And We're Off!

We are officially now on our trip, at our first stop Nadi, Fiji! We had a great lay-over at LAX, where our friend Ashlee came and took us to the Santa Monica boardwalk for a few hours, and we enjoyed some margaritas and tacos, and saw a film crew following some famous people (Mike is pretty sure it was Whitney Houston...although we didn't catch a glimpse of anyone's face). The flight to Nadi was long (11 hours), but luckily we were able to sleep. We are still feeling a bit out of whack because we left LA at 9:00 PM on the 16th, and arrived here at 5:00 AM on the 18th (because of the time changes). We've mostly been taking it easy, but did manage to have a couple adventures already. We went for a walk down the beach and got chased by two dogs, and then a man who at first appeared to be going after the dogs, but then called for us. He caught us and said "BULA!" (Fijian welcome), and told us that we were in luck because he was John, the famous coconut tree climber on the beach. He had already climbed 60 feet today to harvest some coconuts, and informed us we needed to each finish the juice and cream of one coconut to cleanse our systems. We didn't have any other plans, and he was a very nice guy. We followed him through a creek and a small jungle to a straw mat next to a shelf of coconuts and an ax, where he told us to sit. We drank the juice and chatted about the best places to go on the island, and he was very curious about Washington state. Then, we walked into town and got coralled into the back of a small shop for a traditional Kava Welcome ceremony (Kava is a drink mixed in a coconut bowl that looks and tastes like muddy water. It is the official drink of Fiji, and makes your tongue go numb and your mind feel at ease). The ceremony was nice, it was Mike, me, a man from the Netherlands and 3 men from Fiji. You sit barefoot and cross-legged in a circle, mix the drink in a bowl, pass around the coconut, and clap together during blessings. They did try to get us to buy a carving to bless our marriage afterwards, but we managed to leave without making any purchases. We came back to our hostel, and met a nice Australian family. Jared and Lily, the kids were chasing a mongoose under the pool, and ended up finding some change and forks. We talked for a bit with Jared and ended up giving him a Mississippi quarter for his coin collection, he was very fascinated and is now hoping to collect all fifty states. Tomorrow, we're off to the Shadow of the Sleeping Giant orchid garden and mud bath, then off to the Yasawa islands for some serious beach time. That's probably enough for day one, we'll write again when there is free internet available!

Oh - We now have a Washington phone number for free-texting, the number is 360-200-0265. We can only receive them when we have access to internet, but we would love to hear from you!