It may have taken a long time, but in the end it did not matter. after much healing through self-observation she now had strength, she now had courage, and the wisdom to wield her new magic with virtue. no longer did she run from her pain or her troubles, no longer did she allow delusions to capture her mind, no longer did she doubt that the greatest healer she has ever met is her own unconditional love. yung pueblo, inward

This weekend I am loaning our beach house to a sweet, beautiful inside and out, young artist for her Mother’s 70th Birthday. Rae works with twine, macrame, rope, and other materials. I found her on Instagram. She is local to Portland, and this Spring she completed a gorgeous piece of rope and metal art for the beach house entry wall. She even sourced the six foot+ long piece of driftwood that the rope art hangs from on our very own beach.

Rae has been through a lot in her young life. She has suffered from chronic pain with no diagnosis, just lots of pain meds, and then severe endometriosis and has had a full hysterectomy. The week she was supposed to deliver the artwork to our beach house, her Grandma died and her long term boyfriend left her. It’s been a rough year. When she asked to rent our house for this special occasion, I told her what I have told a few others. We don’t rent our beach house…. but, we do under unique circumstances, loan it. She was thrilled.

When I dropped the key at her adorable little house on the east side of town two afternoons ago, she handed me a book called inward, with a beautiful little handwritten note inside. She told me that this book is her daily inspiration. It brightens her darkest days and gives her strength and insight. Each morning she opens the book, reads one page, and makes the words on the page her inspiration for the day. It’s a lovely little book of poems and writings, and this morning I did what Rae does and I opened the book to a random page and the words above were written there, so today I’m sharing them with you all.

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When I was at University, about a bazillion years ago, I worked for a commercial photographer who took very pretty pictures for model home marketing materials, fancy car catalogs, cruise travel brochures, and the like. While I worked for him, he traveled to many beautiful locations including the Bavarian Alps of Germany for a Porsche brochure, the deep southern bayou for a boat catalog, the heart of Paris for a French car photo at the Arc de Triomphe, plus many others. Other than Paris, the photos I fell in love with were those he took in French Polynesia for a cruise line. The color of those turquoise waters never left me. Tahiti has been on my must see list since 1985, and 34 years later, for my 30th wedding anniversary, I finally made it!

French Polynesia was even more magical than I had dreamed. Not only was it one of the most intoxicating places I have ever been, but I was there with my husband, which at this point is quite astonishing. Astonishing that we made it to 30 years (35 years as a couple), but also because there was zero trauma. Zero time spent thinking about his prior secret life. Zero time spent ruminating or being triggered, by anything. Every day was more special than the next, and because the whole trip LA-Tahiti-LA was 22 days long, I was ready to go home when it was time to.

I’m going to split up these entries because like all my travel posts, it’s all about the photos, and there are lots, so here goes!

We stayed at a new-ish hotel (new to us) in Los Angeles prior to the trip. It’s a Kimpton Hotel called La Peer. It’s in a fun location between West Hollywood and the LA Design District,  nicely designed with great service. And a big, deep soaking tub, too. Blue Eyes had business meetings, but we also did a whole lot of walking around the neighborhoods.

Blue Eyes had a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting for me.

The hotel supplied us with a really yummy 30th anniversary charcuterie and cheese tray amenity, plus a little chocolate anniversary cake. They also had a gift certificate to In-n-Out Burger, plus two paper hats. No doubt Blue Eyes had told them it’s his favorite place.

We upgraded our Air France flight out of LAX to Papeete, Tahiti from Premium Economy to Business Class at check-in. Business Class is the highest class on these planes and included lay flat seats. Since the flight was a red-eye, it was well worth the money although I can’t remember for how long I actually slept. The lay flat seats are the only ones I could even dream of falling asleep in. I think I slept for 4-5 hours.

We arrived Tahiti Friday morning at about 5:30am. Getting out of the airport and to our hotel was so easy and we were already in our overwater bungalow for sunrise. We had booked a basic garden view room, but they upgraded us complimentary to the bungalow.

We loved the overwater bungalow experience. Sunrise at the Intercontinental Tahiti.

The bed in the bungalow had this fun mural above it. I really liked it.

The bungalow was small, but very well appointed.

Sunset from our deck over to the island of Moorea.

The view from our deck Saturday morning.

Our next door neighbors.

We were on the island of Tahiti for about 34 hours. We swam, we ate, we walked the property, we ventured into the city of Papeete and did some window shopping. We left the hotel Saturday afternoon for the Cruise ship dock for our adventure on the Paul Gauguin Cruise Ship.