Happy Monday! A good nights' sleep in my own time zone goes a long way toward helping counteract the effects of  two LOOOONNNGGG days of going-home travel! Fiji was awesome, the resort was luxurious and comfortable, but my own bed sure felt good!

Today has been a day of unpacking, laundry, and re-orienting myself with my "To Do List" and calendar. Since some of you have already been clamoring for Fiji pictures, I've put together a little overview of our activities and some of my Fiji impressions.

Troy & I waiting to board our first plane in St. Louis. We flew from St. Louis to Chicago, changed planes, then flew from Chicago to Los Angeles.

After about a 5 hour wait in LAX, we boarded this GIGANTIC plane to begin the 10.5 hour flight to Fiji! We flew at a 11 p.m. at night! See how small the trucks are compared to this plane? It was TOWED to the terminal like a cruise ship! Yikes! It was a double-decker plane with a second section of seats on top! Wow! About 400 Stampin' Up! Cruise Achievers & guests on this flight alone!

They served us a dinner and a breakfast during the flight. We slept (fitfully, but I did sleep) in between meals. We each had our own video screen installed in the seat-back in front of us with headphones. I read most of a book during this flight between naps (I read Call the Midwife-excellent read). This was the first hot meal I have ever been served on a plane -chicken & rice, green beans, grapes & crackers, a soft roll & butter, and ice tea!

My first impression upon landing in Fiji at 7 a.m. in the morning was HUMID!!! This picture is foggy because as soon as I took out my camera it immediately fogged up! They had been having more rain than normal for the past few days before our arrival, with a shower just before we landed, so the natural humidity of Fiji was increased! (in case you are wondering, Troy is holding MY pink-flowery carryon!)

After clearing customs, we were transported to the resort by bus to this! We had a comfortable balcony room looking out on the Pacific!

Not only were we off-the-grid technology-wise while in Fiji, we were also on Fiji-time, which is very laid-back and relaxed! I found these clocks for sale illustrating the Fiji attitude toward time perfectly:

Troy taking advantage of one of hammocks by the beach! He had fun learning how to sail a catamaran, and we also took a few spills in the Pacific on a "banana boat" ride!

Troy went deep-sea fishing one day,(yes, he caught 3 Yellow-Fin Tuna!) so I took a tour with some friends. Here we visited a Hindu Temple in Nadi, Fiji. Very beautifully decorated and painted. We had to take off our shoes, and they gave us scarves to wrap around our legs if our knees were showing and around our shoulders to keep us modest.

Our tour took us to an open-air farmers' market. Lots of variety, some familiar and some I'd never heard of before!

This is Kava roots. The natives dig this up, dry it out, then grind it into a powder which is put in a little muslin bag. They put the bag in water, then drink the water. Apparently Kava has some "dope-type" effects, the first of which is making your tongue numb. Yes, I tried it, but just a tiny taste. Some of my group drank a small bowl of it, but my impression was dirty sock water. WHY????

Very different way to present the fruits – $2 a "heap"!

We then visited the "Garden of the Sleeping Gods", a beautiful orchid-garden!

This is one of the two "sleeping gods", silhouetted in the Mountains around the garden. Can you see the face, hair, and body?

I will show you more of my Fiji trip soon, but thought you might like to see a card. This was one of the swaps on display, so I don't know who made it, but it is a vibrantly beautiful Secret Garden sample!

©Stampin'Up!™1990-2013

And lastly, I'm going to leave you with a little challenge! At the orchid garden I took this picture of a lily-pad pond. I know I have made cards in the past with frogs on lily-pads but had never actually SEEN a frog ON a lily pad! In the lily-pad picture below is at least one frog on a lily pad, but there are actually more!

My challenge to you is this:

Count how many frogs you see in the lily-pad picture. Leave a comment with the number of frogs you find here on my blog or LIKE this post if you are seeing it on Facebook and your name will be put in a drawing for this:

The Sent With Love Designer Paper Pack and stamp set, which was available in April 2013 but is now retired.

You will have until Sunday, May 12th to submit your comment or LIKE. I will announce the name drawn on Monday, May 13th, and will post this same picture with all the frogs highligted so you can see them too!

That's all for now. Until tomorrow, have a Stampingrox! day!

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