Arrived in LA. Big zoo - whew! Got checked in on flight FJ811 - cool. LAX is amazing - all walks of life here. Forgot to mention we left the kids at home to themselves. Michael is at Boy Scout camp for a week, but the 18-year old is home alone. Ellen cried when she said goodbye to Elvis our dog.

Oh, by the way, saw Paul McCartney at LAX going through security check-in just like the rest of us ordinary pukes. Then he bugged off to VIP land. Looks like he was with the woman he's divorcing and some bodyguard looking dude. (Found out later that was his daughter he was with. Guess she looks a lot like the wife.) Called Sarah to brag.

Flight was about 10 hours 15 minutes. Fine flight. 2 meals. 10 channels with 7 or 8 movies. Only a few worth watching. Lots of sleep. Landed in Nadi (pronounced Nan-dee) Viti Levu island Fiji and get to baggage claim at 05:56 LT Tuesday! Took almost an hour to get our luggage - Fiji time! Exchanged $100 USD at about 0.6 USD/FD. Found our way to Coral Sun transport services for our ride to the Westin Resort. Gorgeous place. Right on the beach on the small island of Denarau (Den-are-ow). After a shower, we grab some breakfast and headed to take a nap. After nap, took a quick tour around Denarau on the Bula Bus. Then over to the pool to check out my navel... waiting for my relaxing drink now... Whoa! $9 USD each drink! Ate supper at Westin Steakhouse Bar. El had rack of lamb; I had ribs. Good food. Had a nice chat with an older chap from New Zealand. He was a self-proclaimed capitalist. Loved Reagan. Knew more about US and AZ politics than you can imagine! Certainly knew more than I knew about New Zealand. Came back and crashed around 20:00.

05-July-2006, Wednesday: Lost a day traveling to Fiji. Will pick it up on the way back. When we actually took off in LA, it was about 00:30 Monday LA time (19:30 Monday Fiji time). About 10 ½ hours later and it's 06:00 Tuesday LT in Fiji. That's how it works.

Sarah called us in tears. Scared me to death. Friends the Brannon's are thinking about moving to New York. She was heart broken about losing her best friend, Stephanie. Very resourceful how she tracked us down. Headed on tour of Garden of the Sleeping Giant - an orchid garden (55 acres) created by the late Raymond Burr in 1977. Wonderful flowers and plants. Visit a Fijian village - called First Landing because supposedly that's where the Tanzanians, that were the original Fijians, landed (wrecked really). Then they spread all over the Fijian islands. Chief of their village is President of Fiji right now and lives in the capital city of Suva on the eastern side of Viti Levu (wet side). Get 40-60 inches rain per year on west (dry) side and 2x that on the wet (east) side. Bought some souvenirs. Guess the Methodists had big missionary work here in Fiji. Lots of monuments to them. In 1874, the Fijians stopped being cannibals. Fiji has 332 islands and approximately 18,000 sq. km (6,950 sq. miles - Hawaii is ~ 6,400) of land and about 800,000 people. Main crops are sugar cane, wood, and tapioca roots (cassava). Lots of sugar cane everywhere. (See Fiji Facts link). 83% of the land is native owned; 7% government owned; 10% freehold. Fijians remind me of Navajos - Navajo time... Then went to Rosie's house (starter/owner of tour company - Rosie's Holidays). Great view. Great garden. Then back to Westin. Gas is about $5 USD/gallon here ($1.56 FD/liter). Came back to room. Vegged out by the pool - great pool! Tremendous rains this afternoon - good thing we went on our tour this morning. Went for a 45-minute jog. Ate at the Sheraton Resort from the mystery menu. Seemed, based on some strange looks, that people were getting food they hadn't ordered, even me! I ordered pumpkin soup with fried bananas (thought I'd try a local dish), but got dahl (split pea) soup with some sort of fried potato chip - good eatin'. Back to room and crash.

06-July-2006, Thursday: Big day today. Up with breakfast (the breakfast buffet was outstanding). Pack to get ready for cruise. Walk down beach over to chapel. Very nice place. Saw our first topless bathers. Seemed young but definitely developed. I don't care what the "progressives" say about how normal it is, all the Aussies and Kiwis were still looking. Did quite a bit of beach combing. Lots of shells, coral, small hermit crabs, and regular crabs. Para-sailers, kayakers, swimmers, bathers. Ellen says I should mention a few funny things that happened. A couple come to mind.

One, when we saw Paul McCartney the other night, the place got in quite a buzz. Security folks were all giving each other the sign, etc. Well, over the intercom they announce things in all sorts of languages. I listened and told Ellen, "Did you hear that? Blah, blah, blah, blah, Paul McCartney, blah, blah, blah." Another episode was our waiter out at the pool at the Westin. If he didn't sound (and sort of act) exactly like "many soft furs" from Little Big Man, I don't know what does. Then, we get to the cruise ship (later) and the "Children's Officer" was just like him *and* his name was Mini! I just called them both "Many" or "Mini."

The Mystique Princess is a great cruise ship. Perfect size. Great people and crew. Not bad rocking. Met a family (Joe, Molly, Jessica (17)) from Watertown, MA. Very nice. She's 10-weeks pregnant, so the ship's motion is no good for her. Time for a swim Friday morning 7/7. Just recalling some names: Big Joe and Alfie the cruise directors. Joe the bus boy. Scott, Denise(?), Lulu, David, Marco, Barbara, Baz (Barry), Loraine, Carl, wife's name start with C also, PJ, Capt Siti, Joseph the bartender... just recalling some faces and names...

07-July-2006, Friday: Great day. Start off with morning swim at 06:30. Breakfast. Then off to beach. Short hike. Snorkel. Saw lots of cool critters - saw small lobster. Then back for lunch. Then a visit to a small Fijian village. Choir sang a cappella. 3 churches - Methodist, Catholic, and Assembly of God. Met chief. Drank kava. Notebook falling apart from humidity. Village people put on nice show (really nice). Then brought out wares to sell. It helps their community. They subsist on what they can grow, catch, and raise, as well as tourism. Very isolated. Schools are located on different islands. I over heard someone say it takes up to 3 hours to travel there daily. Cool place. Came back for drinks and supper. Geopolitical talk. Most couldn't imagine our illegal immigration policies. Off to bed. Great day.

08-July-2006, Saturday: Up with morning swim at 06:00. Breakfast with the Brits and Kiwis. Off to feed the fish - "no sharks allowed." Snorkeling. Saw sea snake (looks like a king snake) tying himself into knots. Calms. Sea caterpillars. Lots of colorful fish. Florescent green formations. Back for sun and tea. Lunch was nice BBQ. Afternoon free. Glass bottom boat was cool. Took long walks. Evening did Lovo ceremony, which is just like pit cooking - nice BBQ supper. Nice company for supper. Various countries put on shows to show off something great about their countries. Fiji won of course. Off to bed.

09-July-2006, Sunday: Up for swim at 06:00. Breakfast with Italians. I guess NZ had a big (and won) Rugby match with Australia. NZers are called Kiwi's. Getting ready to leave boat. Said our goodbyes and farewells - great time and people. Taxied in a Mercedes back to Westin on Denarau Island. Nice place; beach is "crap." Walked around the afternoon. Short off a couple of emails for $2 ($0.25 / minute (FJD)). Checked into room: not quite beach view, but nice. Went to the marina are for supper at Cardo's Steakhouse; had a pizza - was good. Called it an evening. Planning to go over to Akuilau Island tomorrow. Akuilau Island.

10-July-2006, Monday: What the heck happened to today? No journal entry at all. Hung out by the pool. El got her Spa treatment - which she absolutely loved and absolutely cost a fortune. Just relaxed. Checked out the "fire dance" show at the Westin. They have a 20-30 minute ceremony each night at the lighting of the various fire lights. Ate at the Sheraton again - enjoyed the curry dish. Good stuff.

11-July-2006, Tuesday: Last day on Fiji - bummer! Actually thought about Elvis (our dog) this morning. Up for breakfast, then it rained. Thought our day was going to be indoors. Rain let up and we went over to Akuilau Island - nice, quiet place. Odd. Seems that someone actually lives over there. Lots of stuff washed up on shore. Low tide. Lots of shells and hermit crabs. Walked through the "jungle" a bit. Nice beach. Kicked back. Read. Soaked. Poked around the coral that was exposed due to low tide. Saw several starfish, crabs, and interesting coral formations: brain coral, purple, etc. Ate our tuna fish picnic lunch, chilled, and then came back to Denarau. Hanging out on beach now. Flight's at 22:00 tonight: back to ordinary and familiar. Miss it, especially kids. Able to find internet cafe to pop off quick emails and get SWA boarding passes.

Gained a day back crossing the International Date Line. All's good. Now in LAX. Interesting coming back - yuck. What I see in the US is a huge lack of national identity. We're just a coalition of cultures co-existing in the same place with limited interaction. So much for multi-culturalism. The rights and needs of the individual far out weigh the needs of our country or communities. It will be the end of us. That's why we're so paralyzed to make common-sense decisions. Sad. Welcome home...

Overall comments: Fiji's a great place. This was a vacation as well as a research trip. Learned a lot. If you want to do the luxury resort deal, there are better, more isolated places like Treasure Island, Castaway Island, Plantation Island to name a few. They are quite isolated and have nicer beaches. Need to try a similar trip in Hawaii: along with a cruise. We accomplished the goal of our trip which was to supremely relax, celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, and treat Ellen to something very special. As I said earlier, the people in Fiji are extremely friendly and it was a pleasure to visit with them. I would like to do some of the more adventurous thing there especially scuba diving.