Eat a giant lunch at Hong Kong Palace, then head on over to wait for the commuter flight to The Independent State of Samoa™.
For about seven hours.
Yeah. We were already leaving a day later than we wanted to due to booking issues, and then our flight was delayed by three hours. Then a bit more time. Then there seemed to be a holdup for no apparent reason. At least we weren't wishing that we had spent the day seeing the island, as it was pouring down rain the entire time. Heavily enough to cause at least one of our delays, actually.
So FINALLY we got to board our plane, which was now headed for the much farther away Faleolo Airport, because Fagali'i, the airport where we were originally supposed to arrive, doesn't have lights.
Arrive in Samoa somewhere around 10, still without having eaten dinner. Hire a taxi to the hotel and ride with a fascinating guy who works for Starkist and is absolutely certain that they aren't leaving American Samoa anytime soon, which is awesome. Learn that in a rush to get us out of there 15 minutes earlier, the airline won't bring the checked bags until tomorrow. Learn that we put everything in our carry-on bags, but that our new friend is down to whatever he has in his carry-on bag in the trunk.
Which the bellhop took out with our bags when we arrived at the hotel. Which we didn't notice until the taxi was long gone. With absolutely no way to contact him. Oh well.
Leave his bags at the front desk and check into our awesome bungalow. Order room service for dinner because everything else closes at eleven. Dad's facial expression really says a lot here. Kind of a tired, excited, and relieved face all at once.
Or maybe I'm just posting this because it's one of the only pictures we took the entire day.Thursday, July 24th
Wake up and see what our bungalow looks like from the outside.
Take a cab to Vailima, Robert Louis Stevenson's old place. Convince the cab driver who must really be having a hard time finding passengers that he does not need to wait for you there all day. Stand on the front porch and take a classic cheesy waving shot.
Decide that it's better to stop and go to bed now rather than in the middle of the tour.
