Just returned from the South Pacific/Land down under. I'm reveling in the joys of the little things, like clean bathrooms, Dr. Pepper, walking around pristine hotel hallways barefoot and enjoying the plush carpeting. It's so wonderful to be back in America, traipsing around San Francisco with one of my old friends from Olympia and trying to deal with the jet lag. During the hours of the night that I can't sleep, I'm looking back on the pictures, conveniently putting off end-of-trip paperwork.
It was a crazy ride. 20,000 miles. 8 flights. 6 Fijian villages. Scuba diving with sea turtles on the Great Barrier Reef. Kava. Fijian kids helping me stay on my feet while we trek from village to village. Watching the kids finish that trek. Koalas. Wallaby sex. John Travolta on every single Qantas flight. It was awesome. By the end of the trip, I had over a thousand pictures. Here are some of my favorites:
Our first look at the Opera House from the ferry.
The group at the Opera House.
Exactly a week earlier, I was in a similar city by the bay, watching tons of sailboats. Deja Vu.
Bear with me, there's a lot of pictures of birds coming up.
This is Rick, our guide, playing the didgeridoo. This man was straight up Crocodile Dundee. I had a sinus infection from day 1 in Sydney and all it really took was ol' Rick fixing up an aboriginal remedy and I was right as rain. It consisted of crushed up ants made into tea. But it did the trick.
The group in front of the falls. I think Carson was about to fall down.
Wallaby encounter. They're awfully cute.
I was a little upset it was blurry, but sometimes Wallabies are blurry when they fight each other. That's just the way it is.
Yes. More birds. I see egrets in Florida all the time, but I had never before seen this many descend on one location at a time. It was really cool to watch.
Another animal I see a lot is the alligator. This, however is a crocodile. And a massive one at that. I think they measured this one at 18 feet or something insane like that. The female was more like 10 feet. Alligator sized. I was thrilled to finally see a Crocodile though and I now know Amy Ambachtsheer was right: the reptile we saw in the middle of the night during Everglades Training (The Funpedition!)was indeed an alligator, and not a crocodile as we had hoped.
This bird was enormous. About five feet tall. I like it because it looks like a pelican.
In my past life I may have been a koala. Or this Kangaroo right here.
Massive. Absolutely massive. Notice the bird crap on the head.
Absolutely adorable.
This is one of my favorite pictures in the whole bunch.
On our way back from the Great Barrier Reef the first day, the ferry had to slow down to allow the whales to pass. Again, it's a blurry shot, but the first whale I've ever seen in real life, so exciting nonethless.
Inside the ferry, wildlife included Nolan Wildfire passed out on the floor. You could find me in a similar position in LAX on the last day of the trip.
The Reef.
It's pretty great.
On to Fiji now, we got to watch some fire dancing at the resort on the second night. It was pretty hot.
Tammy and Brooke demonstrate the multiple ways to stay safe in our non-U.S. Coastguard Approved PFD's. Super sketch.
This was our boat for 25 people and over 40 pieces of gear. It's a good thing we didn't fall out, half of us were doped up on dramamine, and zero of us had flotation devices that inspired any sort of confidence. It was a beautiful ride though.
Sunset from Nanuku.
The boys found a really, really big stick. Then they put it in the ground.
Nawaisomo on Beqa Island.
Crayton and Jess signing off on the footpath.
Fijian kids are the most precious, adorable creatures on the face of the earth. Even puppies and piglets pale in comparison. In one village though, we had all three. I could hardly stand the cuteness.
Santiki. He LOVED to say my name. I loved to say his.
The library at the school.
I'm working on loading up all the pictures and attaching the link. More to come soon. In the meantime, I'm on the west coast for two more days, then back home. It's been an amazing two months, but I'm so ready to crawl into my own bed and spend a few precious days at home before going back to work on Friday.
