Red Sun over Bako

The Red Sun

Bakersfield is not known for it's clear skies or it's clean air. This summer is no exception. The Zaca wildfire has been burning in the Los Padres National Forest for about 6 weeks now. It has caused quite a bit of monetary damage in consuming over 150,000 acres of forest. One of the side effects of the fire is the giant smoke plume over the southern San Joaquin Valley.

For the past month we in Bakersfield have been seeing significantly cooler weather than usual (high 80's - mid 90's) which is nice, but on the other hand we've had twilight conditions from about 3:00 on as the sun turns red and diffuse behind the ceiling of smoke. According to the local paper, our air quality has actually been better this summer than in the past summer, however lately we've been having a lot of ash fallout which can't be good for anyone.

We've known a few people who have been sick lately with respiratory maladies, this could be from anything, but if nothing else serves as a reminder about how bad the air is here all of the time. No wonder so many kids here have asthma. Bakersfield is a nice place to start out adult life, but this blotting out of the sun serves as another reminder that it is time to find a new place to live...

Honeymoon Travel Log - Day 9

Day 9

Our 9th day on the island is Saturday, which means another market day, but also our last day on the island. A few days earlier I had extended the scooter rental to Saturday, but only until 10:00 am. So first thing in the morning I headed over to Budget to get another extension, through the afternoon. We started off the day without the usual "American Breakfast", we wanted to save room for lunch at the market. So as soon as we were done showering we packed the backpack and hopped on the scooter and headed to town.

As usual the market was buzzing with activity. We parked a ways past the market next to a park and walked back in order to avoid the main throng of people. We had a couple of missions for the market, but the most important missions were to get souveniers for ourselves and our family and friends and to eat lunch! After perusing several of the booths we ended up finding some jewelry, paintings, and shirts that fit our purposes. Now it was time to eat.

For lunch we settled on a small Indian food booth. Meghann ordered the coconut curry chicken, and I went with the "spicy" curry chicken. The man working at the booth warned me that it was very hot and may cause pain, but it turned out that the curry was fairly mild. It would probably seem hot to someone accoustomed to eating fish and coconuts, but not someone who'd been living in the southwest for a few years.

After we were done at the market, we dropped our stuff back at the hotel room (which we had smartly reserved until 7 pm) and headed out for our last circle island tour. We stopped at Mac's Cafe one last time for some coffee and a milkshake, we picked up a CD of island music downtown, then we returned to the hotel to start packing.

With our time nearly at an end, we at one last dinner at Captain Andy's Bar and Grill, Meghann got the giant drink, and we loaded up on the bus and headed to the airport. After a short wait, we reluctanly loaded up on the airplane and 9 hours later we landed at LAX. Luckily we cleared customs and got our luggage quicklly enough to catch the airport bus back to Bakersfield. We then called a cab for a ride home and drove like mad to retrieve the puppies from Fur 'n Feathers.

Thus ended our week in paradise and started the rest of our lives together.

Honeymoon Travel Log - Day 8

Day 8

Day 8 is Friday our next to the last day on the island and will be our final night in our little beach side abode. After our long day trip to Aitutaki the day before we're in no big hurry to get out of bed. The only thing that gets us up at a reasonable hour is that we have booked a glass-bottomed-boat tour at Muri Lagoon with captain Tamas. The transfer bus is set to pick us up at 10:00 am, so we have a leisurely breakfast and wait in the lobby for the bus.

When the bus doesn't show we have the receptionist working at the front desk give a call to Tamas to find out what the hang up is. We know that island time is a bit different than regular time, but this was starting to exceed even that. We got the word back the the tour had been canceled for the day due to there being a large cruise vessel in port at Avarua. This turned out to be code for, the cruise lines pay better so no tour for regular people.

So, instead of pouting about it, we packed up the ol' scooter and headed out to take pictures of one of the churches that we had seen on an earlier tour. We thought we should get a few shots of these as they are a big part of local culture. We headed out towards Muri Beach and found the Titikaveka Cook Islands Christian Church. This is one of the oldest churches on the island.

The graves at the church we were told are mostly clergymen who had worked there in the past. The Cook Islanders don't believe in cremation, so everyone on the island is buried. Many on family plots near where they live, clergy get spots near the church. It's not clear what they'll do when they run out of room, but that's still a ways off so nothing for us tourists to have to deal with.

After we were done with the church finding we went ahead and headed back around the rest of the island. We stopped in town again and got some more snacks then headed back to the resort.

We ended up eating at Captain Andy's Grill again. Which I think I've mentioned is the best food at the place if you're willing to wait for it to come out. On the other hand, it was nice because Meghann got to wear one of the new little skirts that she had picked up in town. Isn't she cute?!

After dinner we headed up to our room for our last night in paradise. It was a little hard to sleep that night because we knew that tomorrow was our last day on the island. And following that we had a 9 hr. flight back to LA... . But even so we made the best of it, we'd sure miss falling asleep to the sound of crashing waves though!

Honeymoon Travel Log - Day 7; Pt. 2

Day 7, Pt. 2

Once we got over the initial shock of jumping into the water, we put on our gear and went out on a fish and clam finding mission. The water depth in Aitutaki lagoon varies from only a couple of feet up to 30 feet of water. At our stop we saw water up to about 15 feet deep. Since neither Meghann nor I are very good swimmers (even with snorkeling equipment on), we were a little intimidated.

No matter though, as soon as we jumped in the water we immediately saw a school of fish and all fear was forgotten. As we moved further out and braved some of the deeper water we eventually got separated. Those were the only 5 minutes of the trip I didn't particularly care for. It turned out that Meghann had gotten a lot of water in her mask and had swum back to shallow water to take care of it. In the mean time though I was frantically searching the reefs and deeps to try and see if she was in trouble. Thankfully all was fine. After that scare we decided to give the deeper water another go and were rewarded by finding the giant clam. Apparently there is a clam in the lagoon somewhere that is as wide as a person is tall. We didn't stop there, but this one was plenty big enough at ~ 3' long.


The snorkeling couldn't last all day though, eventually Phil blew the horn and it was time to return to the boat for some lunch and a boat ride to our final destination for the day, "One Foot Island". One Foot Island is adjacent to the island used for the castaways on the Survivor Cook Islands show in 2006. Like all of the motu, the island was covered with coconut trees and surrounded by white sand beaches. Here we were free to wander the beach for a couple of hours, do some more snorkeling and get our passports stamped with a big foot signifying our journey to the island.

At 4:00 Phil again blew the horn letting us know it was time to load up on the boat and head back to the main island and the airport. We took a different smaller boat back, but it was still comfy and we got enjoy a show of sarong tying and wisecracking by Phil before we got back to the bus. When we got to the airport, Phil hooked us up with boarding passes and we hopped on the plane back to Rarotonga. We were a bit sad to leave because Aitutaki was so beautiful, but on the other hand it was good to leave and go back to the main island where there was more to do without a guide. That way we'll always remember what a great trip it was. After a quick dinner we both faded fast. The early morning and intense sun that day really sapped our energy and we were in bed and fast asleep by 10:00.