Our Trip to Vatia

Before we get to Vatia, I have to show you our most recent creation. A few days ago, I came home from work and Jaydn enlisted me in doing a craft out of one of his books that he got from the library. I picked a fish mask. Jaydn decided he wanted to make one, too. So, after he saw mine, he made his own--no help from me.

Here we are, the fish guys!

I should also say that we have really been sick this past week. Jaydn first caught something, then Jessi got it, and finally I have it. On Monday, however, we all felt good enough to go to the beach again.

I called in advance because I had been told that the best beach is owned by a lady out there, and you need to ask permission to go. Her name was Unita. She told me that everyone forgets her name "so you can call me 'United States of American Samoa.'" OK....

Anyway, we made our way over to Aua, a city just past Pago Pago. There, we had to take a really steep road that went straight over the mountain. At the top, I got a picture. I don't know why I didn't get the mountain top in the background!

We took Jaydn's friend, Oliver, on the trip. He's Christine Peters's son. In the background, you can see (from left) Faga'alu beach, then Utulei beach, and finally, Pago Pago Harbor (with a huge boat docked). If you look really far to the left, you can kind of see out to Nuu'uli and Coconut Point area (which is close to our house).

Then Jessi took a picture of me in front of Rainmaker Mountain. It really doesn't look as nice from this view. When you are at the bottom and rain comes over the mountain, it can be breathtaking.

On the other side of the mountain, little Vatia was a nice village. The bay is really nice, and we enjoyed the beach and the water. Here, you can see Oliver and Jaydn snorkeling in the water, and Jessi is waaaaay out at the edge of the reef. We decided not to go past the reef because it was a little too strong of a current that day.

The beach we were on was really nice. You start to appreciate really soft sand after you've gone to so many beaches that are covered with shells.

I was standing on the beach when I saw some guys come down into the water and start slapping the water with shirts. Beats me what they were doing! Jessi, Jaydn and Oliver were out by the reef edge when I took this picture of them with the saddle-back mountain in the background.

Here, Jaydn and Oliver are playing on the beach with the village in the background.

Jaydn likes to dig his legs into the sand.

Here I am coming out of the water. I checked out the edge of the reef, too. Really beautiful, but too scary for me. Maybe we'll come back when it's not so rough.

After the beach, I wanted to quickly take a look at some cool rock formations on the other side of the bay. But we only drove a short distance before some kids on bikes were riding up next to us and pointing at the right front tire. Yep, a flat.

I stopped at the closest house and asked if I could use their carport to fix the flat. Jessi took pictures of me without me knowing. I guess she thought it was pretty amazing.

Here you can see how close the house is from the water.

With all the up and down it takes to get here and back, a flat in Vatia is not recommended. Thank goodness it was just a slow leak caused by a small nail, and the local garage fixed it for $3.50.

The views on the road back home were awesome.

Now that I think about it (and look at these pictures), yes, we will come back, and soon!