A day of recovery

This morning Katlyn, Robb, Brandon and I had arranged to attend a sales presentation put on by the resort. We all had to pretend we were 25 years old and made >$55,000 a year to qualify. In return we would get $50 in Resort credits and Dad would get a 1,000 extra vacation points each. We made our way to the sales center bright and early. After filling out the necessary paperwork we met with salespeople who in turn made their sales pitch and heard us answer with "no. no. no" over and over again. Katlyn and Robb made up their own version of reality. Robb had just finished med school and was beginning his residency. He had $200K in Student loan debt and Katlyn was beginning her first year of dental school. They played them like a fiddle. Brandon just seemed to be sleeping through his whole presentation having chaperoned Dad's shenanigans all night long. After and hour and a half of trying, they gave up and gave us our credit and let us on our way.

We headed to the pool to lay out for a while and had lunch at the restaurant here at the resort. We took our places back in our lounge chairs, read and soaked up the rays. Dad was a hit (I guess you could say) around the resort. Everyone seems to know his name now, or perhaps they just recognize his stumbling. His foot is very sore and he is unsure why. Security told him "You're the man". Dad maintains he said this in a proud and excited voice. I believe it to be accusatory, like "You're the one who pulled me out of my effing nap to pull out of the pool. You were naked for god's sake". After crisping ourselves we headed in to get changed. Lisa, Mom and I had heard that the resort was going to be holding frog races tonight and left our rooms in a frenzy, ready to see some frogs. We made our way out poolside where the employees had drawn a circle in chalk on the pool deck. Each frog was tied with a ribbon with a country's flag attached. Each frog was then auctioned off. A third of the proceeds were donated to the Nadi children's hospital. Mom bid on the American frog (Carl Lewis) but was sadly outbid by a group of twentysomethings from LA.




About to begin, the frogs are under that box...



The races were to take place in 2 heats with the top three frogs to exit the circle moving on to the final round. For the first heat, Charlie took the six frogs to the center of the circle and let them go. None of the frogs did a thing. They just sat there. Finally three made it out of the circle and the next heat began. History repeated itself with the second heat and finals, with the frogs sitting for about a minute until one of them took off jumping. It was quite gimmicky and I can imagine the employees sitting around and laughing at the crazy tourists but it was fun nonetheless.



This may or may not be five minutes later...still sitting.

Mom had decided to treat us all to dinner at the port tonight so we packed up the "limo" and headed off. We decided to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. Everyone was pretty excited to have what we expected to be close to American food. The food was excellent but the service is another story. I know to expect it to be different than the US. We are spoiled by the food service industry in the States. But in Fiji it is another story. Uncle George's meal was completely forgotten, all of our food came out cold and refills were the things of dreams. They give a whole new meaning to the term "Fiji time". Everyone enjoyed their meals though (with the exception of Uncle George who still maintains that he wasn't hungry) and we headed to bed with our bellies full of food and our heads full of good 'ole American Rock and Roll.



WE ARE AMERICAN




YOU STILL OWE US A CHEESEBURGER, SUCKAS!!! I'LL REMEMBER THIS CLAPTON!


Before heading to bed we stayed up to reminisce about Jeff's crazy adventure some more with the help of Bman's winning narrative, now with charades. I have to admit that he does a wicked "drunk Jeff Maillo" impression. In the midst of all this fun, who should call on the telephone but Sam, the New Zealand kid. He and his friends wanted to invite Dad to continue the fun they began the night before. Dad smartly told him that he was already in bed for the night but promised to catch up with them the next day. Who knows the escapades they got into without Dad but one can only expect that nothing will top a midnight skinny dip with one Jeff Maillo. Katlyn sang us all to sleep with a rousing chorus of "Maggie" by Rod Stewart; a lulaby of sorts...