Sometimes you set out looking for something, and when you find it, it was not what you started out looking for.  We went ashore in Papeete, Tahiti looking for a shirt shop with shirts my size.  (Some of our baggage was lost but that’s another story.) We have been to that shop twice before but Google says it was “temporally closed.”  It’s more than that, there is a restaurant where the shop used to be.

As we wandered looking for shirts, we heard a burst of firecrackers and the clang of gongs.  A lion dance had broken out in honor of Chinese New Year.  The gongs competed with the Ukulele bands busking on the streets between Lei makers.  It was a wonderful cacophony. Folks talking on cell phones were not as enchanted plugging one ear and pressing the phone tightly to the other.  We got to the main market, which is open only until Noon on Saturday and found it decked out for Chinese New Year.  Each of the stalls had Chinese red skirting and there were all sorts of displays and lanterns hanging from the girders.  So we went looking for a shirt and found what we were really seeking was a festival.  And as a bonus I found a shirt that fit.

These are a few shots that do not fit with the narrative but I wanted to include them.  The Arctic really does have snow machines stowed on its deck.  It is registered in the Bahamas, go figure.

My new shirt!