Shopping and Touring (Mom’s Visit: Friday)

(From Mom’s trip journal: Told from her perspective)

The day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday….. Jessie and I decided to do our part and support the economy. First we went to breakfast at Koko Bean restaurant in the Lau Fou shopping center, and then took care of booking Jessie and Ethan’s plane tickets for their trip to Western Samoa at Christmas time. While at the travel agent booking the plane tickets, I asked the lady who was helping us if she would check on a rental car for us and after a few tries we were in luck! She found a pickup truck for us at Friendly’s Car Rental. We hopped in a taxi and went right over to pick it up. Score one for us! We were going to have a difficult time with our shopping if we had to do it all by bus and taxi. So now with wheels we were free to shop. 

First stop Ace Hardware where we picked up some shelving for Jessie’s kitchen and bedroom and a few more towels (yes, towels at Ace). Next stop was the Tutuila Store to look for some plastic bins or baskets, but we didn’t find any there. Next was Cost-U-Less, where we picked up a couple of new fans and other odds and ends, but still didn’t find the baskets and bins. After the shopping, we took all of our purchases back to the house and grabbed some swimwear and towels and jumped back in the car for a drive down the east coast of the island. 

We stopped by the golden arches in Fogatogo to get a some drinks and a bite for the road. We drove around Pago Pago harbor where some of the worst tsunami damage was, and on around the eastern side of the harbor to a turnoff road that goes over the mountain through the National Park. This was a beautiful drive through the villages of Alfono and Vatia. We stopped along the way to admire a couple of waterfalls and take a few scenic photos. The view from on top of the mountain was really amazing. There’s a scenic overlook that’s part of the national park and they have story boards that tell about the formation of the volcanic islands, the birds and other critters, as well as the rainforest. The mosquitoes were eating Jessie up so we didn’t stay too long. We went back down the mountain and continued on east passing through quite a few little villages which seemed almost abandoned. There just weren’t any people out and about. As we winded around the coast line what was different from the other parts of the island was that it seemed sunnier. Due to the proximity of the mountains, the central part of the island gets more clouds and rain. As we rounded the area near Tisa’s beach bar, and on a bit further in the village of Alofau, I saw the perfect house and spot that I would love to live. It was a blue-green house with yellow trim sitting just up a small hill off the beach. There were lots of trees and foliage so it was at least partly shady and the house had a covered patio on the back. What a view that house had. I told Jessie I want her to investigate and find out about renting that house….. It’s mine. Details later on my idea for earning a living here. 

We took the coastal road as far east as you can go until the road actually starts to take you north. The road ended at the village of Onenoa, where we turned around to head back. One of the villages we passed on the far eastern end of the island was Tula, which was a village badly affected by the tsunami. The damage was still very obvious there and the only tents the people had been given were the little flimsy white dome tents with no bottoms. It’s sad to see so little help for these families. 

As we continued our journey westward back through the villages we passed earlier, there was much more activity than before. This time there were kids out playing volley ball and people moving about. I guess everyone waits till the sun is lower and things start to cool off before spending time outside. Jessie nodded into a snooze while I enjoyed the drive back through Pago and the other areas that I am now becoming more familiar with. 

We reached the house around 5:30pm and spent some time putting together the shelving we bought today and organizing the dishes and some of Jessie’s things. We still needed to find the baskets and bins for her bedroom shelves so we took another trip out to shop, this time at KS-Mart first and this time we bought the baskets for her bedroom, a basket for the kitchen, a laundry basket and a few other things. Then we made a quick dash into Cost-U-Less for some lunch meat and cheese, and then stopped at the video store to rent a movie for the night. Back home again we ate sandwiches for dinner, and worked on organizing photos and journaling before stopping to watch the movie. We enjoyed the movie (The Cleaner) then after hanging some laundry out to dry we called it a night. 

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