Flying to Tahiti/Bora Bora to celebrate our Anniversary! 2020-02-06

Wow wow wow. Theresa and I are getting away for a vacation by ourselves for the first time in a long time. How long? Well, Ian is 6, so yeah, a little over 6 years. It was a big 2 week trip to Italy and France back in 2013.
It's early February and for this big anniversary celebration, we're going some place warm. Tahiti and Bora Bora! Both sets of grandparents are watching the kids so we know they're in good hands.

After a half day of work (yes, we went in to work that Thursday), my dad dropped us off at the LAX Tom Bradley International Terminal.

Checking in was quick and easy. Normally we'd be doing carry-on only for these types of trips, but there's a little too much stuff to bring, plus bottles of sunblock we can't bring in our carry-on.

We've got just a little bit of time before our flight so we took advantage of our Airline Lounge Priority Pass. It's good for some snacks, drinks, and a quiet place to sit while we're waiting.

Inside they had a variety of treats. Even california rolls.

Theresa got fried rice, while I got chicken wings. There was a nice overlook to the rest of the terminal.

Finally at 3:30pm it was time to board.

Theresa is always doing a great job getting us deals.
The plane rows are in a 3-3-3 configuration. When she picked our seats, she got us the middle section and both aisle seats. We were very fortunate that there was no one sitting in between us!

The Tahiti Airlines safety briefing was pretty unique. Everything took place on a beach instead of an airplane.

The food on Tahiti Airlines is... not good. Curry beef, rice. I thought the bread would be good, but it was cold and hard. Bleh. I told Theresa the best part about the meal was the plastic-ware they gave us, which we'd end up using later on in the trip.

It's an 8ish hour flight from Los Angeles to Tahiti. We arrived at 12:15am Los Angeles time. There's only a 2 hour time difference, so it's 10:15pm local time.

We're in Tahiti!

I love that they do this performance for the people arriving. Afterwards it didn't take too long to get through customs and immigration.

Because of the lateness of our arrival, there are no flights to our ultimate destination on Bora Bora. So we'll be staying 1 night on Tahiti and flying out in the morning.
Our baggage was one of the first off the line. The welcome area is filled with people waiting with leis for the people coming off the plane. It smelled absolutely wonderful.

It's a ridiculously short drive to the Intercontinental Hotel, our destination for tonight. This says 5 minutes, but with the way the cab drivers drive, it took maybe 3:30 minutes, based on the time stamps of my photos. Our driver asked when we were flying out the next morning (early) and said there would be a line of taxis outside the airport waiting to take people. Good to know.
Total cost for short drive, 1800 XPF ($16.70 USD). Because of the exchange rate, everywhere we went, people were happy to accept $1 USD for 100 XPF. A little extra for them, and we never had to deal with exchanging money.

The Intercontinental Tahiti Resort and Spa has been our go-to place to stay when we need a quick place to crash. There was no problem checking in. The clerk at the counter also told us there's be plenty of taxis in the morning to take us to the airport (get a sense of where this is going?).

Before we go to our room, a taste of island juice.

And speaking of our room, here it is! It's not an over-water upgrade like last time, but it's nice enough.

Complimentary Macarons.

Nice bathroom and everything.

It's starting to get late. 11:30pm local (1:30am back home). Our flight takes off at 8am tomorrow, so it's going to be a quick night. Here's the view outside our room at night. See you tomorrow morning!