Honeymoon (The Beginning)

Well, I'm on a plane to Vegas for a work conference and I thought...what better time to FINALLY start writing about our honeymoon. As you can probably imagine, it was the trip of a lifetime. Expensive, yes. Worth it, oh yeah. We left for the honeymoon the Monday evening after the wedding, so we had a good night's sleep on Sunday and were pretty well rested before we left. We were both very excited, of course. I think me more than Nate because he knows what long flights are like. We started out by flying to Los Angeles. On that flight we partook in our first game of Scrabble for the trip. Travel Scrabble = totally awesome. Typically when flying you're stuck doing individual activities: reading, watching a move, computer work, etc. So it was nice to do something together that actually took a little brain power.

Here's how the game turned out:



Scrabble really involves a bit of strategy, as well as making impressive words. It's all about playing on the bonus squares and racking up the extra points. That and a little luck regarding the letters drawn. I won this round, but there were plenty more games to play throughout the honeymoon.

Once we arrived in L.A. we had about a 4-hour layover. We checked in for our flight with all the other honeymooners (seriously, the entire line of people besides one or two couples were newlyweds) and then grabbed some drinks and dinner at one of the airport restaurants. We were sitting at the bar and ended up chatting with a guy who had been to Tahiti 20 years ago. He had nothing but good things to say about it and he ensured us we were going to have a fantastic time.

Once we finally boarded the plane in L.A. it was about 2 a.m. our time. Tired! We had bought some over the counter sleeping pills and I immediately took one in hopes of getting at least a little sleep. I was in and out of sleep for several hours and I think Nate got a little sleep. I just have one piece of advice for long 8-hour flights. If you can afford business class, DO IT! They cram so many people into coach on those flights and the minute the person in front of you leans their seat back, it's all over. Your knees are crunched...your abdomen has a permanent indention from the tray table being shoved in it...you get my point. And sleeping SUCKS. It's just impossible to get comfortable, so I'm glad I had a little help from the drugs.

When we arrived in Tahiti, there was a local welcoming committee that was playing music and handing out flowers. And we got leid after checking in at the Tahiti Legends booth (the group from whom we purchased our honeymoon package).

We snapped this picture as we were waiting for our transportation to the hotel. As you can see, we're pretty tired and groggy. C'mon, it was 5 a.m. local time! But we were determined to motor through the day and stay awake, so that we could get on the Polynesian time schedule as soon as possible.

Up next, our hotel room...