Over the summer the Michael W Travels family went on a five week trip to the Pacific.
During our trip we celebrated a bunch of different things. There were country visit milestones- I surpassed visiting 80 countries, Lucas went over 40 and little Theo got into double digits.
There were also a couple of birthdays to celebrate. Theo turned one a couple of days before the end of our trip and Kim celebrated her birthday a couple of weeks in.
The thing about Kim’s birthday was that we got to celebrate two times! Yes, anyone can choose to have multiple birthday parties but in Kim’s case, we did a bit of time traveling.
For our family, we got to live through August 10 (Kim’s birthday) two times.
Some of you have got to be wondering- how is this possible or there’s got to be a catch. I’ll try to explain how this phenomenon took place.
We flew into Samoa from Fiji on August 10 early in the morning. After spending the day wandering around the city, it was time to celebrate.
There was a restaurant (Giordano’s) that we wanted to try out which happened to be a short walk down the road from our hotel.
After a decent dinner, the staff brought out dessert with a candle, singing happy birthday. What was fun about this was that they sang the song, half in English and half in Samoan!
We enjoyed our dessert, a cake called Koko Samoa and then headed back to wake up for an early flight to American Samoa.
While planning our visit American Samoa, I had to be very careful. Although the island is a mere 25 minute flight, the island is 24 hours behind!
Why? From what we were told, it all has to do with trade.
Samoa’s main trade partners are Australia and New Zealand. Up until 2011, Samoa had (give or take) a 3 day work week to trade with the duo since the island was on the other side of the international date line.
When it was Friday in Samoa, it was Saturday in Australia and New Zealand. When it was Sunday in Samoa (and when no business is conducted), it was Monday in Australia and New Zealand.
Check out an article from the Daily Mail in 2011 about Samoa jumping over the international date line.)
Back to the trip…
On August 11, we woke up early in Samoa and headed to the airport. We waited for our flight with Polynesian Airlines to take off so we could do some time traveling. After a delay of about an hour, we took off in the 19 seat Twin Otter. Inside, the plane was stuffy and noisy but pretty smooth otherwise. We joked that it look liked like we were in a mini-van not a plane!
Around 25 minutes later, we landed in American Samoa on August 10th, a day earlier than we had left!
We spent what was left of our second August 10 having lunch and visiting a couple of sites around Pago Pago.
Then it was time for another birthday celebration!
After dinner at Sadie Thompson Inn, we once again shared a slice of Koko Samoa cake. Again, the staff sang Happy Birthday in English and Samoan- fun stuff!
From what I recall, the Koko Samoa cake in American Samoa was better than in Samoa. (Can a food war be brewing? Probably not…)
In the end, Kim got to have two birthdays thanks to travel. And the best part for Lucas- we got to have cake after both meals!
