Our Wedding - The Wedding Deck on top of Aspen Mountain
14th September
2008
written by bob

Wednesday, September 10
Our ATV tour with Dammon. Short tour of 2.5 hours ended up being a 4 hr tour since we were his only customers for the day. Details to follow.

Dinner at Chez Luciano (Italian and pizza) – Katherine
The walk here was kind of interesting considering that we had never gone the direction from the hotel until today. The airport was this direction so we took the initial trip to the hotel this way, but obviously didn’t really pay that much attention cuz we had no idea where we were going, etc. earlier on the ATV tour we had come past here (twice…obviously on our way to the public beach and back to our hotel) and I had pointed out the restaurant to Bob both times and he had nodded. When we got back to the hotel and got cleaned up and ready to go he tells me that he doesn’t remember seeing it. Once we actually arrive here I understand what he was actually acknowledging on the ATV…the gigantic blue marlin on the top of one of the trucks parked in the mutual parking lot that I had completely overlooked because I was obviously looking at the restaurant. Anyway…Bob has developed a minor obsession with the crabs in the holes all along the road. There is a deep cement gutter that runs about 2-3 feet away from the road and all of these crabs (some of them are freaking huge) live in these holes all along there. It was drizzling and we had a big umbrella with us. It was a bit further than the trips into town had been and it was dark…the rain and the dark both bring out the crabs…Bob was on a hunt! To say that it was an amusing walk there and back would be an understatement. When we got to the actual place where the restaurant was across the street and we needed to cross there was a small stone bridge and two HUGE crabbies out of their hole. There was also the longest string of traffic on Mo’orea that I think ever occurs…there were literally 50-60 cars and trucks that we had to wait for in order to cross or even continue (the road was too narrow over the bridge to safely continue). The crabs didn’t see Bob’s shadow or hear him because of all the traffic and he took this moment to finally strike! At last he got to whack one of the little guys out in the open! We crossed the road and went in.
Honestly the first time that we spoke 100% French in a restaurant (well…I did…Bob tried to speak English but the staff didn’t really understand him). We were a bit confused as to how to get seated, so we opted to just stand up front where people were obviously ordering and picking up to go orders. We wandered to the back toward the kitchen area where the gent who was obviously the chef and I assume the owner was back cooking. He greeted us with his “signature cat being stepped on” screech which thankfully we had read about in Frommer’s and weren’t terrified of (although I think that Bob and I both looked around for a second to see if there would be a kitty running through the restaurant scared to death!) .We moved our way up to the counter and browed the menu (great selection) and decided on the ham, cheese and…of course, pineapple(!) pizza in a medium. The young gent comes up to us and my wonderful husband points and tells him what he wants in English…I give him a little more French and he gets it. I ask for beers and he asks if we want to stay here or to go and we ask to stay.
We move to a seat in the tiny little seating area and the owner comes back and is obviously speaking to us when he tells us that there is only one Tabu (we ordered two of these Tahitian beers). I feel pretty proud of myself for understanding him and answering him that we will have one tabu and one hinano. We hear a few more kitty squeals coming from the kitchen which are pretty amusing. As Bob and I are patiently waiting for our food and chatting I hear the chef come back again and turn to him as he says something I don’t quite get, and then he gives me a shake of his head. I notice something in his hand that he is tossing around (i think it is a dough ball)…I then get that he is trying to get Bob’s attention and shut my trap. Bob looks up and the chef throws him the “thing” in his hand and my wonderful and talented husband catches it in his “soft hands” like a champ…garnering applause from the chef. Come to find out it was a fake egg…the chef comes back to retrieve it and give Bob a little congrats…and a kitty screech;)
Our beers arrive and a bit later the pizza…it looks freaking huge and I’m thinking there is no way even with as hungry as we are that we’re going to finish this thing. We finish it without a problem…it was damn good, excellent crust (go figure…the one thing you can count on here, just like France, is that if you think that you’ve had the most awesome bread/pastry/croissant in your life…it will get topped) and of course the pineapple is always kick ass (excuse my French!)

Leave a Reply