Fiji!! (finally!!!!)

Ok, so you started to think we made this whole Fiji thing up, didn't you?? Well, to catch you up, YES, I WON a trip to Fiji via a sweep stakes from Eagle Creek! We were given suitcases to travel with (which are a beautiful orange and I absolutely LOVED!), 2 flights from LAX to Fiji (10 hour flight), and 5 nights at the Fiji Radisson. It was a FANTASTIC trip!! Our even more FANTASTIC parents kept our children for us and made the entire trip possible!! THANK YOU GRANDPA, NEANIE, TOM TOM and GRAMMI!!!

When we sum up our trip to people, we usually say that our favorite thing about our vacation away was that a) God provided it and b) He knew EXACTLY what we needed. Because Fiji was so far away, 16 hour time difference from Houston, Stephen didn't have access to his distractions (internet, phone, etc) and I didn't have access to mine (the kids). We were able to give each other 100% of our attention for five whole days, with out any distractions, which honestly, doesn't happen that often! We will always treasure our time together and how God blessed it!

And now, for the pictures....

First, we drove from the ATL, stopping in Vicksburg, MS for a night to see Grandma Deyoe. We carried on (two kids and a dog in tow) to Houston and spent a few days there to celebrate the 4th of July. On July 6th, we flew to LAX and had a 5 hour lay over. So, we got a cab and went to Manhattan beach to kill some time. It was gorgeous! Here are walking around on the pier....

We arrived in Fiji time at 5am. The sun was just coming up! We were welcomed with singing and a sea shell necklace from some of the "locals"...kinda like what you would think of from Hawaii. We got our taxi and were off to the hotel! Here is the pool at the hotel below, I think the pictures are a bit out of order
Sun rise from the hote
More sun over the pool area. This was a gorgeous "adults only" pool with sand and bartenders, this girl was in heaven!
So, we took showers....were feeling pretty grimy from the Air Tran flight, then decided to explore the beach our hotel was on. We learned that our hotel was on "resort row" where there were resort after resort next door to each other. It was kind of nice because you could check out the other pools, events and restaurants at the hotels. We were surprised that the water off the resorts wasn't as blue and white as we had imagined. We were told that because the main island of Fiji was so moutainous, there was too much silt coming off the rivers which clouded the surrounding water. To see what we had pictured (crystal clear waters and white sand) you had to get on a boat to one of the surrounding 300 islands....no problem, we thought!!

Exploring the hotel pool
Breakfast was included every morning at the resort, including mimosas and bloody marys. HELLO! We did take some time every morning to read a chapter from a Christian marriage book we brought along and had some great time and discussion together over coffee complete with an amazing view of the beach!
Our first mission was to island hop! We signed up for a day trip to a private and deserted island! We took a boat of about 30 people to spend the day on a tiny island called Oolala. On the trip we had guided snorkeling tours, a glass bottom boat ride, and kayaking. They were also happy to serve us Fiji beer, wine and a bbq lunch. We were the only Americans on the boat. We befriended parents of high schoolers celebrating their 25th anniversary from New Zealand, honeymooners from Japan, and a family from Hong Kong taking a summer vacation with their two children. It was quite the diverse group, and we really enjoyed talking to people from all over the world! We spent the rest of the time on the island under our own private tiki hut and bean bag chairs!! Heaven!

Boat ride to the island

View from the island. We swam from the boat you can see in the distance...

One of the guides swam and picked up this HUGE oyster, opened it and ATE it!!
We had a great day on the island, the snorkeling was phenomenal, and we ended up spending dinner with the family from Hong Kong - so made some friends along the way! The next morning, we went for a stroll on the beach, pardon the bed head....

Stephen managed to find a golf club (stick) and hit a few (rocks)
There were coconuts every where. Do you know how hard it is to open these things?!? We tried and failed....
So decided to go back to the Radisson for lunch instead. We loved the signature Radisson burger, complete with pineapple, fried egg, beets, and bacon!

A dinner night out on the beach...
Cocktails before dinner, then we took at cab to an authentic Indian restaurant in the heart of the city called Saffron. It was a little bit of an adventure taking the cab ride into what some people would consider an under developed area, but we loved every minute of it! It was also my first time to try Indian food and I LOVED it! Fiji has a very heavy Indian culture influence, so we knew we were getting the real deal!
The next day, there was a tropical storm in the morning! We had breakfast in our hotel room and didn't get out until late afternoon when the storm had subsided. We spent some time at Port Denerau and had a late lunch
We were ready for another day on an island, so we chose a day cruise to Beachcomber Island and Resort. It was a 45 minute boat ride to the Marine Sanctuary in the beautiful Mamanuca Islands. We loved the snorkeling and found all these gorgeous indigo star fish. They were beautiful, but I was afraid to touch them! Here's one is a lagoon we found...
We enjoyed our day on the island reading, listening to our ipod, and sipping some Fijian beer from the Barefoot Bar. We were able to walk around the entire island in probably 15 minutes! Tiny, but definitely the "party" island!








Some pics of our awesome hotel room from the Radisson. We love our suite, it was on the top floor, first row from the water. We slept most the time with the doors open so we could hear the waves, and even for a while when it was raining! The above picture is the sun set from our balcony.....We also really loved our day we spent at the Radisson spa! We had amazing couples massages in an open air tiki hut. Yes, be very jealous!! :)
View of the pool and restaurant area from our hotel room

Living room
Kitchen

Our last day, we took another cab ride into the city. We decided to first visit the Garden of the Sleeping Giant. This was a beautiful garden/walk through the jungle specializing in Fiji's native plants and housing an impressive collection of over two thousand different kids of orchids. Bottom line, it was nice to walk in peace!!!




Next, we visited the Subeto Hot Springs and Mud Bath. Sounds relaxing right? It was a 45 minute cab ride on a dirt road into the jungle. We were getting a little nervous. We pulled up to this spot where all these locals were hanging out. No turning back now!! Um, it was a muddy hot mess, but we definitely had fun! This is the part I would like to entitle:

HOW TO GET STAPH INFECTION IN FIJI

Step 1: get wet in a muddy hole with grassy weird things at the bottom that feel like worms
Step 2: spread black sticky (AKA staph) mud all over each other and your guide makes you make out in a tree. Can you find us?
Step 3: you bake in the sun for a little while, make sure the staph sets in
Step 4: Rinse in staph water
Step 5: sit in hot springs with your cab driver while he makes fun of you because he knows you are going home with a souvenir you didn't pay for
OK, so we really did have fun at the mud bath, and who knows if that's where the staph Stephen came home with came from, but it looks pretty likely, huh? So, we came back to the hotel for one last Radisson burger and lunch on the beach...
Packed our Eagle Creek bags.....
Watched the sun set from "sun set deck" one last time...

enjoyed our favorite drink, the Capriosa, one last time
and kissed Fiji goodbye!!

So, it was a wonderful trip, what more does a girl need to say!?! Once in a lifetime and thankful God knew we needed it!! We were excited to see the boys and it seemed everyone survived in one piece (most importantly the grandparents!!)