view from the balcony and the ocean breeze was fantastic even though the food was only so so. But the feel was very “South Pacific” and worth a stop.
And now for the really good news of the day. I am actually walking without crutches. The Aircast Airsport ankle brace that Paul Urbanek sent with Justin is just what I needed. The box says, “Step In, Strap Up, And Go!” And it works. If I need speed, it still helps to use the crutches, but I’m sure I’ll get faster as my leg muscles get stronger. I also was able to snorkel with both fins today and made it to the deep part of the Palolo National Marine Reserve. The Reserve is just a very short walk from the harbor. When you get into the water it is very shallow for quite some distance and we snorkeled over some beautiful coral. Then when you get to the drop off, there are lots of fish. I swam with thousands of little blue chromis which is always a magical experience.
Kathleen from Quantum Leap went to the beach with us and then came back to Windbird for a taco dinner. Then we all went to Quantum Leap for an evening of music. There were cruisers from Holland, England, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and the US, but we all seemed to know the words to the same songs. It was great. The highlight of the evening was when seven year old Molly from Hong Kong requested that we sing “Almost Heaven, West Virginia”. Everyone knew the words and cruisers that have already been around the world shared how people all over the world have adopted that song and made it their own. It was a great evening and the perfect “birthday” evening for Justin.
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| 060914 Day 332a Samoa–Happy Birthday, Justin |
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| 060914 Day 332b Samoa–Music Night on Quantum Leap |
