August

Here are some random photos from last month.  

This is actually a pretty common sight.  Linus has a naval obsession with one hand while his other hand  pacifies his mouth and explores his nose.

Ephraim's been introducing board games on Sunday afternoons.  (Thanks to Christine Peters, the game queen, for passing along some good ones.)  They've also played Settlers and Bohnanza.

My kids l.o.v.e play dates at Valerie's house.  Not only is Valerie gracious and kind, her sweet children have the funnest costumes!  Everytime I'm there I need my camera because they always have something new on.  I mean, raise your hand if you have a banana costume in YOUR closet?  Now, do you have two?  See, Valerie's awesome.

Goodbye August 2012.  May we remember only your good times.

Primo's in Malaeimi

A local chef and culinary educator Chef Sualua opened a Culinary School near our house.  They run a bakery and cafe which we love to go to.  Not only is it nearby, it is clean, people are friendly, and the pastries are unlike any on island--but much like good ones off island.  We took the kids last week for a lunch date with Ephraim.  Definitely recommend it -- Monday - Friday from morning until lunchtime.  Must try the banana muffins.

Robert Louis Stevenson Museum

Our hotel in Apia is walking distance from the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum.  In case you didn't know:

Robert Louis Stevenson lived the last four years of his life in Samoa with his wife, mother, and stepchildren.  They lived in a beautiful villa in the village of Vailima, which is near Mt. Vaea where he is buried.  

 To get to the villa you go through these gates and walk about half a mile down a beautiful lush garden path.

 The driveway leads to the "Villa Vailima".  RLS sure picked a great spot.

 There are two fireplaces in the house.  Our guide said, "Fireplace is good in Scotland.  Not in Samoa.  Too hot."  I think he said it three times.  It made us laugh.  This was the smoking room.

 A view toward Mt. Vaea from the upper verandah.  That opening is the start of a hiking trail to the lookout where his grave is.  We didn't have time to do it this time.

 These were original works of RLS, first editions, I guess.

 We were amazed that most of the areas in the house were not cordoned off, you could just walk up, look at, and if you wanted, touch anything in the place.  Some items were even originals.  I can't understand how they're preserved, in this climate too.  Oh well, we just enjoyed the experience.

We were impressed with the furnishings that he had managed to bring all the way across the ocean back in those days.  It must have cost a lot of money, and required a lot of hard work to transport his multitude of heavy belongings to the villa.  And we complain about getting stuff here today!

 This was an original dress his wife wore.  I can't imagine wearing long dresses and boots here in Samoa!  No thanks.

 His mother's room.

 His son's writing desk.

 The "hospital room" where is wife took care of him.  He had TB.

 The medicine cabinet.

 Going down the staircase.

 The great room.  This was an amazing hall where dancing, music, and feasts took place.  It would have been fun to have been invited to an event here.  Ephraim was impressed that many people played instruments back then.  They had a piano, two sitars, a mandolin, and an wind-up music box that played songs from wooden spools.

 

The Prayer at Morning
(Written at Vailima)

The day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns and duties. Help us to play the man, help us to perform them with laughter and kind faces, let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us to go blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our resting beds weary and content and undishonoured, and grant us in the end the gift of sleep.
-Robert Louis Stevenson

Apia - Le Manumea

So I think I've mentioned our awesome friends the Monsons, who've helped us out so many times.  This time, they gave us a real gift:  they watched our three oldest kids so we could go to Apia for three days.  While they had their adventures, we had ours.

We spent our fair share of time in the airport.  Linus enjoyed pushing the carts around.

We stayed at Le Manumea Hotel in Vailima.  It was dreamy!

 The porch

 My favorite part:  open-sky shower.  You can shower in the rain!

 This pictures a little confusing, but you can see we're in the bathroom looking toward the bedroom. When you walk through the bathroom door, you're kind of walking outside.

 We don't have a lot of food options on Tutuila, we were so excited to eat out in Apia.  We had dinner at The Curry House.  YUM YUM YUM!

 Next morning we had a lovely breakfast at the hotel.  Linus explored the grounds.

 While Ephraim went to the Temple, Linus and I went to the pool.  I love these pictures. Cute view.

 He's still learning to walk, so he crawls everywhere.

 Back to the room for a shower...

 ...And a nap.

 (with his eyes open)

 Relax, relax, relax.

 Loved this ceiling fan.

 Ceiling of the fale at the hotel.

 We went into town looking for food and shopping. Got some ice cream: orange chocolate chip and passion fruit.

Some more random photos.

Samoa's celebrating 50 years of independence this year.  Go Samoa!  Malo lava!

We also went to the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum which I'll write about in another post.  We really enjoyed our little getaway to our neighbor island.  We really need to do that more often!