My day began at 6am. I finished packing and showered and we left the house around 8:30 to drive 20 minutes to the train. Thank goodness Lesley decided to ride the train to the airport with me. The half empty suitcase I brought with me is full and I have added a second suitcase to my pile of things to carry. Now I have two full check-in bags and my computer bag and handbag to carry-on. I never would have managed the train on my own. The part where I had to change ...

It started to rain about midway through the night and never stopped all day. Sometime during the day we started hearing rumors of a cyclone coming our way. The resort and the airline are very tight lipped about exactly what we are to expect and mysteriously the internet has been shut off so we can't look online. We still had a nice day in spite of the rain. Lesley, Eric and I went to the town of Raki Raki and went to an open air market. The market is in the cen...

We found out today that out of 14 Fijian Provinces, the Ra Province, which we are in, is the only one that does not greet with "bula". They actually say “yadra” (pronounced yandra). Yadra means good morning, but they use it all day and all night as their greeting. At the resort the staff just uses bula because that is what tourists expect when they come to Fiji. This morning Eric and I woke up around 5:30 and waded out in to the ocean to our knees. ...

This morning started with coffee on the veranda overlooking the ocean. It is a wonderful way to begin the day. We all had a great night sleep which was desperately needed and we all seem to be adjusted to the time change. It is a 17 hour time difference from Denver to Fiji so I am amazed that we were able to adjust so quickly. The restaurant in the resort is at the top of a little hill overlooking the tropical canapé with the ocean a little bit beyond that...

We finally made it to Fiji. We arrived at 5:15am. I think I cried just a little bit when we landed. I was so happy to be here. We had a ridiculously busy and fun day. It started with getting our car. In Fiji we drive on the left which is not a big deal. We are used to that from our St Croix days. The hard part is the driver sits on the right and they issued us a manual transmission. Eric quickly got the hang of shifting with his left hand and we were off to track...