Sunday, April 27, 2008 (the first time)
Today we awoke and were in Suva, Fiji. Beautiful landscape and green mountains! Not pine anywhere, all Ferns and lush, lush, lush! We were in the city of Suva and had a tour scheduled for the afternoon. We got off and walked around the city. Unfortunately this part of Fiji was not very pretty. They don’t recycle here and there was a bit of an odor. Oh well, you can’t win them all. After a few hours we headed back to the ship to grab some lunch before our tour. I must admit, I was not looking too forward to it.

We get on the tour and within 5 minutes we were away from the city and started to see the beauty of the island. The lush mountains we saw from the ship were now next to us. We saw some of the neighborhoods and worked our way up to the top of a mountain and the rainforest. We did quite a hike, about 2 miles in total down the mountainside past about 17 pools and waterfalls, big and small. Very lush and beautiful! Some of the bridges we had to cross over water on were not the sturdiest and freaked me out a bit. Other times we had to walk in the water to cross over. Got great photos of this walk. After we finished the walk and people swam and swung off the old rope that was hanging off a big ole tree. There were several locals there having picnics and swimming.

When everyone was finished swimming and jumping off we headed to a small resort for some afternoon refreshments. It was a cute little place in the rainforest with a small pool, bar and a good size deck. While we had juice and fruit we got a little show from 3 local dancers. They looked like Hawaina lua dancers to me, same type of background I assume. A little corny but very fun and by this time Roger and I were both thirsty so we needed a little libation. After ther performance we headed back to the ship and got ready to sail away. Another great day!

Sunday, April 27, 2008 (the second one)
During the night we crossed over the international dateline so we gained another day. Works for me cause we did loose March 27th when we flew to Australia. Today was at sea and it was lovely. Just hung out by the pools and played cribbage. Our lady friends play cribbage and we have started playing 4 handed cribbage. Lots of fun. We have made plans to dine in a couple of the specialty restaurants towards the end of the cruise with them. A good thing because for those of you who have ever traveled on Princess know that their Italian restaurant is good but they serve so much food and it’s much more fun with a large group.

Monday,April 28. 2008
Today we were in American Samoa. What a beautiful place. There is a little bit of a litter problem, but for the most part it is really gorgeous. We had a tour scheduled for the morning and it was a driving tour around the Island. This was great to see. We started off in the harbor which is naturally deep because it was formed by one of the walls of the volcano that collapsed. Our large ship comes right in. Pretty amazing thing to see and experience.
We boarded our first class transportation. No AC, the floor and seats were unpadded and made out of plywood. The windows were acrylic and you had to lift them up and then slide them into a slot to lower them. Pretty fun. We had a very cute guide who was probably all of 18 but she seemed to know a lot about her heritage and the Island. We traveled around and saw some great surf and crashing waves. The shoreline is mostly volcanic in nature so not a lot of sand, but just lovely. We were able to stop a ew time and take photos of houses and flowers and of course the surf. We stopped at Isabelle’s house. We think she is a woman who owns this amazing piece of property and gets money from the tour company by opening her home. She serves refreshments under her pavilion and she lets the tourists use the 2 bathrooms in her gorgeous home. She is on a piece of land overlooking the ocean and the surf was wild. Waves were crashing 20 or 25 feet up in the air to fill small pools. Really cool and I could stay there for a month or two and not tire of the scenery. This is what paradise should be like, in my mind. Roger and I both felt this island reminded us of Hawaii.

After the tour we got back to the ship did a little soveneir shopping on the dock, fortunately American Samoa is fairly untouched by the tourist industry. We found out that only about 9 or 10 cruise ships stop there as of now. I am sure that will change because it is just beautiful. I got my pin and was happy so we got back on board, had lunch and then went to the pool. Met up with our friends and scheduled a cribbage game after dinner. We are playing 4 handed cribbage and it is great fun! Didn’t go to any shows tonight but it was more fun playing cribbage!.

Tomorrow is another day at sea. We have to change our watches yet again, this time forward 1 hour. I think we are now about 8 hours ahead of home. Not sure, I know when we get to Hawaii we will be about 6 hours ahead of home but that is not for another 8 days or so.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Started off as a very overcast and cloudy day, Rain thru the night. We headed up for breakfast and I can’t eat any more. I had a banana and yogurt and that was it. I am sure it is only a temporary didlike for breakfast but one day of sensible eating is better than no days of it. We headed up to the upper sundeck and even though the sun was not out it was quite nice and we didn’t have to put sun block on. I took advantage of an empty hot tub and Roger worked on Sudoko’s, we are both content! Finally the sun did come out and Roger went in. I stayed out for just a bit until lunch time. Afterall, I don’t want my skin to burn off altogether!

Tonight is another formal evening so will head to the sauna and steam room around 4:30pm then back o the room to shower and get dressed. Then we will head down to Croner’s bar and have a cocktail before dinner. Will do the show after dinner and just have a nice night. Tomorrow we arrive in Roratunga. I don’t even know where that is, well I know it is in the South Pacific, but I don’t know the country. I will find out soon enough.

Hope everyone is healthy and happy. Did I hear there was a big water main break in Boston? Katy, did our house flood? JUST KIDDING! See you all soon.

Chris and Roger