What A Girl Has To Do For A Yoga Class. Part 2.

Yesterday 9:00am.

Scene. The little man and I are fully dressed for a day at the bookstore followed by a much needed morning yoga class for mom. We excitedly walk into the garage talking about all of the fun that we are about to have.

Me: Crap.

LM: What happened momma?

Me: Daddy took the car to work.

LM: Uh Oh.

Me: The car with the stroller in the back.

LM: No stroller?

(deep breath, and a furious phone call to Daddy)

Me: Please, please, please tell me you took the stroller out of the trunk.

Husband: Yeah, you're dreaming... next time try reminding me.

Me: What the eff am I supposed to do now?

Husband: Take the backpack.

Me: The backpack that was made for a kid 1/2 his size? The backpack that weighs 14 lbs? The backpack that will weigh almost 50 lbs when I put the little man in it. That backpack? You want me to take that all the way to the train, then to the mall, then to the gym?

Husband: Yep, that's the one.

Me: Crap.

He may have been more than a few pounds over the *recommended* height and weight limit but I figured since we weren't climbing Everest there wasn't any "real" danger (except to my spine of course.) We survived the journey (oh my poor back) and the little man had a blast, and unlike last time this time I actually made it on time to a great Yoga class.

That being said this is definitely NOT going to be a common occurrence.

Note to self: Buy a second stroller.

Can You Hear Me Now?

While on the Island I expected things to be pretty primitive. What I did not expect to see was the use of cell phones throughout the village. I'm not talking about the tourists here, most of us were too afraid of the roaming costs. No, I'm talking about the residents on the island who all seemed to have personal cell phones. Very rarely did you see someone talking on them, but the use of texting was rampant (as one addict to another no judgment here.)

Welcome to the 21st century. *

I'd like to point out that I can't even get a good signal anywhere in Boston. Hmmm I wonder who their carrier is?

* All photos taken with permission, I swear I'm not a cell phone stalker although my iphone was greatly missed.

My Mouth Feels A Little Numb.

While we were on the island we were lucky enough to take part in a traditional Kava ceremony. Kava is a drink made from a root that is pounded and mixed with water. It looks and tastes a bit like mud, and the only effect that I felt was a numb mouth and later I had some crazy dreams. The locals swear by this stuff and I can assure you that this is a drink not just made for tourists. The Fijians love, love, love it and as part of the ceremony all tourists "gift" it to the chief and his tribe. In return we get to sit around partake in one of the coolest experiences of my life.

Behold the Kava ceremony.

First the root is pounded with a heavy metal rod. When I say heavy I mean HEAVY.

They ask for help from all the "strong" men on the island. They told us that pounding the Kava is supposed to increase fertility. You know I got my man right in on that one.

After it takes a beating the powder is poured into a large bowl.

Then mixed with water with something that looks like a sock.

The final result. Nope that's not mud.. that's what you drink.

We then line up next to our cups.

And are brought our offering.

A quick bow.

Down the hatch it goes.

After we were all loosened up we were provided with the greatest show on Earth.

This was the party of the decade/century as far as I'm concerned. I feel so grateful that we were able to participate in something so special with such an amazing group of people.

And... I swear my lips are still numb.

I Should Be Embarrassed.

"You should be embarrassed." This is what my husband said to me when I told him that I was going to post about the books (ahem novels) that I read while we were on vacation. Yeah, well I probably should be... but I'm not. As far as I'm concerned vacations were created for some serious relaxing. Reading The Russian Greats is not my idea of relaxing. I could lie and tell you all that I read Pride and Prejudice, some Tolstoy, or Dostoevsky, but since our relationship is based solely on brutal honesty I have to admit that my list looked something more like Patterson, Giffin, and Evans.

With that being said, here is my reading list.

1. Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin. This is the 3rd time I have read this book (I realize I probably shouldn't admit that.) I seriously just can't help myself. I don't know what it is, something about the story line just grabs me every time. I love how the ending turns out (no spoiler alerts here) so I find myself re-reading this whenever I feel the urge for a happy ending. Aka all of the time.
2. Eat, Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Since I'm being honest here I must tell you I didn't read the entire book. I made it through Eat, and about 3/4 of Pray and I simply quit (something I have never done before.) I am not a very religious person and I thought that the "yoga" part of it would be enough to get me through. It wasn't. I realize that most women LOVED this book and I may get my ass kicked here but somehow I just couldn't force myself to make it to the end. Believe me I tried. I may skip ahead to "Love" to see what I'm missing. That or go see the movie.
3. Pretty in Plaid by Jen Lancaster. Her books kill me, as does her blog. They are pretty much the equivalent to an Us Weekly which makes them even better.
4. Bright Lights, Big Ass by Jen Lancaster. Ditto.
5. Mating Rituals of the North American WASP by Lauren Lipton. A few months ago one of my favorite bloggers Melissa C. Morris wrote a review of this novel and recommended it. I downloaded it to my Kindle and never started reading it. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. On the beach it was great. At home I probably wouldn't have gotten that into it.
6. I, Alex Cross by James Patterson. Okay, I admit it. I am still a huge Alex Cross fan. You can read these books in about an hour and since the author comes out with one pretty much every other day I see this as a very good thing. They are so cheesy and so predictable and this may be what I love the most.
7. The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich. As a Facebook *fanatic* of course I had to read the unauthorized bio about the guys who created my favorite medium of all time. My husband thought this book sucked, I pretty much loved it. The fact that it is based mostly in Boston is pretty cool too. In short I heart you Mark Zuckerberg. You are so the new Steve Jobs.
8. Nanny Returns by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. This is the new follow up to The Nanny Diaries. Great beach book and a cute story. I am a sucker for anything sequel related so I was destined to like this one as well.
9. The Loop by Nicholas Evans. On day 8 I ran out of books on my Kindle and found this book in the lending library on the island. 5/8 of the way through I realized that I had read it before about 10 years ago. Not a bad story but if you are going to read anything by this author read The Horse Whisperer and the Smoke Jumper (one of my all time favs.)

So there you have it. 9 books in 8 days. None of them will be winning a Pulitzer anytime soon but they kept me very entertained in my chaise lounge by the sea, and also cost me more than a few hours of missed sleep. Am I embarrassed? Not in the least!

Sunrise, Sunset. Fiji Edition.

Sunrise.

Sunset.

Everything In between.

Yeah, pure heaven.

What I Did All Day.

What did I do on our Fijian vacation? The short answer? Absolutely nothing (which is the whole point isn't it?) The long answer? Well.....

I did a little of this.

I drank a lot of these. Mai Tai = the perfect way to end the day.

I posed for quite a few of these.

Even the LM made a celebrity appearance on Dad's shirt.

I attended the famed Kava ceremony (more on this later.)

But mostly I did a whole lot of this.

9 books in 8 days... not too shabby.

And of course I had to get one of these overlooking the crystal blue water.

Okay, so I didn't exactly do "nothing" but it sure felt like it. In between sleeping and laying by the pool I was able to fit in some other activities. I paddled a lot, snorkeled a few hours a day, worked on my scuba certification, and attended every happy hour (duh.)

Yep, island life is pretty damn fabulous!

Planes, Trains, Automobiles... and Boats.

News Alert: If you happen to live on the East Coast you should know that Fiji is really, really, really, really , really, really, really, really far away. As in FAR AWAY! In total it took us 36 hours + to get to our island paradise. What does 36 hours of travel look like you ask? (Well, even if you didn't I'm going to tell you anyway.)

It looks something like this.

Thursday 5:00 am EST

Taxi ride to airport.*

Thursday 7:05 am EST

Direct flight to LAX.*

Thursday 1:35 pm EST

Arrive in LAX for a 10 hour layover. 10 hours! The kicker was that the check in window for our flight didn't open until 3 hours before departure so one of us (ahem my husband) had to stay with the bags and surfboards until dinner time. Me (being the smart one) arranged for my sister to spring me from my airport jail and in return I treated us to lunch at The Ivy and mani/ pedis on Robertson Blvd. Hands down BEST LAYOVER EVER.

Thursday 8:30 pm EST

Checked in for flight, and discovered husband halfway alive in makeshift "camp." We then peeled him off the floor and got him some much needed nourishment from my favorite restaurant in Venice Beach despite the hurricane like storm that was engulfing the West Coast.

Friday 1:35 am EST.

Finally boarded 2nd plane.

We had commented that the plane felt like it had a hard time leaving the ground during takeoff. After we exited we realized why. My first official double decker plane ride had just been taken unbeknownst to either of us.

Friday 11:35 pm EST

Arrive in Nadi, Fiji.

80+ degrees at 5:30 am = pure elation.

Friday 1:30 pm EST.

Our luggage took off in one van while we boarded another.

Friday 2:00 pm EST

3 hour layover in a hotel in Nadi. 3 glorious hours spent eating, and lounging by the pool after which we were picked up in another van and taken to our final mode of transport... a boat.

Friday 5:30 pm EST.

We spotted our chariot approaching. Very James Bond don't you think?

We soon got a closer look of what would be our "ride" for the rest of our stay on the island.

Within minutes we were met by our luggage and excitedly we were off for our final destination.

Heaven, or Tavarua as it's referred to by the natives.

Friday 6pm EST, Saturday 12 pm Fijian time we were FINALLY there.

Home Sweet Fiji.

Was it worth all of the travel? For a view like this from your bedroom window.... Hell Yes!!!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

It's good to be back home, but it was a lot better to be there. I'll be posting quite a bit this week about our fantastic trip and I thank you all for your well wishes. The one thing I can say was this was one of those things that turned out to be just as amazing (if not 1000 times better) than we hoped it would be.

Bula!, Bula! everyone. (That's Fijian speak for Hello Goodbye, Cheers, Welcome, etc..)

* Yes, I was WAY to tired to remember to take a "real" picture.