The Babbling Brooks

MIA? Maybe...

We had a great drive from Oklahoma City to Missoula! Just a few snowflakes on Monday, but otherwise sunny. We've been in Missoula for the Montana Aviation Conference since Wednesday night and are leaving in the morning for Mountain Dreams. Hip Hip Hurray! When we left 13 months and 2 days ago (not that I'm counting) we had our satellite TV and DSL internet turned off. When we built the house we were told that cable was coming and our area would be first in the valley to be connected. Interbel (our local phone/tv/internet coop) installed the fiber optic cable at the same time they put in our phone line. Last summer when we were there we saw them laying the cable from town. So....we called last week to check on the progress. They expect to turn it on in the next 2-3 weeks! We've decided to wait for it. There's no use getting the satellite service running again and signing up for the DSL we had and then be stuck in it for a year. We love Montana Skynet which we had before, but we'd like to switch to cable internet. We're hoping we can hook up Interbel DSL right away, switch to cable when they turn it on and then get out of it if we don't like it. We had a few issues with their DSL before...which is why we switched to Montana Skynet. The reason I'm telling you all this is that we may have no internet at home for awhile. I'll have to drive to town and sit at the library with my laptop...inside when they're open, out on the lawn when they're not :) As for television, we'll just wait for cable and listen to the news on satellite radio in the meantime. Will be here when I can!

Back From NOLA...

I got back from New Orleans late Monday night after a great week with my sisters and some geneology hunting in Arkansas on the way home. Here's a sneak peak!

Some People Will Do Anything For A Photo

Girls Week starts today! I left Oklahoma Saturday morning and am on my way to New Orleans where I'll pick my sisters up at the airport this afternoon. Many of you know that I am working on a "50 States" album chronicling my travels to all 50 states. One of my projects for that is to take a photo of me with each state sign. By the time I got to the Louisiana border it was dark and raining. But a true photographer would never let that stop her! I aimed my headlights toward the sign, used my Gorillapod to mount my camera on the passenger side mirror, set the exposure to H10 and the flash to rear sync, set the timer, and here's the result. Not too bad :)

Welcome to 2010!

What? How did it get to be January 14th already? I've been a bad blogger again, must get back to sharing! We have done so many things here in Oklahoma, done some traveling to see family, and I have so much to share. I'll have to just start doing some random posts.

In the immediate future...we have a date to go home to Mountain Dreams! We'll be leaving Oklahoma the last week of February instead of in April as we'd originally planned. I'll share more on that later.

I'll be headed to New Orleans this weekend for Girls Week with my sisters! I'll be home on the 25th or 26th (I may stay an extra day in Arkansas on the way back to do a little family history digging into the Brooks family.) And then comes the real traveling...we're flying to New York on the 29th and the following day we'll be leaving for Israel with a group led by Governor Mike Huckabee. We're very excited about this! We had started making plans to visit China next fall when this opportunity dropped in our laps last August. Israel was also on our list of future travels and we can't see ourselves getting another opportunity to go with someone like the governor. We just found out that Pat Boone and his wife, Shirley, and Dr. Tim LaHaye (author of the "Left Behind" series) and his wife, Dr. Beverly LaHaye will also be with us! When we return to New York we have tickets to see "Wicked" and I'll be able to cross Broadway off my Bucket List.

It doesn't end there. From New York we'll be flying to Tennessee to visit our friends, Tony and Tonya. Yes, they're the ones who were here in Oklahoma. They bailed from here in November and are enjoying their new log home in eastern Tennesseee. When we leave we'll be headed east in a rental car with a stop in Atlanta to visit a WWII, P-51 pilot that John knows from his Warbird days and then on to Savannah for a few days.

That'll give us just enough time to fly back to Oklahoma, pack up the duplex and head out for Montana and an aviation conference in Missoula the first week of March. It's going to be a busy few weeks and we can't wait to get back to Mountain Dreams! 

Why Am I Here???

Some of you know that I just drove solo from Oklahoma to Montana and am now at Mountain Dreams. I took 4 days to get here and traveled through Rocky Mountain National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and Yellowstone National Park. I'd been to all of them before, but's it's been awhile. I'll share pictures later...

So.....why am I here after being here just a couple weeks ago? I'll tell ya tomorrow!!

We're back......

in Oklahoma. John's leave of absence of over and he goes back to work on Monday. I've got a ton of photos and stories to share, not only from July...but also from spring! We had a great time with kids and grandkids all month long. We'll recover in a few days :)

Sneak Peak!

We've been in Montana since July 12th. We picked Legend up on July 1 at his other grandmas, stayed a day in St. George and then went to Washington. We spent a week there visiting Ocean Shores, seeing my sisters, and going to the Hansen brothers summer birthday party. Brad, Legend, and Trevor came to Montana with us and Wendy, Brian, Zachary, and Jacob followed a week later. We've had lots of fun and I've got a ton of photos to share. Here's a sneak peak of some of the pictures I've taken of our five grandsons...Trevor (9), Legend (6), Zachary (4), Jacob (2), and Lennox (9 months).

      

John goes back to work in Oklahoma August 3rd, so we'll be headed that way in a few days! 

Celebrate America!

I hope everyone is celebrating their country today and teaching their children and grandchildren what it means to be an American. Be proud of our history, our present, and our future!

We'll be leaving St. George with Legend and heading for a week in Washington. We plan to spend the night in Boise and hope to enjoy the fireworks at the river front park. Happy 4th of July!

The Promised Photos....Mt. Rushmore and the Yukon Tornado

Oops! I've had some Mt. Rushmore and tornado photos ready to post for awhile and totally forgot.

We arrived at Mt. Rushmore just as they opened in the morning and had cold, sunny weather for our visit. We'd waited to visit in the morning so that the sun would be shining on the faces. It certainly had changed since my last visit when I was about 10 :) There is now a beautiful walkway leading to the viewpoint, an outdoor amphitheater, and a museum. When we went to the Oshkosh Airventure in 2001 John and I met in Rapid City on the way home and we flew over Mt. Rushmore in the Skyhawk. That was quite a view, but it's almost as good from the ground :)

     

And here's a few photos I took of the tornado as it blew over the top of us headed for Warr Acres and Edmond (This was February 10th, our second day here). It was just beginning to swirl around the edges. We had another tornado watch tonight, the first one since we got an emergency weather radio. It went off at 2:45 announcing a watch till 10:00 pm, guess that means we're safe now :) We did get some loud thunder, some lightning, and a little hail...but nothing more than that this time. Here's the pictures from last month...

                   

Hmmm...I'm hearing more thunder and pounding rain right now. Maybe we're still in for a storm tonight! 

Oklahoma: The Road Trip

OK, OK...I'm trying to catch up! So, I'll do this in segments. We'll start with our getting from Montana to Oklahoma. It was uneventful. Not much else to report. We did make a small detour to visit Mt. Rushmore. We got kind of a slow start from home on Thursday, the 5th. John had some errands to take care of in Kalispell. He left Mountain Dreams in the Explorer...packed completely full, including the front passenger seat, with goods. It was mostly my scrapbook, art, and craft supplies along with several boxes of photos, photo albums, framed photos for the walls, John's computer, my scanner, my printer, etc...all the things I wouldn't want to have someone take out of the utility trailer he was pulling behind while we were sleeping in a motel somewhere. The trailer housed the only furniture we brought (kitchen table and chairs), dishes, pots and pans, clothes, some tools, folding tables for computers and scrapbooking, etc. Oh...and another stack of scrapbook paper! I left an hour later in the Beetle. It was packed with our traveling clothes, some of my Longaberger baskets, and some odds and ends. Before I left the phone rang and it was someone at the FAA Academy. They needed John to log on and do some paperwork for them to finish up his security clearance. We met at Starbucks in Kalispell as planned, but now we had to take the time to get online so he could take care of that. It was 11:00 before we left there, but our mochas kept us happy till we got to Missoula and had lunch. (Thanks, Corki, for the Mackenzie River Pizza Co. gift card!) We spent the first night in Billings and headed out the next morning with the destination of Rapid City, South Dakota. That was an easy day so we slept in and arrived by 4:00 in the afternoon. Many of you know that one of my goals is to visit all 50 states. I am getting close! I am working on a "50 States" album and I want a photo of me standing next to the state sign for each state. There are several states I had been to as a kid or at sometime before I started the project for which I don't have that photo. I was able to make that up this time for Nebraska and Oklahoma. And...I added Kansas as a new state! So here are the pictures from Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota (keep in mind that I take many of these as I'm driving...love that continuous focus mode on my D200!). I'll do a separate post with the photos from Mt. Rushmore.

                             

From Rapid City we traveled to Thedford, Nebraska...a real hotbed of activity. There was a small restaurant next to the motel, but we hadn't seen downtown so we decided to drive a mile to see what was available there. Hmmm....nothing. There was one bar and some empty buildings. So we went back to the restaurant where I had some real Midwest chicken fried steak! It was the best I've had anywhere, but I won't be making a steady diet of that!

           

Leaving Thedford we had a decision to make. It was a really loooong day to Oklahoma City. Do we drive it in one day or spend the night somewhere? We elected to drive to Wichita, Kansas which put us about 4 hours to Yukon and the Martinis house. Not much to report from Kansas, except that it was a new state for me...and Wichita had more than one restaurant to chose from :)

       

One last drive got us into Oklahoma. North central Oklahoma looked pretty much like central Nebraska and central Kansas, except for one thing. Note that my hair is being whipped around my head and face. That wind never stops in Oklahoma...it's something I remember from all the times I had to come here for air traffic training!

       

And so we arrived in Yukon in the early afternoon hours of Monday, the 9th. Stay tuned for more...   

      

Fiji Photos...

You'll find the link to our Fiji photos in the Smugmug list (on the left sidebar)...

How To Prepare For A Cyclone!

One more Fiji post.....I forgot I had taken these photos just before we left the resort on Wednesday. Before we left for Fiji I had read the comments on the Worldmark owners forum. One guy was complaining about not knowing a cyclone was coming until he saw the staff throwing the pool furniture into the pool. (This individual certainly qualifies for the Low Awareness of the Year Award.) Sure enough, this is what we saw when we looked out at the pool!

Escape From Fiji

Our new flight home from Nadi was scheduled to leave at 10:50 PM on Wednesday. We had been advised to go to the airport just after low tide to avoid be marooned on Denarau Island again. The reception desk arranged for a 4-wheel drive taxi to take us. They were the only vehicles able to get to the airport. The road has been badly damaged. There were huge potholes. Some of the deepest had been marked with a barrel sitting in the hole. Parts of the road were washed away. The usual 20 minute drive to the airport took a little over an hour. Some of the flood waters had receded (making it possible for us to get out), but we still saw a lot of high water. Many of the sugar cane fields have been badly damaged. The latest information I've been able to find is that at least 10 people have died, mostly in mudslides. There are 9000 people in evacuation centers. There is a boat missing with 18 adults and 6 children. Thousands of homes and businesses have flooded.

        

We arrived at the Nadi airport at 1:00 PM and found we couldn't check in till 7:30 PM. There was no place to sit near the international check-in counter, but we walked over to the domestic side and found an area full of brown leather couches. We were able to sit there and got a lot of reading done. We went back over to the check in counter at 6:45 PM and found they'd already started...another instance of "Fiji time". It took an hour of standing in line to get checked in. We had time for some dinner and then headed to security. Here, at the airport, is the only place we encountered unfriendly Fijians. The security guard decided our carry on bags were too big and made us go back and check them in. Why??? The only answer I can come up with is that we are American. We know they fit and they even fit in the tester, but he decided they were too heavy. The Australians, the New Zealanders, the Fijians, all had bags like ours that they carried on.The customs agents were the same way. None of them would crack a smile. After getting through the security and customs area, we found a hot, humid waiting area where we were to wait for boarding. There we were...400+ sticky, sweaty people waiting to get on the plane and there was no air conditioning. It was at that point that John decided third world traveling is no longer fun. When it was time to board they used the Fiji method...ignore the row numbers being called, everyone rush the gate. It took till departure time to get everyone seated and their bags stowed. Then...remember that incoming cyclone I'd mentioned? The wind had been fairly calm till early evening. By now it was starting to howl and the rain had begun. We waited in the hot, humid airplane with those 400+ sticky, sweaty people with no air turnedon for an hour. The engineer went into the cargo area to check the weight and balance of the airplane and the captain announced that we had to wait for a lull in the wind. It was miserable, but we were glad to know they were taking the necessary precautions to keep us safe. We arrived in Los Angeles an hour late, but had no problem getting through customs and catching our flight to Seattle. For just a minute I thought they were going to pull John off to the side and give him the grilling treatment again cause the agent sat and stared at his screen for a long time after looking at John's passport. (That's another story...before I started blogging.)We were so relieved to see a Starbucks at our departure gate at LAX. It's always weird getting home before you leave. We left Fiji at 11:55 on Wednesday, January 14th. We arrived at Los Angeles at 2:15 PM pn Wednesday, January 14th. No wonder I get confused :) We spent Thursday with our friends and drove home today (Friday). We were so glad to see the "Welcome to Montana" sign! 

Back in the USA

We are safely out of Fiji and back in the United States! We're staying with friends for a couple nights and plan to head for Montana on Friday. I was able to take a few pictures of the flood damage on the way to the airport. I haven't had a chance to look at them yet, but I will in the next day or so and will post them along with the "escape" details.

The Spirit of Fiji

I mentioned in a earlier post how friendly the Fijian people are. They just can't do enough for you and truly want you to have a good time. They have a great sense of humor and will make jokes with you if you show the slightest hint of a sense of humor. They apologize for the nasty weather we have found ourselves in...really! John called the Fiji Weather Service a couple days ago and the forecaster he spoke with actually said he was sorry that it was going to keep raining and get worse. Today the young man that rode with us to Port Denarau apologized to us that the rain had taken over our vacation and asked us to "please come back again". Yesterday we stopped in The Coffee Place for a mocha after we'd had lunch. We were sitting at a table and I noticed the Fiji music that was playing. The singer sounded a lot like Elvis and I really enjoyed the music. I asked the owner what the name of the CD was that was playing. She went to look and came back and said it belonged to one of the young men working there and there was no label on it. So I asked him. He wrote down the name of the singer for me and then told me he'd give me a copy of the CD. That's just the way they are. So he took my name and told me to come back today after noon and he'd leave a copy there for me with my name on it just in case he wasn't there. So I made a CD of some of the things we like to listen to for him...Josh Groban, Shania Twain, David Archuletta, kd lang, Johnny Cash, The Hollies, Elton John, and Secret Garden. When he gave me the CD and I told him I had a trade for him he was really surprised. I don't think he was use to someone giving him something, but that's just the way we are!

The 100 Year Flood

Today we needed to go to Port Denarau. We learned the shuttles were not running (what's new?), so were going to wait for a taxi to show up. The Worldmark manager was there in reception. He has been working hard to get people to the airport using his own vehicle when needed, making sure people have rooms to stay in if they can't get out, etc. He offered to take us to the Port. Along the way we mentioned that we were going to check out early and asked if it was possible to have our room held for us in case our flight couldn't depart. He said it absolutely was. He and the Fiji resident riding with us told us that this is a 100 year flood. It is the first time that the Fiji government has ever declared a state of emergency due to the rains. Apparently some of the water supply has been contaminated. I think I can attest to that as my insides have been reacting to that situation for a few days. I opened the $6.00 bottle of water in the room bar this morning even before we heard this news. We took care of our business at the Port, had lunch at Mama's Pizza, found some milk at the grocery (Score!), and took a taxi back to the resort. When we arrived we found a letter at our door from some senior vice president of Worldmark by Wyndham, South Pacific in Australia. It explained what was being done to help the situation here at the resort. Members with incoming reservations are being contacted to tell them not to come. They will not be allowed to check into the resort. It also said that if we choose to leave prior to our initial departure date, we will get our Worldmark credits back for unused nights. That is good news for us! (Returned credits=another vacation somewhere.) We are assuming that the North American club will do the same for us. We do have it in writing, so we have some leverage if they don't want to do it. The manager told us to plan to go to the airport tomorrow in mid-morning instead of waiting till later in the day. Apparently it's the high tide combined with the torrential rainfall that is flooding the roadway to the island. High tide is about 8:00PM tomorrow. The normal 20 minute ride to the airport is taking 90 minutes. So, we'll be spending a lot of hours waiting at the airport tomorrow and hoping our flight can go. We're going to look into buying our way into the Air Pacific business lounge tomorrow so we'll at least have a comfy place to wait.

 

  

 

While we were at the Port having lunch I looked out at the fountain in the middle of the shopping mall. It's one of those fountains that shoots streams of water up at random intervals in different places around the courtyard. There were some kids playing there in a steady rainfall. They had umbrellas and were standing over where the water shoots out. The water would hit the underside of the umbrella and spray all over. They were having a blast! And at the docks there were people bailing the water out of their boats.

 

  

 

There was a real torrent of rain when we got back to the resort. John keeps busy with the mop to get all the water up that comes in under the doors. It's nice being in an oceanfront unit where we can watch the storm, but we get the full force of the wind and rain coming in from the west. I may not be able to blog again before our newly scheduled departure tomorrow night. If not, the next time you hear from me I hope to be saying hello from the USA!

Update.....Western Fiji

We have officially been declared a disaster area. The severe flooding and mudslides have caused major damage and at least 6 deaths. We are okay here on Denarau Island. As you can see from my post for the Australians the weather was better today, but not as good as expected. We did get a shuttle bus to Port Denarau for groceries and lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. The grocery was out of milk and bread. As we walked past the bakery on the other side of the shops they were pulling fresh bread from the oven, so we scored a loaf! We weren't able to find milk anywhere...unless you count soy milk, which I don't. While we were there the shuttle service decided to quit for the day and get their employees off the island. We were able to get a taxi to take us and our groceries back to the Worldmark. The other thing we accomplished today was to be rebooked for a flight home. There's no use in staying here to watch the storm. We'd rather be home watching the snow fall! And we have plenty to do at home getting ready for our next adventure...more on that when the details are worked out. It wasn't easy getting rebooked. We are on an Air Pacific flight that is operated by Quantas and we were booked by American Airlines. We called the special phone number Air Pacific has set up for people trying to get out of Fiji and they were able to book us for the flight Wednesday night to Los Angeles and then an Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle. They could put it in our itinerary, but it had to be confirmed by American...which has no office in Fiji. Air Pacific gave us a number to call in Sydney which turned out to be some railroad. We put our thinking caps on and went online to the American Airlines site. It took a little digging, but we were able to find the directions for going through an AT&T operator to get the call out of Fiji and connect to their 800 number in the United States. So, we are confirmed. (Note to self: On all future international flights check for airline number from destination country before the trip!) But...it depends on what the cyclone headed our way does. It is forecasted to arrive...tada...Wednesday night! Our departure time is 10:50 PM. We are keeping our fingers crossed that 1) we can get off the island 2) we can get to the airport and 3) that the flight can depart before the storm hits. Once again we are using our standard Plan B...Stay Flexible!

For the Aussies!

For those of you that e-mailed from Australia asking about conditions on Denarau Island...The weather was better today, but not as good as was forecasted. We had showers off and on all day. This evening the wind really picked up. The shuttles were running today and most of the stores and restaurants at Port Denarau were open. But some of them closed early when they saw the heavy rain starting. The Denarau shuttle quit running early and left many of us at the Port. Our choices to get back to the resorts were walking or a taxi. Apparently much of the flooding has receded. However, there is a cyclone coming this way. It is expected to reach Fiji sometime Wednesday with heavy rains and high winds through the rest of the week. There is a Fiji Meteorological web site where you can get more specific information, sorry I don't have the addy right now but I'm sure you can find it by searching...after all, you found me! I would suggest checking with your airline and resort before coming anytime before Sunday. We are expected to have a repeat of this week with flooding being possibly worse. Bula!

 

Drying Out (for a bit)

             

The rain stopped some time during the night. The wind level is back to normal.The standing water on the paths has receded. There was some damage to the beach at the Radisson next door...palm trees down and small landslides. There doesn't appear to be any damage to the beach here at Worldmark, but there are some signs that were ripped out of the ground around the pool and some chairs damaged that blew around outside of the restaurant. Last night I saw the manager. He had just come from giving a farmer a ride to find his cows. He had gone to the access road to the island to check the water level and saw the farmer wading across in water up to his neck to look for his cows. Today there is still no shuttle service and we didn't get any answer when we called the grocery, the coffee shop, and the Hard Rock cafe at the Port. We munched on what food we have left during the day and then decided to walk over to the Sheraton to see if we could get something a little different for dinner than the limited menu here. John called first and they said they'd be serving dinner starting at 6:00. We made the walk and saw the shuttle coming out of the Sheraton entrance! When we got to the Sheraton we found a sign on the restaurant door saying..."Sheraton and Westin Guests Only". So we left and saw the shuttle pulling up to the door with a sign in the front window saying "Sheraton and Westin Guests Only". We realized then that it was only going between the 2 resorts. We walked part way back then decided to go out to the beach for the rest of the walk. When we got to the Radisson we saw someone eating pizza! And they let us riff-raff order some! While we were there the sun started to set and we were treated to a gorgeous sunset of pinks and oranges! I hope we'll get to see one from our beach next time. We are hoping this will end tomorrow and we'll be able to get some supplies and make arrangements for activities off Denarau Island!

 

PS: Just read the notice here in the reception area that tropical depression #2 will be arriving on Wednesday with strong winds, heavy rain, and severe flooding! Great!

 

 

Still Raining!

We are still afloat on Denarau Island. However, access to and from the island is still cut off. Nadi town is under water, but apparently the airport is still operating. There is a sign at reception with a phone number for passengers of Air Pacific (that would be us) who aren't able to get off the island to catch their flight. We've still got 9 days to worry about that and if it keeps raining for those 9 days, we'd better be building an arc. Here at the Worldmark John continues to mop up the water that blows in under the doors and windows and our oceanfront, top floor unit gives us a front row seat to the wind and water blowing in from the west.  Every now and then we hear thunder and see lightning. There are still people in the pool that don't seem to know that water and electricity don't mix. We wade through standing water to get to reception or the restaurant. The restaurant has been "take away" only with a very limited menu for the last two days. I imagine we'll get tired of burgers and deep fried fish if this keeps up too long. I will have to get really hungry before I can stomach a Fijian hot dog and they will have to be the only food left. We were able to get the last box of lasagna noodles and a can of sauce at the tiny store here at the resort along with some chocolate, baked beans, and Pringles. We also got a bottle of wine so John can continue his doctor ordered regimen. The rest of our food supply consist of a half loaf of bread, 3 cans of tuna, half a bag of crackers, some cheddar cheese (which is the "sharpest" tasting I have ever had even though here it is marked "mild"), one small apple, half a small jar of peanut butter, a can of soup, and 7 cans of Pepsi Light. It'll be several days before either if us starves:) We are thankful that we have an uninterrupted supply of power which means we can keep the air conditioner running. It is raining, but it is still very warm and very humid. The television reception is good most of the time, but when the rain is coming down in sheets we do lose the satellite. Check back in a day or two...I hope to report sunshine and blue skies!

Marooned!

 

Bula! We arrived on Denarau Island to a beautiful, sunny day. We are on the third (top) floor of one of the oceanfront units. We can see the pool, people watch, and look across the ocean to some of the outer islands.

              

Monday evening we learned how to take the free shuttle that serves Denarau Island and went to Port Denarau for dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. The next morning we tried the little coffee shop at the Port and were pleased to find a mocha that's as good as Starbucks! (It's not the beans I'm addicted to...it's the mocha powder!) That evening we attended a Lovo here at Worldmark. It's like a Hawaiian luau...a chance to try the local foods and see native dances. Preceding the Lovo they had a kava ceremony. Kava is a slightly narcotic drink that the locals make and drink in friendship. We watched as they prepared the kava. John was brave enough to give it a try. Before drinking he had to clap his hands, then down the entire cup and clap twice more. The host then claps three times. Not sure what all that was about....but I knew better than to try. John said it had a slight tobacco taste. All I could think of was the Kassa we had in Russia under the same circumstances. I had to smile nicely while I desperately looked for some bushes where I could toss it out! Each evening there is a sunset ceremony by the pool. They serenade for awhile and then the torch lighting begins. Each time something is about to happen near the pool they beat the native drums to let us know.

 

                           

         

The Worldmark has a shopping bus that goes to Nadi on Wednesday afternoons. We took it and they showed us where the grocery, handicraft store, and vegetable markets are, then dropped us off. John and I took some of the time to walk over to the Hindi temple. It is the largest one in Fiji. The detail on the buildings is amazing! On the way back we stopped at the butcher.

          

 

 

The weather turned on us Wednesday evening. We are in a monsoon! It quickly goes from no rain to sheets of rain and we have very high winds. At least it's a warm rain :) Yesterday (Thursday) it rained all day. We stayed in and read, watched the people out in the pool, and I worked on organizing the photos we've taken while here. You have to give an A+ for effort to the people out in the pool and hot tub, but you also have to wonder where their brains are when the thunder starts and they are still in the water! We had a small flood in here last night. It was so windy that it pushed those sheets of rain under the window. We also had water running down one of the walls and puddling on the floor. When we went to the reception area this morning (Friday), we learned that we are marooned! So much for my morning mocha...Denarau Island is alright. But Nadi town and the area between here and the airport is flooded. We talk to one Aussie who had just come in from the airport. He said the water was over the bonnet (the hood) making their way here. The staff had to spend the night here as they could not get off the island and the manager will not bring anymore people from the airport. He may have to find rooms for the ones he has that have checked out this morning.  The shuttle is not running because the workers can't get here to drive the bus. There were 40 or so people standing in the reception area trying to figure out how to get to their flights. The manager had made it through the floods in his pickup and offered to take some people "at their own risk". He had also has arranged for a helicopter ride out (there's a chopper pad just down the road) and was trying to get some boats so that he could take people to the Port where they could get to another dock and a taxi ride to the airport. So here we are again today watching the rain. It does seem to have let up some, but we still have periods of extremely heavy rain. John checked the forecast and we are supposed to have 57mph winds tonight. It's a good thing we are adventurous! And we're glad we are here two weeks...we're not wasting our whole time in the rain! We are thankful we still have electricity!   

 

      

 

I'll fix any goofy formatting when I can. I'm about to run out of Internet time. Check back! Bula! 

 

            

Bula!

from Fiji! We had an uneventful flight followed by a long day at the pool till check-in time. The Worldmark here is beautiful and boasts one of the largest pools in the southern hemisphere. The people here are the friendliest we've ever encountered in our travels. They are always waving and shouting "Bula!"...at the people on the shuttle bus, across a field, on the beach. Everywhere we go we are greeted. They shake your hand and can't do enough to help or make you feel welcome. Today I stopped to listen and take a photo of a band playing their native music. Before I could get the camera to my eye I found myself seated with the band and John with the camera.  It is warm and humid...remember it is summer here!  I am e-mailing this post as we don't have a handy or inexpensive internet connection. If the formatting is odd....I'll fix it later. Bula!!

Checking in from LAX

Well....I was going to share some photos, but the connection here doesn't seem to want me to upload. We had an uneventful flight from Seattle to Los Angeles. John and I made our way to the international terminal and looked in vain for Air Pacific ticketing as we wanted to see if it was possible to upgrade using some of our miles. When we asked we were told they would be taking over the space that was then occupied by Aeroflot. Oh, yes! Then we remembered that we'd had that same problem here before looking for Quantas. We fed ourselves and then headed to the ticket desks. We looked again at the departure board and discovered that our flight had just been delayed 2 hours. When we got to the ticket desk we were told that a crew member was sick and the replacement needed theextra 2 hours to meet the rest requirement. No worries! It means we'll arrive at 7:30 AM on Monday, the 5th instead of 5:30 AM. That's actually a good thing because we won't be able to check in to our condo until the afternoon anyway...less time for sleeping beside the pool :) As for upgrading, we found we couldn't use our American miles even though they are partners because they don't have the authorization from American to dip into our accounts. Hmmm...I seem to remember we'd had that same problem once before, too! So here we are cooling our heels and trying to keep ourselves amused. I'll check in again when I can!

Happy Birthday to Me! We're on our way to.....

Denarau Island, Fiji :)

The last time I checked there is no internet available in our condo, but we'll have access at the office or at an internet cafe nearby. We'll arrive back in Seattle on the 20th. I'll blog when I can!

Packing Day!

It's finally here! We'll be leaving for Washington tomorrow morning to visit friends and family. On Saturday we are flying out of Seattle to warm beaches and sunny skies (unless a cyclone decides to show itself!). This is our third attempt at making this trip. The first time there was a military coup and the Department of State issued a travel warning. So we cancelled the trip. There is still some unrest in some parts of the country, but our destination is no longer on the warning list. The second time we were using award miles and wanted to make a stop there on the way to our final destination. That didn't work out so we cancelled our reservations and went directly to our initial destination. This time...no travel warnings and we have our reservations and airline tickets. Passports are packed and we're going! Where??? Mmmm, I'll tell you on Saturday...but here's a couple of hints!

  

Zion National Park

 

Southern Utah has some of the prettiest geography in the country. I think we've visited all (or at least most) of the national parks, national monuments, and national recreation areas in Utah. Zion National Park is only an hour from St. George. It has beautiful red rock canyons, lots of green or gold depending on the season and lots of hiking. On our last day this trip Roger and Shayla took us to the park and we made the short hike to Emerald Pool.

                         

After our hike Roger and Shayla treated us to a yummy lunch with an appropriate wine in the lodge. It was a perfect day to be in the park!  

Detour!

The plan was that today we'd be somewhere in northern California. We left our friends in Kent (Washington) yesterday morning. We were to stop at Brad's in Orting to pick up Legend's birthday gifts, stop at Corki's to leave her bottle of huckleberry wine and Susan's "montana jam", then go to Portland (Oregon) where we'd have lunch with Johns siblings. After visiting there, we'd drive to southern Oregon and spend the night. We'd have 5 days before we were expected in St. George and we figured we'd just take our time, maybe visit Chris in Sacramento and the Sumners in Nevada City. The plan lasted all of 20 minutes into the day. As we pulled out of Brad's driveway John said he was feeling a tug to go home to Montana for a few days instead of heading south. It took me about 2 seconds to agree and we turned east instead of south :) Chinook Pass was still open so we headed that way and were treated to a beautiful day on Mt. Rainier!

    

So here we are at home! John is in town getting the mail and a few groceries and then is going flying. I'll be wrapping the birthday gifts and catching up on a few other things. We'll be leaving Thursday morning for St. George! 

Oh, Canada....

Yesterday we went for a drive north into Canada to see the fall colors and went to Cranbrook for lunch. The photo was taken near Fort Steele, British Columbia. We stopped in a jam-packed antique/second-hand store and poked around. Came out with some fun items...an old steel lunchbox in great shape (which will make a fun storage box for something!), a couple of hand tools for John, some old mercury glass Christmas ornaments, a four-paned window that is going to become a picture frame for pictures of the four grandsons, and a few other odd items...it was fun! Our friend, Elaine, has been here all week visiting so we got to enjoy her company, too!

The Reenactment

John had read about the Custer's Last Stand Reenactment somewhere and we decided it sounded like fun. He called sometime in May to book a room in town for last weekend and everyone just laughed. They fill up a year in advance. No problem, we found space in a private campground and decided to take our travel trailer. (It turned out to be a good experience as we were able to determine what kind of gas mileage we'd get with the new Explorer towing the trailer. Ahem, not so great...just over 12 mpg. So,we now know that if we are driving any distance or traveling we may as well stay in motels.)We got tickets for the reenactment on Sunday. It was hot and dusty, but fortunately the sun was at our back and John had thought to bring our large golf umbrella. We climbed to the top of the stands so we could keep the umbrella up and it turned out to be a good spot for the battle. We watched as Lewis and Clark met the natives on their way west, the pioneers circled their wagons, treaties were signed, and finally George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Army galloped across the hills to defeat Sitting Bull and the Sioux.

And here I am with my new best friend...did I mention that Custer lost?

Hardin, Montana

Last weekend we traveled to Hardin, Montana for Custer's Last Stand Reenactment and Little Big Horn Days. There was a parade in Hardin on Saturday morning and games in the evening. Here's a peek at the parade...

OK, those last two were not part of the parade. Hotel Becker was built in 1912 and is a charming building. Check out the Lariat Motel....isn't that Woody???

Saturday evening there were games and races downtown. We went to watch the fun. They started off with "pony"races, followed by egg tosses and finished up with bed races. If you look closely at the pony races you'll see that some of the adults and most of the kids are cheating. They carried their horses instead of riding. But the judges were watching and I don't think anyone got away with it!

Look closely at that last one. They were the winners of the bed race. They could see they were going to take the prize of $150 dollars and were so excited they just gave the bed a shove and let go sending it right into the crowd! We had a little luck, too. They were giving away prizes for answering trivia questions, etc. and also gave prizes to travelers. John and I won a country music CD for being the Montana residents that traveled the farthest!

That afternoon we'd visited the Battlefield of the Little Big Horn (it's no longer called Custer's Last Stand). I had been there in the 60's. I don't remember a National Cemetery there, but there it was. We drove out to see the battlefield and the graves before heading back to camp (We'd taken our travel trailer.)

It was a perfect time to visit the battlefield. It was in full bloom! We hadn't expected that.

And why do I remember that I was in Hardin, Montana in the 60s??? Because that's where I was when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface and said, "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind". We were staying at the KOA campground and my Dad made us get our butts out of the pool and inside to watch history in the making on the little TV in the game room. Thanks, Dad!

Stay tuned for photos of the Custer's Last Stand Reenactment!