Fiji

When I think of paradise it always includes palm trees and the beach.

Fiji was paradise and then so much more.  We loved every second of our stay there.

From the slow, laid back lifestyle to the beautiful scenery.

Every day I would look outside and just be in awe.  Fiji is beautiful.

Our resort was 2 hours from the airport and was accessed via a 2 mile dirt road.  It was so remote.

No-where else to eat but the resort, 20 rooms total and a small village right down the beach.

Perfect.

This is the view from our restaurant where we ate every meal.

Here's our pool, looking straight onto the beach and ocean.  

Ah....

and the pool onto the restaurant at night...

The first night we were there we arranged to eat dinner in the local village.  

They caught all the fish fresh that morning and yesir, we ate octopus!

We are not fans of sea food but fresh seafood like this, yes please!

Phil told me he was proud of me...I just kept thinking this must be what it's like on a mission.  

They just kept telling us to eat more and more and MORE.

The kids were so cute.  They were jumping and climbing all over us (much to their parent's horror).

But we probably didn't help because we just played right back.  

Those kid's lives are so simple yet they're so happy.  I definitely learned a lot just watching them.

The Fijian traditional drink is called Kava, which is made from grinding up the roots from plants.

The family included us in their Kava Ceremony.  It consists of making the kava and then specific claps and words exchanged when you drink.

We heard it tasted like dirt and when a lady at our resort had some at a later kava ceremony told us she was "seeing giraffes" we figured it probably didn't really work with the WofW.  Good thing Phil knew that or I probably would've been seeing giraffes too!

Here's the villager making kava in traditional bowl.  They all have these in their homes.

 Here's our resort's beach.  The tide would come all the way in and all the way out every day.  We spent hours out kayaking and snorkeling...which will be in another post.

There were beach chairs down near the beach so we would just read every morning to the sound of the waves crashing.

It was so beautiful and so secluded. 

Every night the local villagers would play a game of rugby down on the beach.  It amazed me how well they could run in the sand.  We loved watching them.  

(The location and views helped as well) 

And enough talking for now.

I'll just let the pictures say the rest

I miss it. 

Fiji...