For some reason the flight time for our flight to Fiji was pushed forward by an hour. Because of this Mom, Dad, and Laura were forced to change their flight to LA from Ohio...and due to availability the ended up flying in at 10 AM, and our flight didn't leave until 10 PM.
So, since Jim and I were already there they were going to rent a car to come meet us in Hermosa Beach. For some reason all of the major rental-car companies were out of cars so they were forced to go with a no-name company. So, an attendent came to the airport in an old oldsmobile, picked them up and took them to the 'company office'. While dad was inside filling out paperwork, Laura was waiting in the car and opened up the glove box...lets just say that what she found made her proclaim, "I hope this isn't the car that we're going to be renting". So, after much hooplah they were given another car and bad directions.
We were very excited to seem them!! We decided to go get breakfast, when we went out to the car and wanted to put some stuff in the trunk, it wouldn't open...They had already placed all of their carry-on luggage in the trunk, including their tickets and passports! Nothing we could do got the trunk open. So, Mom, Laura, our friend Lindsae and I went to get pedicures (everyone's got to do it before their wedding!!) and Jim and Dad drove all the way back to the 'office'...the guy working there couldn't get the trunk open either, so he sent them down the road to the body shop...where they waited another hour. There they tore out the entire back seat in order to get their bags out. Back to the rental place only to find it closed...finally they got another (almost identical) car...arrrr...
Lindsay (Eha) drove up from San Diego and met us and along with Lindsay (Bloom) and Doug met us for sushi before we all headed to the airport for our 10 hour red-eye flight.
The flight was very uneventful, Dad was asleep before we took off (no joke!), we were all so excited to see each other that we didn't even notice that the flight left late.
We arrived around 5:30 AM in Nadi, Fiji tired and excited. Going through customs was a breeze (it was Laura's first stamp in her passport!!) As we headed down to baggage claim we found Mary Kemp (Jim's mom) and his Aunt Barbara and Uncle John...they had gotten in just before us and were looking for Mary's luggage (her flight to LA was late and her bag didn't make it onto her plane). It was SO great to see everyone!
After spending a couple of hot hours in the Nadi airport and meeting up with Josh (Eha)(he'd come a week early to surf!!) we all boarded a (TINY) plane headed for the island of Taveuni.
The hour and a half flight was AMAZING! The water is so magically blue with all of the coral, and over 300 islands to look at.

(we are waiting pictures....Linds, Dad, and Laura have all of the digital photos...they should be on the picture site soon!!! jimlisa.smugmug.com

views from our flight

Our arrival on Tavueni