We're off to Peru!! Lima

We're off to Peru! First stop, Lima.  As a bit of context, Russell and I decided we needed to take advantage of the free time we have before Russell starts work full-time at Walmart in August.   This is sort of a "last hurrah" vacation since we will never has much time as we do now again to do this sort of thing!

Our travel there was very non-eventful so I won't go into too much detail.  Really, the only thing of note is that upon bag weigh-in at the airport, I tallied only 19lbs. for 3 weeks worth of travel.  That's got to be a personal best for me.

We landed in Lima on time around 11:00pm and thought it would take us max 45 minutes from plane side to taxi...2 hours later we were finishing up in customs. Yipes!  We arrived to our hotel, Miraflores Park Hotel around 2:30am where we were kindly greeted and shown our room (a junior suite) where we fell into bed until the next morning.

I'll have to let you in on a secret- we used Luxury Link and Jetsetter to book the majority of our trip which means we were able to score some great hotels and some great rooms for less $$$ than lower ranked hotels and basic rooms.  So far, they have not failed us!

Day 1:
We woke up bright and early, stuffed our faces and headed out to find Bike Lima where we would be taking a 4 hour bike ride through Miraflores, Barranco, and Churillos (I think).  Of course we started the morning off on the verge of getting lost (flash back to our Paris trip earlier in the year) but thankfully we weren't too far off track!

We biked with 4 other people (2 Americans and a couple from Hungary) and a great guide who was very friendly and had great stories!  Highlights included: beautiful views, school children who wanted their picture taken with us, the wishing bridge, the diving monk, the park full of abandoned cats and almost getting hit by taxis multiple times (making us thankful for purchasing trip insurance).

one of the look out points during biking

Our tour group

lookin' cool, rockin' the helmet

Our tour guide with lots of stories.  He had a knack for asking questions and answering himself. 

Beautiful haunted cathedral in Barranco

School girls in Barranco who asked to get their pictures made with us

Another look out point.  Would you like to live in this condo complex?  You can't! It has to be torn down because it was built illegally through governmental bribes.

The diving monk.  Below is a video of him diving.  Watch for his crazy climbing skills!  There are  many citizens who reenact the legend of the diving monk who killed himself out of heartbreak. 

After our bike ride we were a bit hungry and very tired so we headed off to find a coffee shop I'd read about in our Lonely Planet Peru Guide (also an invaluable resource).  Once again, we got a little lost and I got to practice fumbling through my Spanish phrases asking for directions.   Without a doubt, I should've paid more attention in my 4 years of obligatory second language classes. 


We did find Cafe Z and as Lonely Planet suggested, they had great food and the world's most uncomfortable chairs!

We took a break at the hotel for massages and then headed to dinner at Panchita.  A trendy Peruvian restaurant.  At this point of the day, my Spanish had gotten so bad it was comical but we somehow made it through! Panchita had THE BEST rolls we have ever eaten- if heaven has school lunch rolls, this is what they would taste like.  We split Peruvian chicken noodle soup and a third of a roasted suckling pig for dinner.  The soup was outstanding but, a little mushy and too fatty, the pig was not for us.

We then headed back to the hotel to prepare for the day to come.

Lima Day 2:
While we felt as if we had planned and planned and planned some more for this trip, we realized we hadn't planned enough. Our second day in Lima was totally open.  I woke up early (too early says Russell) to figure out what we'd be doing and how we'd be getting there.  After much deliberation...and a considerable amount of help from the concierges (who were fantastic)...we decided to visit two museums, take in the Plaza de Armas, go paragliding and experience chicharones and ceviche.  We decided to hire a drive for the day so that we didn't have to worry about repeatedly locating "safe" taxis throughout the town.

First stop (name of museum) .  This museum is in a colonial style mansion in Barranco.  It's small art collection by the artist (name) is a little like a bad dream but whimsical and interesting to look at. The art critics  Russell and I are not meant we were in and out in 30 minutes.  We were supposed to follow this trip up with a little paragliding.  Unfortunately there was no wind which made it unsafe and virtually impossible so we skipped that part and were off to Plaza de Armas in Lima's old city center.  


We arrived just in time for the changing of the guards at the president's mansion (their equivalent to the White House).  The ceremony lasted over 30 minutes.  There were many soldiers performing a highly choreographed marching routine but sadly and comically many were out of step.

We then visited the cathedral where we had a very informative tour learning of the history of Catholicism and the Spanish takeover in Lima.

Me, squinting to read my Kindle to determine where we would be eating.  That man beside me is our hired driver, Ronaldo, who awkwardly followed us around the city and made us feel like he was in a hurry.

Upon leaving the square we headed to a slightly rougher part of town to eat lunch at a sandwich shop.  Russell had the chicharrones, a Peruvian specialty of fried pork.- it was amazing!  We also tried Cusquena beer which is known to be the best around..it's pretty much like a Bud.  Our penchant for craft beers in the states makes us a little snobby when it comes to having beers abroad.

Our next stop was the Museo Larco, a ceramics museum, where we learned of the native Peruvian cultures including their formation of societies, agriculture, spiritual beliefs and rituals.  We loved this museum and spent over  2 hours there!

NOTE: Ok, so a large portion of the Museo Larco is dedicated to "erotic" Incan pottery, etc.  It's, well, a fascinating experience if nothing else.  You will see your fair share of...um...creative displays of human, animal, and deistic affections.

We didn't take pictures inside the museum but there was beautiful bougainvillea on the outer walls 

Upon returning to the hotel, our cab driver awkwardly tried to get (unsuccessfully) more money out of us leaving a sour taste in our mouths but that was really the only hiccup in our day.

We ended the day with an out of this world seafood/ceviche dinner at La Rosa Nautica where we also experienced the infamous Pisco Sour which almost put us under the table.   Seriously.   It's sorta like a margarita designed specifically to knock you out for the count.  Efficacy on us?  Strong to quite strong.

Random: The dogs in Lima seem bigger and boxier than dogs in the USA.  We saw several labs, german shepherds and even mutts that seemed much more substantial (not fat) than US dogs.  Also, many owned dogs in Lima wander freely during the day or sit outside of their homes with no leashes.  In addition there are many strays  in the city center.  They all had such sweet faces and they just sleep in the middle of the sidewalks.

Overall Thoughts on Lima:
The scenery takes getting used to- the gray/white skies, crowded buildings, and lack of city planning or cohesive architecture gives an initial unfavorable taste of Lima.  When you look closer though, it is a city with so much character and individuality.  We grew to love our cloudy, almost dreary ocean view contrasted by the crammed city. All people we met in Lima were warm, friendly and patient with my horrible attempts to speak the language.  The food is spectacular, the history interesting and we loved our hotel.

Stop number 1 of our Peru adventure has been a success!

Break for Fall

This post is loooong overdue but I couldn't skip it!  Russell and I had a fabulous fall break in NYC and the Outerbanks of NC.  I will admit now that we took zero pictures in NYC- it's such a fast-paced city we felt like we were in the way with the camera out so we just left it in the room the whole time.  Obviously, we regret our decision!  Pretty much this is going to be a recap for our own memory but feel free to read on!

We began our trip by picking up Russell from his final on Wednesday afternoon and dashing to the airport because we only have 2 hours from the time I picked him up until our plane takes off.  No worries though, our flight was delayed because of rain in NYC.  Luckily the rain stayed only for Wednesday.

We headed from the airport to our friend, Dr. Jere Crook's home in the Upper East Side.  We received a warm welcome along with some time to unpack, unwind and have a snack before heading to the theatre.

What a treat the theatre was!  We saw How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying starring Daniel Ratcliff (Harry Potter) and John Liriquet with the voice of Andersen Cooper as the narrator.  If you're in NYC or if this show travels it's a MUST SEE!  We had amazing seats courtesy of Jere.

  

This is pretty much the only picture we took...excuse me while I pat myself on the back: my dress looked great with the theme of the show (I also stood out like a sore thumb yellow dress + pink Vera Bradley umbrella= not NYC black)!  

After the show we headed to a lovely little restaurant right around the corner from the theatre where they knew Jere by name.  We had a great dinner and great conversation.  From there we headed to the King Cole Bar inside the St. Regis Hotel.  It was really fancy :)  We had a nightcap and headed home...it was almost 2am when we got home!  Jere is a night owl!

Thursday we began the morning with a run in Central Park followed by breakfast at Jere's table and then the best walking tour a tourist could ask for!  Jere knows SO MUCH about the city and we were happy to soak in all he had to tell us!  We walked through Central Park, through the theatre district, to Grammercy Park, The Ford Foundation, Grand Central Station, Columbus Circle, The UN Building and had a leisurely lunch at The Harvard Club where we also received an in depth tour of the building and heard about it's rich history.  

Thursday night we met our friends Dasha and Dan Faires at Samboca in Chelsea.  It was a cozy, hip tapas restaurant.  We had a 3 hour dinner catching up and stuffing our faces with dishes that included almost half of a pig!  

Friday morning was greeted with another run in Central Park, lunch at Le Colonial with Jere and a trip to the Met.  Le Colonial is a Thai restaurant with French influence- YUM.  Such great flavor and fresh food.  It reminded us of Fijian food.  We could've spent a week at The Metropolitan Museum of Art...but we only spent 2.5 hours.  We browsed Greek, Roman, Victorian and African Art with a quick run through the Modern Art section.  We followed up our visit to the museum with a yummy pumpkin ginger cupcake from a food cart.

Later in the afternoon we checked into The Shoreham Hotel and then headed to Union Square to visit Alton Lane.  We love their showroom and enjoyed looking at new fabrics and clothing lines.  Check out what's going on over there and order yourselves or a loved one some well-fitting clothes!

From there we headed to another scrumptious tapas restaurant (I can't remember the name of it) that was lit with a plethora of crystal chandeliers that contrasted the rustic restaurant setting.  The restaurant was packed with people and we loved the atmosphere!  We ended our evening at the bar at the W Hotel in Union Square and made it home around 3am (I know, you're thinking...do I know the Bloodworths? They don't stay out that late)!  We had some adventures in the subway with rats on the platform which definitely woke us up for our trek back to the hotel!

Saturday we headed back to Alton Lane for Russell to order some new digs and then went to lunch with Meg and Michael McCullar at a Mexican restaurant.  This restaurant rocked because you got a free drink with your meal...that's what I call Saturday brunch!  We had a wonderful time with Meg and Michael hearing about their transition to NYC and we loved getting to see their apartment.

We left lunch and headed to the Upper West Side to see Eric and Savon who just had a beautiful baby boy, Benjamin.  We had great conversation and were excited to hear about parenthood and job transitions.  

Upon leaving Eric and Savon's home we stumbled upon a little clothing store called Pookie and Sebastian.  I accidentally went on a shopping spree and left with a cute knit dress, an army inspired jacket and the coolest fur vest!  

Off we went to the Lower East Side to meet up with Dasha for dinner (Dan had headed to AR to spend time with family) at a pub/oyster bar. We had some outstanding beers and really good seafood (no oysters for us).  We then headed to some cool bar where we again met up with Meg and Michael and then headed home so that we could prepare for our early trip home.

As soon as we landed, we hopped in the car and headed to the Outer Banks!  When I was feeling rich this summer (because we had an income, it wasn't a big income), I purchased a Living Social Escape to The Marsh Harbor Inn on Bald Head Island.  I'm so glad I did because we had a perfect vacation from our vacation (we actually decided there was a distinction between vacation and trip.  New York was a trip.  Bald Head Island was a vacation).

To get to Bald Head Island, you have to take a ferry.  Once there, your mode of transportation is golf cart, bicycle or your own two feet.  No cars allowed (except construction vehicles).  The ferry ride was fun and it was nice to have an ocean view of the coast.

Upon arrival, we were picked up by a golf cart taxi and taken to Marsh Harbor Inn.  It's a lovely little inn and the only "hotel" type lodging on the island.  Everything else is beautiful homes.  After settling in, we set out on our own golf cart to find some dinner.

We settled on pizza from the poolside bar (the Pellicatessen) at the country club, it was delicious.  We were planning on taking out to the beach to watch the sunset (the sunsets were absolutely beautiful) but the bugs were attacking Russell...at first I didn't believe him but I looked over and he literally had a swarm of little bugs around his head.  We opted for a moving dinner in the golf cart to keep the bugs away.

That night we also saw a beautiful deer (we don't have a picture because we were so stunned we just sat and stared at him).  The deer on the island look different than the deer we see on the mainland!  We also saw a beautiful red fox that just sat still and let us take his picture.  The picture is not very good because of the lighting.

The next day we spent some quiet time kayaking in the marsh.  It was so peaceful and beautiful.  Russell and I had the best time talking with no interruptions.

The rest of the trip was filled with eating, a little bike ride, sleeping, reading and a little more eating.

We have decided that we should always have a vacation after trips!

...I've been doing lots of cooking and a little crafting lately, stay tuned....

Spring Break 2K11

Russell and I just arrived home from a fabulous trip to Grand Cayman. We had 3 days to ourselves and we shared 3 days with Russell's parents and we had a blast the whole time. Here's a rundown of our week:

Wednesday: we woke up bright and early (except there was nothing "bright" about 3am) and the first leg of our flight took us to NYC. "You must be mistaken" you might say. "Grand Cayman is south of Durham, NC not North". But no, apparently this was a normal flight to take if you wanted to get from RDU to Miami, FL. Our flights were uneventful and we arrived in the mid-afternoon in Cayman where we quickly learned how to drive on the left side of the road and use round abouts. Russell has been to Cayman many times but he's never had to fend for himself....let's just say there was lots of laughing and screaming for our lives as we made it to the condo. Mr. Rusty and Mrs. Fran have done a fabulous job renovating the condo and it's adorable. We had a perfect view of the ocean! We quickly went to the grocery store which was our first indication that the Cayman Islands would not be a "cheap" vacation. We spent twice the amount that we spend at Costco and got half the amount of food...oh well. We ate well while we were vacationing! We ate dinner at Pappagallo, a cute Italian restaurant with and island theme. Apparently, there are MANY Italians in Grand Cayman because there are yummy Italian restaurants everywhere!

Thursday: We had a cooking day. We learned how to dissect a coconut and experimented with recipes from our honeymoon. We had coconut banana pancakes and we also made coconut oatmeal cookies. The pancakes were unfortunately mediocre but we had a ton of fun making them! The cookies were outstanding and VERY easy to make. The key is the fresh coconut. Here's the coconut oatmeal cookie recipe below:

Taveuni Palms Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

¾ cup brown raw sugar

½ cup shredded coconut (fresh is key, see coconut dissection below)

½ cup rolled oats

1 tsp vanilla essences (extract)

1 egg

½ cup vegetable oil

First mix all dry ingredients in a bowl, then slowly add egg and add vanilla essences into the dry ingredients. Slowly add oil for the right consistency until all wet. Roll one teaspoon full in cookie tray and flatten with a fork. Bake until golden brown. Remove the cookie from the tray as soon as the tray comes out of the oven.

Here are pictures from our coconut

dissection:

For lunch we walked to the Ritz Carlton and had a fruit plate and fish tacos which were good but not remarkable. Our walk was about 3 miles down and back and was a much needed bit of exercise For dinner we had samosas, another Fijian recipe. Russell manned the roti making (he's gotten to be an expert) and I made the potato, onion, and bean mixture. We accompanied the samosas with guacamole and it was scrumptious!

Friday: We had coconut banana french toast and it was FABULOUS! We followed breakfast by some beach reading and then a trip downtown. I can't say that I ever want to visit downtown Cayman again. It's pretty gross actually. Tons of cruise shippers shopping in tourist traps, many of the people were rude and tacky. If nothing else, we observed some reasons why people might not like frat boys or Americans in general. We did see some pretty jewelry at exorbitant prices. Later in the day we tried to take a run but it was during rush hour and there aren't many sidewalks so between sucking car fumes and dodging cars we got in about 2 miles. Instead, we walked the beach and the scenery (and air) was much more beautiful! We finished our evening at a Peruvian restaurant called Agua. We loved it and we met a very nice couple that had been vacationing in Cayman for 2 weeks. They were so nice AND they gave us their bottle of wine bec

ause they got sick of waiting for their table...an added plus for us :) We had cevichi, short ribs, and some really yummy fish. Great atmosphere, friendly wait staff- we highly recommend Agua!

Saturday: We began the morning with a LONG kayak adventure from our condo to the furthest point of the island that we could see. The shore makes sort of a crescent shape so we kayaked to the point of the crescent. The trip out to the point was smooth sailing, er, paddling and we rode some waves, leisurely paddled, and saw a giant iguana on the shore. The trip back was a bit of a different story. The wind was blowing against us and we had to paddle our hearts out to get back to shore. At one point we felt like the harder we paddled, the further away from the shore we became. Luckily, that was just an illusion and we made it back safely and tired! We then quickly cleaned up and headed to the airport to pick up Mr. Rusty and Mrs. Fran. As expected, the rest of the day was spent eating and relaxing. We had lunch at Full of Beans, a coffee shop with great salads and sandwiches and dinner at Luca, an Italian restaurant which was also outstanding!

Sunday: We ate french toast again followed by more relaxing. We had a late lunch of curried fish tacos, fried cassava, and homemade coconut basil pesto. Here are some pictures of our spread:

We visited Edwin Bozeman, Fran's first cousin who has a place down the beach, where we had a bit of a Memphis cocktail hour before dinner. It was nice to meet new family as well as Memphians that I hadn't met before. Cocktail hour was followed by dinner at Eduardo's, yep, another Italian restaurant! I'm sure you may be concerned at the amount of Italian we've been eating in Cayman but don't fret- they are all very seafood based and you can rest assured that we ate PLENTY of fish :)

Monday: This morning we had homemade banana muffins. They were pretty good but I'm going to stick to my original banana berry bread recipe and switch things up by baking it in muffin tins instead of loaf pans. We had a scrumptious lunch at The Great House which has been on the island for a very long time. It has very yummy food and beautiful views of the ocean. We followed lunch with a trip to the hardware store. This wasn't just any hardware store. This is like a Bed Bath and Beyond combined with a Lowes! Russell and I had fun exploring and we helped Mr. Rusty and Mrs. Fran stock the kitchen with a few new appliances and tools! Later in the day Christopher arrived. We were sad that we only overlapped a day and a half with him but

we made the most of our time together! We had dinner at Neptunes, another Italian inspired restaurant, where we sat on the patio right next to a large, akward statue of Neptune himself. Here's a picture...feel free to laugh:

Tuesday: This was our last day of vacation so we decided to make the most of our trip! Russell and I woke up early (I forgot to tell you that I slept in until at least 9 every morning...unbelievable) around 8 and took a bike ride to the turtle farm that also included an estuary. You're going to love the pictures that follow. We had a great time exploring and I LOVED holding all of the turtles!

When we got home, we cooked lunch for everyone: leftover curried fish, cassava fries, pesto, grouper, black beans, guacamole, and salad. Here's where a kink in our plan came in- while cutting the cassava I say to Russell "Hmm, I smell rat poisoning". He suggests that I google that and I find that raw cassava contains cyanide, to be exact, enough to kill a cow. Yum. Healthy. Some cassava roots contain more cyanide than others, and apparently this one had a lot. After much reading I decided that as long as I cooked them well the cyanide would go away and we would be fine. We cooked the fries until they were very well done. Everyone tasted them and liked them but Russell and I were paranoid and threw them out because we were sure that we still tasted cyanide and feared that we were killing our family. Moral of the story- be careful when you cook cassava! Lunch was followed by a trip on a Captain Marvin cruise boat that took us to Sting Ray City and snorkeling. Captain Marvin is now 94 and he has 14 children. He no longer takes the boats out but he greets everyone when he arrive back and shore. When Russell was little, he took many cruises with Captain Marvin himself! We took a tourist photo op to get our picture made with him. You'll see great pictures below:

We ate our last dinner at Calypso where we had outstanding appetizers- ceviche with tomatoes and lime and sushi grade tuna spring rolls YUMMY! We finished our dinner with sticky toffee pudding (I must learn to make this soon) and shortbread crust filled with dark chocolate ganache...SO GOOD!

Wednesday: Bright and early airport trip again! Our flights were mostly unremarkable except for the man who sat by us on the way to Miami...he wasn't sure about personal space and casual conversation rules meaning he thought it was fine to give us back handed hits on the legs to get our attention followed by discussions of politics and social issues including homosexual rights and Nathan Bedford Forest. Good thing Russell and I are tolerant people.

Fiji Honeymoon: Day 10 OR "The Road Home" OR "We're Done Blogging"

Russell writing...

Well, it's finally happened. The honeymoon is over and we're about to re-enter the harshness of reality, trekking across the southern United States to Durham, NC. Before that happens though, there's room for one last blog post. Let's see if we can keep it short!

Our last "day" in Fiji was short but sweet. We were given a late checkout time from LikuLiku and were supposed to depart on the afternoon SouthSea Cruise ferry at 4:00pm. Before then we had grand plans for another big hike, or a snorkel excursion, or something else at least marginally exciting. None of that happened.

In our over-water burre, we sleep every night with all the windows and doors open which lets in a constant cool breeze. And that morning, like those before it, we enjoyed the most perfect sunset right from our bed, watching through the double-doors that open onto our deck/balcony. Following that bit of honeymoon bliss, we packed, headed to breakfast for our morning juice and one last helping of LikuLiku's stupendous cheese souffle.

The rest of the day, despite all our plans, was the perfect day for laziness. We sat around on our deck, in all of our honeymoon-fattened glory, soaking up the rays. Going on a hike would mean back-tracking paths we'd already tried, and snorkeling was out of the question as that morning happened to be a severely low tide. But that wasn't the only reason to stay out of the water.

About midmorning, Katie and I spotted, as we had several times earlier over the previous days, what appeared to be an eel "swimming" in the water around our burre. It was white, a few feet long, and creepy. After a few wikipedia searches, Katie and I unscientifically declared it to be an albino moray eel, which, although having teeth and capable of delivering a nasty bite, are not all that dangerous it would seem. Evidently, eels are nocturnal, and although we spotted this eel swimming around, it appeared to be searching for a suitable rock to call his bed for the day. He finally found one RIGHT NEXT to the ladder where our burre descends into the water.

After all the "nature hiking" we'd done over the week, Katie and I fancied ourselves Animal Planet explorers, and so I went to go get my camera and dropped myself down the ladder next to the eel's rock of choice. The water, being low tide, was only a foot deep, so I stepped out next to the rock with my camera ready to take the shot for the next cover of National Geographic. The dang eel never reemerged! I mean, I sat there with that camera around my neck for about 20 minutes. I suppose I could have just gone to lift the rock up, but I was admittedly still too much of a wuss to risk ticking this thing off. While this was going on, some striped fish, which Katie and I have designated as the neighborhood bullies after plenty of observation and fish-feeding from our deck, started getting a little too "nibbly" for my taste. I'm not sure how much it hurts to have a fish chomp on you, but these particular fish act like little piranas when you toss them some food; I didn't want to become an experiment for them.

After climbing back up to the deck, unsuccessful in photographing the eel, I decided to bang on our ladder. Maybe that would bring the little guy out! Did it work though? Well, let's just say I'm glad Katie didn't bang on the ladder for me while I was still in the water. The eel came out almost immediately, and none too happy looking. Whereas before he seemed pretty harmless, he now was cranky and snappy at all the fish around him. But that wasn't the half of it. Two more eels, longer, crankier, and creepier than the first came out from the hiding places as well. Augh! We'd been snorkeling around our burre with these things hiding under the rocks the whole time? Katie did not like to think about it too much :) The most potentially alarming tidbit of our "eel" discovery, however, was that these eels might not actually be eels at all, but, rather, sea krait. Later in the day, after we had already used wikipedia to help designate these creepy creatures, Katie found an interesting piece of info in the LikuLiku guest guide: apparently, LikuLiku lagoon is home to sea krait, which are described fairly similarly to the "eels" we'd been watching from our burre. But unlike moray eels, sea krait are "highly venemous"...though, the guide goes on to say, human fatalities from sea krait bites are rare. Whew!

The only other thing on the day's agenda was a complimentary honeymoon "Blissful Stone Massage" at the spa. Neither of us has ever had a "Blissful Stone" anything, so we were intrigued. At the spa, we chose our scents we wanted for the oils they would use, changed into our birthday suits, and laid down on the tables ready for what awaited. It turns out that a blissful stone massage is just like a normal full body massage except they intermittently introduce VERY hot stones into the equation. If you're the type who likes your showers close to scalding, like me, you'd like it. The purpose is to help loosen the muscles making them easier for the masseuse to manipulate. Feels awesome! The only thing I hate about massages, having had 4 at this point in my life (all in the last year) is laying on my front with my face stuck awkwardly in that little hole that's cut out in the table for it. How is that possibly comfortable?

Shortly after, we cleaned up, gathered our belongings (which the porter THIS TIME was kind enough to come pick up for us) and checked out at the front desk. Now we just had to wait for the ferry. We waited, sipping on mojitos out at the end of the pier where our boat would arrive. Good times.

When the boat FINALLY did arrive, 15 minutes late, we hopped aboard and walked up to the Captain's Lounge. This time, unlike before, it was a pretty crowded hot spot. And whats more, we had to make a few extra stops on our way back to Nadi that put us another 20 minutes behind schedule (at one of the resort pickup stops, the line to get on the ferry appeared to be hundreds of people long!).

Back at the Nadi Port, we were tired and hungry. While we waited for our bags to be brought ashore, we went to order a pizza from one of the port restaurants. Unfortunately, while our pizza was still cooking, our hired driver came and found us, none too pleased about our tardiness. He scooted us into the car sans pizza before we had a chance to protest. Once on the road, we started explaining that the delay was the ferry's fault, and the driver finally took pity on us and dashed us back to the restaurant to pick up our pie. In the interest of time, we had to request it be taken out of the oven about 5 minutes too early; in other words, mediocre pizza.

The airport portion of the trip home was nothing too eventful, other than a 2 hour long line to check in (Air Pacific seems to be consistently miserable) and a "full-service" pat-down station, in addition to the security check-in, that you had to go through before entering our particular gate area.

From there, it's a no-brainer. Pop an ambien or two, sleep for 12 hours, jump on our connecting flight in LAX, sleep for 3 hours, jump on our connecting flight in Dallas-Ft. Worth, sleep for a few more hours, arrive in Little Rock. It was 11:30 pm Thursday as we disembarked from the tiny commuter jet into the Little Rock airport, where Katie's parents waited for us. Our flight leaving Fiji departed at 10:50 pm Thursday. I'm pretty sure that was longest 40 minute flight either of us has ever had.

Oh well. Glad to be home, sad to be home :) Next stop: Durham, North Carolina!

Fiji Honeymoon: Day 9 (Liku Liku) OR "Anchors Away" OR "Did You Get The Memo?""

Russell writing...

We're overdue for a posting on the goings-on in the lives of Russell and Katie Bloodworth. But sadly, this belated post has little to

recount from our last full day in

Fiji. Was there more to do and explore? Absolutely. Could we still stand to make a few

friends with the cool kids? Of course. Were there more strange characters arriving at the resort for us to

make fun of? Definitely.

At this point though, it's necessary to point out that we had already done pretty much

everything that was "worth" doing. Now, "worth" here needs a bit of clarification. There are plenty of other things at the resort that we'd LIKE to do. But LikuLiku, as it turns out, and in direct contrast to Taveuni Palms, is an obscene nickel-and-diming operation. It's hard to justify joining in on the 30-min sunset cruise when it costs you about $80US. This game of monetary comparison could probably take up a page or two of good blogging space, but I'll note a few more. At Tavauni Palms, a load of laundry: $5US. At LikuLiku, a single shirt to be laundered: $5US. At Taveuni Palms, a full-day kayaking and coastal walk to the waterfalls with a private guide and included DELICIOUS lunch: $120US. At LikuLiku, a 2hr sandbar picnic: $125US. At Taveuni Palms, a "total body & soul" 90 minute massage: $25US pp. At LikuLiku: a 60 minute massage: $60US pp. At Taveuni Palms, all non-alcoholic drinks are included in the price...at any time of day. At LikuLiku, no drinks are included in the price with the exception of juices in the morning. And just to clarify, the Taveuni Palms 2-room villa was the same price as the LikuLiku Overwater Burre. Additionally, we actually received FREE spa treatments the entire time we were at Taveuni as a courtesy.

Needless to say, when even going to church costs just under $10pp at LikuLiku, it's not hard to see why we kept our activities a bit more limited.

Anyway, for our last full Fijian day we spent most of our time eating (for breakfast I had the crepes one last time) or lazing about our over-water room, which as we've already said is absolutely awesome! And that room is probably the best thing bout our time at LikuLiku (although there are plenty of other things to write home about from there). After breakfast, Katie and I tried our hand once more at some snorkeling around our burre. Unfortunately, the water this day was a bit rougher and murkier, which left us both a little underwhelmed as it almost impossible to see anything without it being obscured in swirling sand. So...back to our lounge chairs we went. Life is tough.

Lunch arrived before we knew it, and the day's menu called for a whole lot of pork options. Pork belly is the most memorable thing I recall. It was our appetizer, and it was...fat. Nice chunky pig fat. My mom would not approve! For the main course, I believe katie ordered some tuna, which they serve quite a bit at LikuLiku; but it's always good so you can't really complain. I enjoyed a yummy, scrummy Fijian prawn pizza. Delicious! And although a bit different, was actually comparably enjoyable to the pizza I had at Taveuni. A little less greasy too, which in my book is a plus. Dessert was a simply fabulous coconut bread pudding.

For the afternoon, Katie made the executive decision that we would NOT be joining in again on any of the communal LikuLiku activities. Our volleyball venturing the day before had been only marginally received by our fellow resorters, and we weren't sure that a second try was the right move since we only had one day left for our stay anyway. So instead, we thought we'd try a bit of sailing on one of the resort's little sailing skiffs.

Let me point out that: 1) I used to sail a little at camp...over a decade ago; 2) Katie has never sailed; 3) I don't remember anything from my previous sailing days that would actually be helpful. We walked up to the "activities burre" to ask the employee there if we could take one of the boats out on the water. He mumbled a bit in Fijian and seemed to be preoccupied with something entirely other than us. It turned out he had heard our request however, and he soon retreated into the back of the burre to gather us some life jackets. Next we followed him to the beach where he began setting up the sail on the nearest boat. As he was completing the job, he paused and asked "either of you sailed before?" I told about our limited to nill experience, which didn't seem to bother him. Did I know how to steer? Yep. And that was good enough "experience" for him, although I assume that anyone who's ever driven a car even once would probably feel confident enough to sail if all that was involved was steering. As we set off from the beach, the man let us know, seemingly arbitrarily, that we should be back in 30 minutes.

Katie and I made our way slowly out of the little alcove where the boats were, and as soon as we ventured beyond the resort's pier the wind picked up and we were on our way...to nowhere in particular. The boat had a mesh-like underside fixed between two pontoons, and so with every wave we crossed we (primarily Katie) were splashed to the point of soaking within a minute. The sun was out though and, without too many obstacles to have to steer around, sailing was a breeze so to speak :)

After around 30 minutes we started heading back to shore until the activities guy yelled at us to keep sailing. We weren't sure exactly what was going on, but as we turned back around towards open water we noticed that this guy went and jumped in a motor boat, speeding off around the side of the island for some unknown prior obligation. Ummmm.... so again, here Katie and I, with no experience, are sailing very far out in open ocean. Nobody's watching us. We have no walkie-talkie to communicate with the shore. We've been given no boundaries to stay within. This place is a lawsuit waiting to happen, but Katie and I could care less (typical resort uptightness is a turnoff anyway). We're having the time of our lives while marveling at the hands-off approach to safety.

No telling what time we finally returned to shore; neither of us had brought a watch! But we definitely stayed out long enough to be deliciously lobster-looking. Even so, we grabbed an hour or so of more sun at our burre before a porter arrived to bring us our afternoon snack: today a thai-inspired assembly of "stuff" in rice wraps. Then, some wine, showering, and heading to dinner.

Again, sadly, dinner is a little fuzzy. I know Katie had some tuna again while I enjoyed a steak fillet, which was VERY chewy. But good flavor I guess. Other than that, neither of can remember distinctly what else was a part of the four course meal. One thing we can both remember though is the overpriced and, well, interesting tasting pina colada I got. Since our time at LikuLiku the only drink we've bought being here is the Coconut Mojito...which is awesome!! Pina Coladas just seem like such an island-ish staple though, so I gave into temptation. They should leave the coladas to the Caribbean. It tasted like a whole lot of rum and some funky cream. Probably one of the more expensive things purchased while we were there, but I have no shame in saying we didn't finish drinking it!

Ok that's it. Tomorrow we're outta here!!

P.S.-a little anecdote from our time here. Yep, it's another one about the staff. So kind and friendly at times, yet so laughably disorganized the rest. A few days ago, when we were still at our burre on the beach, I was reading out on the day bed beside our deck. Every day, so we later discovered, LikuLiku is sprayed for bugs using a gas-powered blower that sprays a heavy mist. As I read, soaking up the sun, I noticed a humming mechanical noise coming within earshot. I turned my head to look down the length of the beach only to see a LikuLiku staff member walking along spraying the bug blower. He was equipped with a little gas/medical mask and everything. Anyway, as he started to approach our burre, I started thinking about what my options might be to avoid getting sprayed with something that even the guy spraying it had no interest in inhaling. Go inside? Move to a different part of the beach? Stay put? I ended up simply signaling the guy when he was still 20 ft or so away with a wave to let me know I was there. He waved happily back. And then, quite undeterred, he continued his walk past our burre and sprayed me right in the face. From about 7 ft away. I covered my head as fast as I could with one of the day-bed's pillows and sat there thinking to myself...."You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me."

P.P.S.-another staff anecdote. 2 days ago, we were walking back to our burre and ran into one of the staff members. "Bula," she said, and we entered into a brief dialogue about how we were enjoying our time. As we chatted, a porter drove by in golf cart. The person we were talking with flagged him down, pointed to us, and started talking quickly in Fijian. From the context and hand gestures, ANYone could tell that she was telling him to give us a ride, and so we quickly said, "No, that's ok. We like the walk." Extremely surprised, the woman looked at as and asked, "you understand?" Not knowing the correct response, we both replied "yes." Since that moment, we remain convinced that a memo has been sent out to all the staff members letting them know that the Americans in burre #1 speak Fijian. And, correlatively, we're pretty sure folks have been even more accommodating than before (and it seems they're speaking less Fijian around us as well; afraid we'll catch on to their gossip!). Should have tried that earlier :)

Fiji Honeymoon: Day 8 (Liku Liku) OR "Making Friends" OR "Get the Starfish"

Katie Writing...

Today has been another wonderful day in the life of the Bloodworths. We started off the day waking up to the sunrise. I assure you, Russell was not as excited about this as I. I went to bed thinking about the sunrise and woke up twice making sure not to miss it. When I opened my eyes, the sun was just coming up on the horizon, so in sweet wifey fashion I yell "Look! Look! Wake up and look!" So Russell jumps up saying "Wha, Wha, What's going on?" and I smile and say "The sunrise. Take a picture. Hurry! Oh, and good morning." So I sat quietly after that, satisfied to see the sun come up and watch the sky turn all sorts of beautiful.

Since we were up, I finished the previous day's blog posting and we fed fish with leftover cookies. Then it was off to breakfast where once more, I made a bad choice. Russell ordered the cheese souffle which we already knew was awesome. I ordered it before I entered my streak of mediocre food choices. It's made with gruyere cheese, onions, hot red peppers and green peas. I know, green peas sounds like an odd choice, but it's REALLY good. I, in my adventurous nature, chose the mud crab omelette. Could be good right? Nope! It was very bland and crabby tasting. Did I eat it anyway? Yep...and followed it up with a full bowl of granola complete with yogurt and berries. That's my kind of breakfast.

And now a note about service. On par with previous dining experiences, breakfast came with it's glitches. Nothing terrible, but still noteworthy. We were seated in a lovely spot facing the ocean and the pier and given menus. Catch one: one of the menus had no actual menu inside, it was just a folder. Catch two: our waitress seats us and asks us if we would like water. We reply "Yes". The question was followed with "Would you like tea or coffee." We go against our routine of just water and add in a request for tea. Away she goes. Eight minutes later, no tea, no water and no order taken another waitress approaches the table. She asks for our room number (of course, however we still haven't figured out why everyone wants to know our room number), asks us if we'd like something to drink and we give the same order of tea and water. She then takes our food order. She repeats the order "Souffle, omelette, and coffee." She is corrected, "we'd actually like to have tea, not coffee." and off she goes. Five minutes more pass. Tea arrives from the initial waitress and she does not take our order. Five minutes after that, the second waitress brings tea. Oops! Lack of communication...who would've thought?!

Ok, that's all for meal bloopers, at least for now.

We finish breakfast and head back to the room for a little snorkel. One of the perks of these over water burres is that you have a ladder off the side of your porch that goes right down into the water. We don't even have to go anywhere to see the beauty of the coral reef! Down we go to see what there is to see. The fish here are beautiful! We see fish that you've only ever seen in Finding Nemo. Clown fish, Parrot fish, fish that look like leopards, clear fish, fish you can't even describe. My favorite thing and what I'm most fascinated by are the bright blue starfish. My mission for the day- hold one.

The first step of my mission is to figure out if the blue beauty I've admired from afar is actually a starfish and not a piece of coral (which is what Russell believed). I dive in and take time to enjoy the view. Rainbows of color everywhere you look. Even the nasty sea cucumbers are cool. Now I know the general population's fascination with neon, everyone wants to have a piece of this beauty below the ocean. My opinion, keep the neon on the fish...it does not look good on humans. Anyway, I find the bright blue object about six feet down. As I've discussed in a previous post, I have become a floater and not a sinker so getting below the surface of the water proves to be a challenge. I swim down just long enough to poke it. Hmm, it's rigid. It does not seem to budge when I touch it, maybe it is coral. I swim on to shallower water to see if I can find another one. I find one on a big piece of coral. I pull, it doesn't budge. However, I've decided it definitely IS a starfish, each one I see has five arms; some of them are hiding halfway in the sand or in the holes of other coral. I continue the mission. I swim over a shallow bit of sand and spot one, it's not too deep for me to grab and there's no coral for it to attach itself. I pick it up, it doesn't squirm like the other starfish I've held on this trip. I get really excited, this may be the most beautiful thing I've held in my hand yet. We must take a picture. Somehow, Russell isn't quite as excited as I am about my discovery. I get him to hold it and he does so like he's found a dirty sock- far away from his body with just his thumb and forefinger. I laugh and take it back into my possession. When we get back to our dock, I place the starfish carefully on the ladder so as not to drop it or harm it in any way. Now is when he decides to use his tentacles. They're tiny, and strong! The starfish is stuck to the ladder! I pull and push and try to slide him off, I mean, he's got to come off sooner or later or he'll dry out! I feel terrible when I pull him from the stair and he leaves a few tentacles behind. Starfish have the uncanny ability to regrow missing parts, right? It's just a few tentacles right? Either way, I apologize profusely, we take it's photo and I swim him back down to the bottom of the ocean. (Thank you for reading this part...I'm sure I've enjoyed writing it much more than anyone will enjoy reading this play by play).

We end our bit of snorkeling and do a bit of lounging and cookie eating (might I add that one of the room service men called us the cookie monsters today). After that, we packed our bag and headed to lunch with the expectation of spending time at the pool and making some friends.

Lunch: Russell scores, I fail...surprise! Russell gets the pesto risotto with squid and I order the chicken ramen in honor of my sister. Russell's lunch was rich and flavorful, mine fell flat- watery broth, unidentifiable chicken pieces, bitter mushrooms, soggy tofu. These aren't your average ramen noodles and ( I can't believe I'm saying this) I think Manchu Wok is better. Please, write that down. Lunch brings the crazy bad service once again with an empty drink menu and no water or any sort of service past the part of being seated for 15 minutes. Several waiters look at our table and a few even ask if we've been helped, but to no avail. Finally water comes followed by appetizers and food and even mojitos that we ordered after Russell goes to the hostess desks and requests it. The rest of lunch is uneventful.

And we're off to the pool for some friend-making. Have we mentioned that we aren't good at this? We met some people who arrived two days ago that have become best friends with every American couple in the resort in less than 48 hours. Russell and I feel like we're back in elementary school trying to break into the "cool group". We're sissies. At the pool, we eaves drop on a few conversations, watch people making friends and take some paparazzi pics of the guy who is in his late fifties and vacationing with his mother.

Let me introduce you- He drinks wine straight from the bottle and balances a CD Walkman with really nice Bose headphones. He does a little dance that he thinks no one can see. I can only imagine that he's rocking out to some vintage hip hop from the 80s. He comes complete with a gold chain and a plumber's crack. It's possible that he shaves his chest. This is the same guy who wears sunglasses to dinner. Don't worry, he changes them up, sometimes he wears reflective lenses ( you know, the ones that look like rainbows) and sometimes, on special evenings he brings out the yellow lenses. Russell says he looks like Jeff Bridges, from the Big Lebowski. He wears his house shoes as flip flops and has taken special care to get some frosted tips in his shaggy brown hair. His outfits are an endless array of ridiculousness from white steel toed boots to button downs replete with images of skulls and lightning bolts . This man scares me to death. Every time he walks past me, I envision him slugging me in the face and laughing as he continues on.

Russell writing...

Anyway, back to us being the peripheral outcasts of our age group at the resort. We've tried to break the ice with a few different couples, but they in turn just decide to hang out with each other. We are indeed, as Katie put it, wusses.

As we sat by the pool people-watching, we saw a small opportunity. "Jeff Bridges" was in some sort of intense conversation with a staff member (we've no idea what it was about). In addition to wanting to get some good gossip on the resort's resident weirdo, we also noticed that another couple between us and "Jeff" was watching the argument. We figured that, assuming the argument ever drew to a close, we could approach the young couple and ask about what happened. Perfect ice breaker! What's more, the guy in this couple was wearing some Duke shorts, so there was another in (of course, he was also wearing a Clemson shirt, and a Notre Dame hat, but that's neither here nor there). As we plotted our introduction, we were soon thwarted by the old Anglo couple we'd seen at dinner the previous night singing along with the Fijian church choir from their table. They came over to our young couple and made some sort of small talk remark about...something or other. And before you know it, the old couple and young couple are soon best friends, with us, once again, the lonely onlookers as they walked away from the pool. Ah well.

We weren't totally defeated yet though. More opportunity was there. A resort volleyball game was scheduled for that afternoon, and Katie and I figured that we might finally have an "in" with the cool kids. First though, we decided to go back to our burre and drop off our stuff.

At the burre, we lounged a bit to cool off from the sun, and we were soon greeted by a knock on the door. Any time staff comes to visit us they're either bringing us cookies or someone's coming by to, for reasons unknown, ask us some ridiculous question that has nothing to do with anything. And even though our burre number is written on the outside of our hut, it wouldn't surprise me if they ever came by to confirm it. I think Katie has said enough about the staff though to give you a sense of the craziness we've experienced!

It turned out that this house call was actually just a staff member dropping by to replenish our cookie supply and bring us an afternoon snack (snacks are apparently only reserved for folks in the over-water burres; why's this? no idea). After noting that our cookie jar was completely empty, he felt compelled to nickname us the resort cookie monsters. We already know we're fat, pal. Thanks though. With that playful jab at our rapidly expanding bellies, we now had further reason beyond making friends to join in the volleyball game that afternoon. Modest exercise.

Before we could depart for the game, there was another knock on the door. This time though, something rather remarkable happened. I opened the door to greet whoever it might be, and two staff members walked in carrying an ice bucket with a bottle of champagne....and a letter. They left as quickly as they entered, leaving us to figure out what was going on. The letter enclosed a general apology from the staff for all of our difficulties from transferring rooms the previous day. It didn't specify WHICH of the difficulties it was apologizing for, but we were still appreciative of the gesture. However, despite the letter's insistence that yesterday's service snafus were an abnormal occurrence, it's going to take more than a bottle of champagne for Katie and I to believe that. At the very least you'd think someone would have apologized verbally when, you know, all those "difficulties" were actually occurring! Meh... free champagne.

(Katie Writing)

On our way to the game, we plotted our friendship-making plan. What we'll do is invite everyone over to our burre for some champagne, boxed wine, and the best views on the resort. That'll win us some "cool" points for sure...

(Russell writing)

Back at the resort lodge, the volleyball game was already in progress between the "cool kids," as well as a few others. Sake, a staff member and actually a relative of Sara from Taveuni Palms; "Jeff Bridges" with his 80 year old mother looking on from a chair at the lodge; a mousy-looking French Canadian couple; a middle aged American couple. And then of course the "cool kids," comprised of three couples all around our age who had decided over the past 24 hours that they were going to be best friends for the rest of their lives. Grrr.. :)

Sake invited us to join in, and Katie and I each went to a different team. For the next hour or so we played some very mediocrely skilled volleyball matches. Although nobody there was particularly fantastic, Katie and I are notably terrible. With the depth perception of an infant bear cub, we both have a rough time gauging the ball as it comes flying towards us. "Somebody else!", we yell, as we try do move out of the way so one of our more skilled teammates can hit it. We're constantly apologizing for our wretched skills. Very impressive showing.

At one point, Katie notices one of the cool kids is wearing some Tennessee basketball shorts and asks if he's an alum. "Yes." That's about the extent of that conversation. He and his wife, who also went to UT, seemed modestly amused but not much more. There was about a 2-second version of the "name game" that followed. One-sided of course.

After a while, we switched up teams and Katie and I were now joined forces. Not a good thing for our side. "Service," says the other side as the smack the ball over towards us. As long as our fellow players can get to the ball before us, we're in good shape. But as soon as it heads to me or Katie, "somebody else!" "Not me!" "Augh!" "I'm just trying to throw off the other team...it's all part of the strategy!"

We finally decided we'd embarrassed ourselves enough for one afternoon, although we did have quite a bit of fun. We bid our farewells, as did the French Canadians, the middle aged couple, and "Jeff Bridges", who, incidentally, is not a good volleyball player for being as tall as he is. We contemplate posing our offer of wine and view gazing but can't get up the nerve. The "cool kids" stayed behind though to keep playing. Mission Failure.

At dinner, Katie and I couldn't help but notice a marked difference in the way things went. To put it another way, dinner actually went smoothly. Service wasn't bizarrely scattered and disorganized. Whadya know!? Our best guess is that, along with the written apology we received from the management that day, there must have been a memo sent out telling the staff to step their game up for the folks in Burre #1. Perhaps someone on the management team is reading our blog?

(Katie Writing)

The only notable event is the following: We hear laughing coming from the pier. Whatdaya know? It's the cool kids on their way to dinner. Russell and I debate, should we wave? say "hi"? We decide to do both but their too busy laughing and talking that they don't see us. They approach the hostess station and- wait for it, wait for it....all sit together at a table for six. The cool table. We're not invited. Dang.

(Russell Writing)

Anyway, for dinner Katie had some sort of fish while I enjoyed the lamb. Both were quite tasty. However, the appetizers preceding these were a little more iffy. First Katie had the "bay bug", which, although not quite as gross as it sounds (it's sort of like mini lobster), wasn't as delicious as our server described. I had the safer sounding sea scallops, which were actually quite disgusting to both of us! I'm not even going to mention Katie's description of them.

Until tomorrow. The End.