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I’m officially off tomorrow for some rest and relaxation, some sun and sand, some great company (not just John, but some other great people, including Vince and Daphne, who we haven’t seen in a year or so but have traveled with before!) and awesome diving.
Two and a half weeks in Australia and Papua New Guinea. Four plane rides, a two-hour bus ride, and a boat ride, and then we’ll be at the end of the world, in the middle of nowhere, having the time of our lives.
Of course, if I don’t come home, it’s because I either loved it so much I stayed, or because I died from some horrible disease or a falling coconut. (And yes, that is where we’re going–or at least the last airport town we travel through.)
I’ll have stories and pictures for you all when I get back, but in the mean time, stay safe and sane.
See you all in October!
We’re officially on vacation in less than two days, and I can barely wait. Luckily, we had a three-day weekend to get us in the mindset!
We did a lot of errands, some packing, a lot of prepping, and although we’re not nearly ready at all, we’ll get there.
Saturday was spent lounging, packing a bit, then dinner out at a Japanese restaurant with Elizabeth and Mark. Ramen noodles from a plastic package may be super tasty when you’re sick or need comfort food, but real ramen? Sooooo gooood!
Sunday, a bit of work (oh well, no weekend is perfect), some errands, then John went out for a night with the boys while I had a night to myself. Shelly and Cara were both out of town, so no girl’s night, but I had a pretty relaxing evening just me.
Our Labor Day did not involve BBQs or beaches or anything else normal, but it was by far one of the best days I’ve had recently.
Mostly because it was spent gearing up for hockey season with my two best guy friends–John and James. We had a relaxing morning, then a fantastic lunch out, and I had a Philly cheesesteak for the first time ever. I have no idea how I’d never had one before, but they’re delicious! Two excellent restaurant finds in one weekend!
Then!
Then we went to the Prospects game between the Sharks and the Ducks. It’s basically a game for all the guys looking to get invited to attend training camp in order to try out for the team.
We kept joking it was prospect night for everyone–prospect announcers when they couldn’t quite get the sound system going, prospect zamboni drivers when they missed a spot or two, prospect jeerers when they couldn’t come up with creative taunts but still put in effort. All in all, pretty entertaining.
The Sharks, honestly, had some pretty awesome players. My favorite was a little scrappy 5’6” guy who liked tiny compared to a bunch of the other players. And he was fast. Damn fast. Speedy Gonzalez fast. And he could handle the puck–I was pretty impressed.
There were two other players, also pretty short, who were equally scrappy and good. One of them checked a Duck pretty damn hard, and then was totally willing to throw down the gloves and go at it with him. I don’t think the Shark guy got in more than a punch or two, as the Duck player had probably 6 inches on him, but it was impressive to see him not back down.
We scored in the first period, and had some really good penalty kills. We also had some good power plays–no goals, but they sure shot like they wanted one, which I think sometimes the big Sharks have a problem with. During the power plays, we did the mini Shark bite, since the players were baby Sharks. Fun times.
The second period was pretty dull, and the third one started out so. The Ducks scored, and then not much happened. Just as we started commenting that there hadn’t been any fights, BAM! A couple really good ones. First a decent one, then the scrappy small guy, then another decent one. Always entertaining to watch.
Eventually, we went into overtime, where the Sharks killed off a 4-on-3 two minute penalty, which was impressive. They were really good at clearing the puck, though they needed to work on not icing it!
And then?
Shoot-out!
Their guy missed, so did ours.
Their guy made it, ours didn’t.
Their guy missed…
And who do they send out for that all important shot? A do-or-die shot? Little #70, the 5’6” guy. We started chanting “Ru-dy!” and got a good chunk of the crowd into it.
And he scored!
The! Crowd! Goes! Wild!
All in all, the shoot-out went to 9 rounds, which was impressive–though clearly it went that far because some of these guys weren’t too good at the shoot-out. But also because our goalie was damn impressive. I suppose there’s was too.
And in the 9th round, they sent out scrappy player #2, he of the fight (I think), and he scored the winning goal.
It was a pretty awesome game overall, and a good intro to the upcoming season, which will start right around the time we get home. I can’t wait.
At least I have an awesome vacation to fill some of the time between now and then, right?
I had my day all planned, and theoretically was going to be able to leave right after a meeting with my boss. I was going to go run an errand or two, then go to the gym.
Things never go as planned, do they? Especially in the life of a scientist. Especially one who is cloning.
*insert heavy sigh here*
But!
The good thing was, when I went to go move my car around 7:15 or so, who should I run into by Sydney!
She was also leaving work, and gave me a ride. We chatted and caught up–she’s been on three vacations lately, to Florida, New York and Puerto Rico, and has been pulling a lot of shifts at the hospital in-between to make up for it. So she’d kind of disappeared off the face of the earth.
Of course, we’re about to leave and disappear for awhile, but it was still nice.
And we’re definitely getting together when we’re all back in town.
So, things at work ended up working (just taking 3-4 extra hours), and I unexpectedly ran into a friend! Not a bad outcome, I’d say.
Hope you all enjoy your Labor Day weekend!!
Fun thing one: Birthdays!
We’re entering that time of year when the birthdays pile up. Greg was a week ago, Rae and Cara were this past weekend, and upcoming over the next two-three months are Amy, Ella (who will go from my favorite 1-year old to my favorite 2-year old!), Nate, Shelly, John and all sorts of other people.
Makes sense when you think about it–9 months after Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine’s Day!!
We had dinner at Greg’s sister’s house for his birthday last Monday night.
Saturday was Rae’s party, with a private catered chef and vodka infusions and everything. Super classy, and tons of fun, though it always reminds me when we hang out with her and Aaron about things like that that John and I are definitely in a lower tax bracket. Still, nice to enjoy it for an evening, and mixed berry vodka infusion is amazingly good!
Cara’s party was Sunday, with sushi followed by seeing a local cover band at a local bar. The two guys in the bad were really good, and really funny. They’ll be playing at James and Cara’s wedding, and I’m really looking forward to seeing them again. Not quite in the same league as Rae’s party, but Cara’s was very familiar and fun.
Now I’m trying to come up with some fun things to send Amy for her birthday this Friday, other than what she’s asked for. It’s always nice to have some surprises, don’t you think? Any ideas on small, light weight stuff that a person living on their own for the first time could use?
Fun thing two: Vacations!
Man, tons of people are taking vacations at this time of year. Elizabeth and Matt went off on their honeymoon (well, yes, more than a vacation, but still), and Sydney and her boy went to New York and Puerto Rico–I didn’t even get to see her in between her trips, but I’m hoping to catch up with her before we leave soon! James and Cara were up in the Pacific Northwest, and Nate and Shelly are about to head off to Greece.
And where are John and I going? Well, two weeks from Thursday, we leave for 2-3 weeks involving sun, sand, and diving. Here’s a hint: We’re not going to Australia, but we’ll have two 24-hour layovers in Brisbane on the way there and back. Any suggestions for places to eat, things to do, sights to see?
From there we’re off to Papua New Guinea–the last frontier in diving, theoretically. Everyone we’ve ever talked to has said it’s the best diving we’ll ever do. We’ll be at a very remote resort for a handful of days, then 11 days on a luxurious live aboard, diving to our heart’s content. At the resort, we’ll have access to the world’s best “muck diving”–diving to see all the little creatures that live in the silt at the bottom–plus skull caves, amazing hikes, and all sorts of cool birds and animals and fish. My goals, above water, to see a bird of paradise and an echidna–my dad has never even met anyone who’s seen a PNG echidna, so I want to try!
It should be an amazing vacation, full of as much relaxation or as much go-go-go diving as we want it to be. I can’t wait, and there’s still more than two weeks to go!!
Oh well, I’ve got some birthdays between now and then to tide me over. 🙂
Last week, on one of the days John had off, I left work somewhat early and we went out to one of the bayland parks for a walk. Since my activity involving shoulders is so restricted, walking is about my only form of exercise. I’m feeling slothful.
Anyways, we’ve been going out to the park, walking and bird watching. Yes, I apparently am my parent’s daughter, seeing as how I’ve finally admitted an interesting in figuring out what bird I’m looking at and putting it on a “life list”.
Plus, it’s been fun to just walk with John, to catch up and meander and be together.
So last week when we were out there, we’d walked about two miles around the outer park loop and had four ahead of us. It was freakishly windy, so instead we turned back to redo the two we’d already done. There were a lot of little estuaries, most of which were mud as we walked out, but were slowly filling as the tide came in on our way back.
And then, there it was.
A snake.
A big snake.
And no, I’m not exaggerating. John says 3 feet, at least. Brown. Trying to swim across one of the estuaries.
Away from us, at least. Right up until it gave up and came back to the bank that we were on.
I spotted it, and John immediately put the binoculars to good use. He joked about a diamond pattern. Funny guy. Hmpf. (My dad, the snake expert, says it was probably a gopher snake. He was much more excited to hear about it than I was to see it.)
In true form, I froze, but mostly just did that. A bit of shaking, a bit of tear-welling, a bit of jumping at rustling bushes, and a bit of keeping an eye in all directions. But mostly I just stood there. No binoculars for me, but no extreme panic.
I spent the rest of the walk back to the car with one eye in all directions at all possible times, and was a bit jumpy, plus I was pretty thankful to be back safely in the car, but I thought it was good progress.
So apparently, even if I didn’t see a sea snake in Fiji to test out my “okay-ness” with it, the therapy worked at least a bit.
There’s probably more therapy in my future, as I wasn’t entirely okay with the situation, and I still don’t know what I’d do if I came face-to-face with a snake instead of being 40 feet away.
And as I just jumped at the NHL Stanley Cup commercial with a snake in it, and as one of the dive sites in Papua New Guinea is called the “Snake Pit”? Some work still needed, clearly.
Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be doing that dive, mmkay?
I’ve spent a ton of time lately working on a manuscript to give my boss, and the more time I spend working on it, the less time I want to spend sitting around writing other things. So, not so many posts lately.
But now I’m just sitting in front of the computer exporting image files to TIFF files, individually, one at a freaking time, in 5 different color combos, and I’m about to go mad from boredom. I’m really hoping the time this is taking is because John’s old computer is so slow, and thus it’ll be faster if I can find a computer at work, but it may just be the program.
One hour and 47 images down, millions of both to go.
So what have I been up to?
1. We went out and bought a couple hundred dollars worth of school supplies for the school in Fiji–it’s amazing just how much you can get for so little. Now, of course we have the problem of shipping this stuff there. That might actually cost more than the supplies themselves, but it’s a price we all (the people from the trip) are glad to pay. I just feel bad that it took us so long to go and do this!
2. I’ve screwed up my neck/shoulder/side muscles through some random combination of work and diving. The extent apparently has to do with my body trying to compensate for, say, my neck muscle being sore, and thus holding my shoulder funny, thereby injuring it as well. I am not amused. The chiropractor thinks she can help, but if not, I’m off to physical therapy. Grouch. That said, I’d like to be able to dive and bike again soon, so I’m doing what I can. Frankly, there are days when I’d like to take a deep breathe (or sneeze or yawn or whatnot) without intense side pain as if from a stitch. Grouch.
3. We’re going to visit my grandparents this weekend. They’ve been moved down to California, although they would probably term it “they’ve moved to California.” They haven’t done so well this past year, and fall (the month, although it did involve some falls) was hard on them. I couldn’t go help out, as I felt like I’d already taken off so much time to be with my mom, but now I can go and see them and take care of them whenever. Or just visit them. They’ve moved down here to be close to two children and their families instead of just one. Maybe this means my parents will come visit more? I hope!
4. Speaking of which, my mom Facebook’d me. I was amused. And yes, I accepted. I’ve always approached that site with the theory that, if I didn’t want my parents/boss to see it, it wouldn’t be on there. So why not? I’m wondering a bit about my sister, though.
5. We have back-to-back-to-back-to-back scuba classes starting tonight. I didn’t go down to help, but I might get in the pool if I can weasel permission from the doctors. This schedule is going to take the combined work of our entire staff. Le sigh.
6. We had brunch a week or so ago with Elizabeth and Mark, and found an awesome crepe place to add to our list of enjoyable restaurants. Plus, it was just a lot of fun.
7. On the opposite side of the spectrum, James M wanted to get together for dinner Tuesday night. When he was late, I texted. And apparently woke him up. Frankly, we were okay with being stood up. Less awkwardness, as he still hadn’t quite caught on to the fact that most of us are incredibly fed up with him and his lack of help to our scuba staff. Especially with the upcoming classes…
8. My goal for 2009 was to declutter my life. Not so much a New Year’s resolution, which is made to be broken, but a plan to feel better about living in a small apartment with a lot of stuff meant decreasing the amount of stuff. To that end, we took 7 bags of stuff to the Goodwill last Saturday. And that was only one room’s worth!
9. John finally, finally, has a full weekend off this coming weekend. First since December. He still has a job, so I’m not complaining, and I understand that his schedule is wacky because his boss is rearranging the whole schedule to maximize the full-timers, thus (a) protecting them and (b) minimizing the amount of time he has to pay his part-timers. This sucks for them, but not much I can do about it. That said, the lack of weekends off together combined with the number of late nights he’s working isn’t fun.
10. Sydney and I haven’t gotten together much recently, what with her crazy shifts around the holidays, my trip home, and now her trip to Thailand. But she’s home and we’re having dinner Monday! Woot!
Okay, ten seems like a good number. It seems like all I’ve been doing lately is working, going to the doctor, or going out to eat. I’m sure there’s more to my life than that, but maybe not.
Oh, yes, there was the massive Target run and clearing them out of all conceivable school supplies. Fun!
Anyways, John’s almost home and the San Jose Sharks are playing, as are the Stanford boys’ basketball team, so I think it’s officially time to call it a day and shut down the image analysis. Gee, darn!
I spent seven hours in the pool yesterday, as our staff was teaching the first scuba course of 2009. We had 12 students. Thirteen hours in the pool over two days, immediately after flying home, was not how I’d envisioned spending my weekend. Especially with a head cold that kept me from descending below about 3-5 feet–I mostly floated at that level, directing the flow of students to instructors and other staff in the deep end, and keeping an eye on all the students in the shallows.
But somewhere along the line, it occurred to me what the day was.
Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the date we found out my mom had breast cancer.
I was at home–the Bay Area was getting hit with a huge storm, and I was hoping that it would die down a bit so I could get to work without getting soaked. It was a Friday.
My mom had had appointments the day after Christmas and the day after New Years Day. We’d been home for the one after Christmas, and knew she’d had a biopsy scheduled. When she called, I asked how she was. She told me the doctor had told her she had breast cancer. I told her I was sorry. She said she was likely having surgery sometime that week. I said I’d fly home. We only talked for a minute or two. She was calling family to let them know, and said we’d talk again soon.
I immediately burst into tears and started looking for plane tickets. Within a week, I was flying home to see her. Everything else–work, teaching scuba, going to the Arizona-Stanford game–suddenly seemed so freaking insignificant next to the fact that my mom was sick. Seriously–I could have happily flown home even if the entire Arizona men’s basketball team was coming to dinner at my house. Who the hell would have cared at that point? (Perhaps somewhat fittingly, Arizona played here at Stanford last night. They lost. That sucks, but I’d take my mom’s health and still having her in my life over a win any day, so I just kind of went with the flow.)
I remember the suppressed panic of the week before I went home, and of the first two days I was home, thinking the cancer was likely metastatic. I remember calling John and telling him that if it was, and if she really did have only a 2-year life expectancy, then we were having a kid. I wanted her to meet her grandchild if at all possible. I think I scared the crap out of him. I was pretty scared myself, though for many different reasons.
I remember sitting in the doctor’s office, taking notes in my mom’s book where she was recording all the critical facts and information, as the doctor told us it wasn’t metastatic. Stage 3C–the last stage before that horrible diagnosis–never sounded so good. My dad was late to the appointment–he’d been having a meeting with someone in my mom’s place. He got there just as we were leaving. I remember hugging my mom and dad and crying right there in the hallway. I remember thinking that regardless of all else, we’d been given a chance.
Now here we are, a year later, and my mom is the poster child for herceptin, the new breast cancer wonder drug. Six months of a three-mix chemo, a bilateral mastectomy, 5 weeks of radiation, and a year of herceptin (she’ll be done on the 20th), and we’re about as home free as we could possibly be.
All of us have come out the other side of this as stronger people and a stronger family. You never really know how much you can endure until you’re asked. Then you either do, or you don’t. What happens is up to you. And I think the people we love are often far stronger than we give them credit for–as nice as it would be to shoulder all their burdens and protect them, that’s not always possible, but I’m glad to find out we’re all come through this as relatively unscathed as possible.
My mom looks good these days–her hair has grown out and is marginally longer than a buzz cut. She’s got energy again. She’s talking about reconstruction surgery. This scares the crap out of me–she’s considering the option that involves the most intensive and longest surgery, but may be easiest in the long run. I know it’s her decision, and I respect that, but I can tell you I may be a basketcase for the 12 hours she’ll be in surgery. Gotta get a plane ticket booked again.
My dad, too, looks better–less stressed and worried than he was a year ago. I know he took over a lot of my mom’s teaching duties for the past year, as well as shouldering all the stuff at home she couldn’t do, so it’s nice to see him looking like more of his normal self.
It was nice to be with them again this year, without the spectre of the doctor’s appointments overshadowing us as we all celebrated the holidays. Granted, I went to two different doctor’s appointments, but nothing out of the ordinary. We had such a short time with my parents that I was just glad to see them at all. And to know she’ll be with us for hopefully a long time to come, and my dad, too, is easily the best present ever. Here’s to 2009 and better health for all!
My parents are home, safe and sound, and we’ve had a wonderful two days together. Sadly, John and I are headed home tomorrow, but I may be coming back soon.
We’ve spent quite a bit of time with my in-laws, and with my sister and now my parents, and have had a lovely time. Part of the charm of being with my in-laws was the complete lack of internet, which meant that, while I couldn’t check my email, I also didn’t need to worry about it! It was kind of nice being so sequestered for a week. We did manage to get a few texts in and out of the dead zone, so we weren’t completely without contact, and got to talk to my parents when they were on the way back from The End Of The Earth. In the meantime, my mother-in-law fed us every chance she got, we played lots of cards, and even did some sledding when the wind stopped blowing for awhile.
We came to my parent’s house a bit early to help Amy get it ready–decorated the tree, stocked the fridge, cleaned the house–and then rewarded ourselves with Thai food and “Marley and Me”, which I can highly recommend as an excellent, if tear-jerking, movie! Especially for those of you who’ve ever had a dog to love!
With my parents back, we’ve been to all sorts of doctor’s offices (all things are good!) and done some shopping, as well as quite a bit of fancy cooking. Today we had Christmas celebrations in the morning and New Year’s celebrations in the afternoon–holidays should always be spread out like this!
In any case, I’m off to squeeze in a few last hours of family time.
May 2009 bring you the joys of 2008 but none of the heartache. Here’s to joy and health and love and living life!
We’re not quite all packed, but the laundry is done, the suitcase are full (which is no good, given the not quite packed state), our fridge is emptyish ( will be more so after James F and Cara come to dinner), and we’re almost ready to go.
We’re flying out at the crack of doom in the morning, heading to Iowa. We’ll be with my in-laws for a week, and my parents for two days when they get back from their trip to The End of The Earth. It should be a fun, if freezing, time.
My mother-in-law doesn’t have internet, so I’m guessing I’ll be out of touch for the next week or so.
So I’ll go ahead and wish all of you a Merry Christmas now. Or Happy Hanukkah or Kwanza or Dinali or whatever it is you do or don’t celebrate.
Happy Holidays to all! May you be warm and safe and happy wherever you are these holidays.
P.S. I found the superglue. 🙂
(Because I’m needing some warm, happy thoughts right about now, and because it’s about damn time I finished my story…)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Day 7, Friday
Our last morning to wake up and go diving. Sad, but part of the reason vacations are so great is that they’re different from the same old, same old, right?
It began to rain during breakfast, but being the hearty, intrepid diving souls that we were, this didn’t phase us. After all, we were headed out to intentionally get wet, right? I will admit, though, that there’s a difference to getting into the ocean and getting wet versus getting caught in a rain storm.
We boated in the opposite direction the last morning, heading to a nearby island instead of to the far side of our island, where all our previous dive sites had been. This island was a private resort, and we were going to be diving off of it for the morning.
Our first site was a place called Fantasy. Or maybe Fantasea. It was supposed to be covered in large sea fans, including some gorgonians. Indeed, there were tons of them, some bigger, or wider as the case may be, than us. It was pretty cool to swim along and look at them stretched out beside you as you passed. We also found some more “magic coral”—the stuff that changed colors if you touched it (gingerly!!). Towards the end, one of the divemasters found a tiny popcorn shrimp. While looking at it, John found several other miniature shrimp (is that possible? Smaller than what we were used to seeing, at least) nearby. The site was also covered in many beautiful red anemones, which made a splendid backdrop for all the Nemo-like clown fish. There wasn’t anything truly spectacular or outstanding that we saw at this site—nothing special like the octopus, but just a generally great site where the whole dive was entertaining and fun.
During our surface interval, we motored in towards shore and anchored there. Some of the guys from the private resort came out to hang out with our guides, and we all went off snorkeling.
The very first thing we found, or John found, was a giant scorpion fish, just sitting in a little hole in the rocks in about 10 feet of water. He looked suitably grumpy and mean, so other than diving down to view him, we mostly left him alone.
Instead, we went off to play with some of the striped black-and-white fish that were clustered on the coral heads. John dove down to grab a coconut at one point, and after we tossed it back and forth a few times, we tossed it in the ocean. To our surprise, every little stripped fish from yards around came dashing over to inspect the coconut, probably hoping it was food that had been dropped from heaven. This was repeated numerous times, right up until we had to go get on the boat again. Fun little fish games for you, I suppose.
The second dive was at a place called Golden Arches (I know, I know, bah), and it was simply fantastic. There were a huge number of swim throughs/unders/betweens in the coral, adding a sort of acrobatic atmosphere as we swam along. Many of these were decorated with all sorts of soft corals, mostly in shades of yellow (hence the ‘golden arches’–much more appropriate than in reference to a certain greasy local), hanging down towards us, making for beautifully framed views of blue ocean surrounded by hard and soft coral.
At one point, we found a hug moray, greenish-brown and speckled. He was easily over a foot, maybe two, in diameter, and probably 6-8 feet long. He was in a hole, and when the divemaster poked at him, he swam out right and John and myself! Eek! Thankfully, he took an immediate left into another hole, although this meant he disappeared and only ourselves and Nate got a good look at him. Gigantic!
Towards the end, I saw a small little octopus, about the size of my hand, come out from one whole and swim to another one. He sat at the entrance, changing colors form reddy-brown to rock-colored, but as soon as I tried to get John’s attention, he ducked off into the hole, never to be seen again. But! I spotted my first octopus by myself!
At the end of the dive, as we hung out on top of the coral head, it was funny to watch all the bubbles filter up through the rock. They were from our out-breaths when we’d been going through the swim-throughs below, and were taking their sweet time to filter up and out towards the surface. Pretty cool.
About the time we started to head for the anchor line to ascend, it occurred to me I was getting out of the water for the last time. I signalled “tear” to John, and waved good-bye to the reef. Sad times, but some of the best diving I’ve done in my entire life. And hey, we’ll be back.
On the way back to the resort, it was commonly agreed that these two sites were two of the best of the whole week, along with Three Thieves and Glory H*ole. Not that any of the dives was “eh”, but these four were even better than the rest. I highly recommend them to anyone heading there!
We spent a lazy afternoon swimming in the pool or reading in the lounge chairs. The rain in the morning had disappeared while we’d been on our first dive, and it was bright and sunny and warm—perfect lounging weather. John and I did head off at one point to do some packing and to lay out all the wet dive gear in the hopes that the sun would dry it before we had to pack it home.
There had been an afternoon activity of traditional Fijian cooking lessons, which we didn’t attend (too drawn to doing nothing at that point), but we did get to partake of the food afterwards, and I have to say, I’ve never had such delicious fish in my entire life. Apparently all you have to do is soak it in coconut milk, wrap it in leaves, and cook it in a pit in the ground for a couple of hours. Delicious!
In the evening, just before dinner, we had a Meke Night. Many of the resort workers, as well as a number of the local villagers, came and sang and danced for us. The women did a traditional song and hand dance routine, the children all sang for us, and the boys did a dance with spears, which was way cool. It created a very party-like atmosphere, which pretty much banished the “how sad, we’re leaving” mentality. The school teacher that we’d met on our tour was there, and we were able to give her an envelope with the money we’d collected for the track meet that the kids were going to, and her gratitude and thanks were very touching–it made us feel like we’d really made a difference. At dinner, the chef outdid her self, and we all gave her a round of applause when she came out to wish us well on our trip home. A beautiful last day of diving and a beautiful and tasty last night to remember our trip by.
Day 8, Saturday-Saturday
We woke to have our last fresh fruit and toast and pancakes with our resort friends on Saturday morning. It was drizzling a bit, befitting our mood, but the food was as tasty as ever. After the boats were loaded with our luggage, it was time to say goodbye. In particular, one of the waitress came to say goodbye to me—we’d become friends over the week—and I nearly cried. That’s how warm and friendly these peole were! The people at the resort came and serenaded us as we headed off to the boat, just as they had when we arrived. Cara did cry then, and I definitely teared up. The boat and bus ride back to the mainland were somewhat subdued, but we still talked and joked along the way.
Back in Nadi, we all had day rooms rented for the six hours before we headed to the airport. Nate, Shelly, Rae, Aaron, John and I got a cab to one of the shopping centers, where we did some last-minute souvenir shopping and sat around with our last fruity cocktails of the trip. Then it was off to the airport to catch our 11pm flight home to LA, where we arrived approximately 10 hours before we left, at 1pm. By 6pm, we were back home in our own little house, suitcases full of dirty clothes and damp dive gear, and greeted by the general disdain of our cats, who were not impressed with our prolonged absence.
However, there’s something to be said from coming home from a trip and being in your own house in your own bed. Lovely.
And all in all, by far the best diving I’ve ever done, and in general, the best trip I’ve ever been on with some of the best people I’ve ever traveled with.
The only real, true downside? Never, not once, did I see a sea snake. All that therapy, all that preparation, and I’ve got no idea how well it worked. Oh well, there’s always next year!
To quote James F upon arriving home: We need to do this more often–this traveling together thing.
James? We’re all coming on your honeymoon when you go back, dude. Hope you don’t mind!
It's all in my head 
