#182 Nomad Diary. 13-19 April 2024. Tahiti. Moorea. 5 Sea Days to Hawaii on 21 April.
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| Selfie on Grand Princess Promenade Deck 7 Saturday. 13. It’s our 3rd sea day and I’m looking forward to our next stop! The sea days are nice. These have been a bit rocky with the waves of the ocean. I’ve enjoyed the rocking at night time. On these sea days, we have a fairly regular schedule like this: 5 am exercise followed by, coffee, and breakfast, 9am Bible class, mid-morning rest, tea, reading, lunch at noon or 1, afternoon rest, sometimes a lecture, pool time, 4 is the trivia game we’ve been going to. 5pm dinner in the dining room with random seating, 7:30 evening show or reading in our room, 9pm, I’m asleep soon after! |
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| Night View in Papeete, Tahiti Sunday. 14. In Tahiti. We couldn’t find a church in Tahiti to attend and we watched an online service in Central time zone and before breakfast for us. We brought communion with us and have each other for singing, etc. After breakfast we walked into town at Papeete. Many people went on pre-booked excursions. We had been here last October and took a 4x4 through the middle of the Island. It was enjoyable, exciting at times, and memorable. We decided to simply take a walk today. It was very warm and humid. We walked through a mostly closed town for about 2 hours. We heard Tahitians singing in gospel songs in their language. We walked to a huge building with big open windows and listened outside for a few minutes. It reminded us of hearing Swahili worship in Kenya. There were some ship passengers sitting in the back of the auditorium that we could see from where we were outside. Later one told us that the whole service was in the local language. People sat in family groups and dressed alike within their families! At dinner on the ship, we were seated for the second time with Anne, from Australia. She comes to Bible class and is traveling solo with her challenge of being in a wheel chair with one leg! She’s shared many things with me through this cruise. Dinner was more sharing of friends who she encourages who have recently been faced with difficult situations with injured family members. Earlier she told me about her early days of losing her leg and her struggle to accept and live her life after her loss. Anne is an encourager and seeking to do good through her struggles. |
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| Grand Princess at Moorea |
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| More Beautiful Trees. Old Paths on Moorea. |
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| Evening Clouds from Ship Monday. 15. In Moorea. 11 miles from Papeete to Moorea and a small boat shuttle to the tiny port. We tried to rent electric scooters, but they were all taken. So we decided to go on a hike. It We hiked 10 miles! Farther than I expected, but we made it with being coated in sticky sweat and keeping on a going! We headed for Belvedere Lookout. On the way we stopped at a juice stand and had Pineapple Banana juice! I needed that juice! We were on the slope walking up to the lookout. We arrived and enjoyed the view for a few minutes. We bought a bag of handmade salted taro chips. We ate them on our walk down the mountain. We came to an archeological area next to the road and shaded by the woods. We followed the trail back into and through the woods. The archeology went on for at least a mile as we were usually going downhill and sometimes just walking around the mountainside. We came to a second Marae or worship center from the past. There were pathways through the woods |
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| Three of Our Four Sons Having a Birthday Get-Together in Huntsville, Alabama. Wes 37, Samuel 31, Eric 39. |
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| Joanie from California |
Tuesday. 16. Our oldest son, Eric’s 39th Birthday. He’s an amazing toddler dad with his lovely wife Erin. They are in their upper 30’s with Owen 2 ½ and Esther 8 months. I’m very excited to see them all in a couple of weeks. The show onboard today was a tug of war competition between the ship’s crew divisions. The engineers won the top spot. Took an afternoon swim in one of the pools.
Wednesday. 17. Another sea day. In Mark chapters 6-7 with our daily group. The sun was coming up in the east of course at 6 am. We watched it from our balcony as we did our morning exercise routine. It was a beautiful way to begin our day!
Thursday. 18. Mom’s 90th Birthday. We called and talked to her.
Friday. 19.
Nomad Notes. On the ship we have met 20-30 people at the 9am Bible study. Ann is from Australia and is in a wheel chair with one leg. She is an enthusiastic lover of life. She has 400 rubber ducks with notes that she is hiding on the ship. She is having fun with her self-made happy projects. She lost her leg as a result of a diving accident. She told me some of her recovery and how she had to gain her emotional will to live again. She now is an encouragement to anyone she meets! Joanie and her husband Mark are from California. They are retired RVers in the US and sometimes cruisers. We’ve enjoyed meeting and visiting with them because of the Bible class. They have kids and grandkids and loads of life experience raising them through the years.
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