Day 2: Michael Phelps: The Great Uniter.

Sleeping on the ship was surprisingly restful. Despite the loud noises that went on all night I genuinely had my most restful sleep of the trip. We woke up to a delicious breakfast of french toast, omelettes and...spaghetti? Apparently it's a New Zealand thing. Grandpa also tried to make people leave the table they were sitting at by telling people "This is my family's table"....oh Grandpa. There were no assigned tables but we all know Grandpa is possessive. After breakfast we prepared our stuff to head to the island for the day. This island has a beach that is privately owned by Blue Lagoon Cruises, so it was a private beach just for us. It is located just across from Turtle Island which is where they filmed "The Blue Lagoon", the Brooke Shields movie. Since getting on the boat we were treated to the most beautiful water we had seen; the kind of water you picture when you imagine Fiji. See, the water by our resort is sort of murky because it was built on a man made beach. But the water out here at the islands was crystal clear. You could see straight to the bottom with varying degrees of blue depending on what is on the bottom of the ocean, sand or coral.

our view for most of the day.

We made our way ashore via tender and scoped out a spot for the day. Luckily, Early riser McGee (aka Uncle George) had scoped out prime real estate for us. We had several beach chairs on the beach with a hammock strung between 2 palm trees. Paradise. We immediately headed to the water. They called for a glass bottom boat tour and we all headed that way. Since Brandon's hand is broken it was one of his only opportunities to check out the undersea life. After heading out pretty far we floated above some amazing coral and were able to see some spectacular sea life. Returning to shore, Katlyn and Alyssa grabbed 2 spy boards, large skim boards with glass bottoms and started exploring the shore, while dad and I grabbed a kayak and headed out. Uncle George headed out with the snorkel group and everyone else soaked up the rays on the beach. After we returned, Dad took grandma for a ride in the kayak and I took a turn on a spy board. I headed out to the snorkeling area with Robb. I positioned my spy board above an anemone where a larger clown fish was swimming with its two babies. MARLIN AND NEMO!!!!! Then Robb told me that some of the fish were nibbling on him (it was right after feeding time) so i decided to head out of the water.

All of us ROCKIN THE SPY BOARDS!

After walking around the island a bit, reading in my hammock and sunbathing we headed down the beach for the BBQ lunch. The had chicken, beef , some fish, delicious potato salad and a wonderful pineapple coleslaw. We ate on the beach until we were bursting and laid around until about 3pm. We headed back to the boat via tender to shower and freshen up for our Lovo dinner planned back on the island. A Lovo is a traditional Fiji dinner. The meat is cooked in the sand, much like a luau. The hole is dug and rocks are lined on top. The meat is wrapped in palm and banana leaves and placed on top of the rocks. The whole thing is covered with sand and a few hours later....voila! food.

Lovo Pit...delish

After getting changed and chatting with out favorite deckhand, Oni we tendered back to the island for dinner. We started with cocktails and appetizers on the beach. We headed to watch them uncover the lovo pit and then it was time to eat. We had roasted pork leg, chicken and lamb. We were able to try some local favorites: Cassava and Taro root. Both tasted exactly like you would expect a root to taste. We also had a fijian version of ceviche but I have to be honest I stayed away from it.

Buffet style...

As we were in line for dessert there were a group of New Zealanders behind us. Keep in mind that we were the only Americans on the ship. The woman behind us turned to her friend and said "I hear that in America they have fresh whipping cream with every dessert!". Good ole' USA...your selling point is fresh whipping cream. Hell YEA!

Robb is still in detox from lack of Starbucks and Brandon has been attacked by a giant octopus.

After dinner the crew played music and sang. Joe, the cruise director stood up and told us that it was international night and that every country would have to give a little presentation. Now, he had mentioned this before but i thought it was a friggin joke!?! I mean geez...you should be entertaining me! I shouldn't have to work on my vacay dammit! So we quickly put our heads together (meaning everyone turned and asked me what I was gonna do) and I came up blank. I mean think about it...what kind of special songs or chants does America have? I though of singing "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" by Tobey Keith but didn't really think that would make us any friends on the ship. Finally our three minutes were up. Australia was up first and they sang some weird ass song that sounded like a song you would sing in a pub at like 3am. Then the Canadians (the 2 of them on the ship) played the "We're on our honeymoon" card so they got out of it. New Zealand sang another effing song and then it was our turn. So I stood up, faced everyone at the tables and said:

"As the representative for America we just have 2 things to say...Michael Phelps and Barack Obama"

and sat down. Short and sweet. SCOREBOARD SUCKAS.

After that the Fijians decided to calm things down and sing their national anthem and teach us about their flag. They continued playing music and even brought out some Kava. All of us, except Dad, Uncle George and Lisa, were tired from the long day, so we took the tender back to ship and our comfy beds waiting aboard.

Dad, Lisa and Uncle George stayed on their beach listening to music and drinking with the crew until the last tender carted them off.