Driving in the States

Nothing like driving down the Interstate when things come to a standstill. Gotta love driving in the Lower 48 where you can be going 3mph on the highway when there's no good reason. No accidents, no snow or ice, etc. Oh well, guess that's part of the reason I love the remote areas of the world. :) 

yep, 0 in a 60 zone. lovely

Was on my way home to Alaska, when a winter storm hit the central Lower 48. Snow and ice in Alaska is one thing, but it's something totally different in the south. I had gone down to Austin to see a couple friends, the day my flight left from Dallas to Fairbanks, I was driving north. I knew they were expecting bad weather, but it got really rough the farther north I drove. About 1/3 of the way to Ft. Worth, I received word my flight had been cancelled. Called the airline and got rebooked, then kept driving. About half the time I was going 40mph on the Interstate. Thankfully most people stayed home that day, so there wasn't much traffic. At one point, I had to pull over and take a break. I was a little uptight with driving a small rental car on such nasty roads with others on the road, especially semis. After stretching my legs a bit, I continued on north. 

Eventually I figured out my flight I had been rebooked on had also been cancelled. So they reserved me a flight for the next day. I was slightly disappointed, cause that first rebooking had me in First Class! It would have been my first time traveling in style. Not that domestic first class is anything like international first class, but hey! it still would have been cool. Thankfully I have friends in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, so found a place to crash for the night. Spent an extra day chilling with my friends in a nice, warm house, eating pizza and sweets, watching Christmas movies. 

The next day I headed to the DFW airport. Took me about twice as long as it should have normally. The roads were still pretty bad, but at least it wasn't still raining/snowing. And many people still chose to stay home, which meant less traffic for me to deal with. Was glad to drop off the rental car. In conditions like that, I'd much prefer to drive my own vehicle. 

signs around Dallas/Ft. Worth

Travel may be discouraged, but I'm not stopping! I know they were talking about the road conditions, but there are times when people think I'm crazy for some the places I visit and things I do while traveling. Some might want to discourage me, but until God tells me to stop, I'll keep going! For some reason, I love traveling and can't get enough of it. New places are so exciting and the people I meet..... life is far from boring. Ha! 

my life story

Made it home to about the same weather I left in Texas. But honestly, I'll take snow and ice in Alaska any day over snow and ice in Texas. We are a bit more prepared for it and it's (kinda) normal, so we are used to driving in it. It may be cold and all, but Alaska in the wintertime is beautiful! And beautiful in the summer..... actually it's beautiful all the time, just in different ways. 

Anywho, I am glad to be home. Especially for Christmas time! 

our driveway my first week home

Back to America

Between my stay in Fiji and getting home to Alaska, I went down to the South for a quick visit. Figured it would be a good transition between the extreme heat and the extreme cold. I hadn't planned on the winter storm though that was to hit Texas. Oh well, just a bit of preparation for coming back to the Alaskan winter. 

While in Louisiana I ate some good seafood - crawfish rolls, shrimp pasta and fried catfish. Also enjoyed some jambalaya during that weekend. Yum! that is next on my list to try making. Gotta get that recipe. Also had beignets and au lait, which for those (like me) who don't know French, is donuts and coffee with milk. 

eatin' shrimp, catfish and crawfish

au lait and beignets

enjoying friends

Thanksgiving Day we drove from Louisiana to Texas. So our lunch was a delightful, delicious meal at McDonalds! Okay, so maybe I exaggerated with the delightful, delicious part, but it was actually better than my Thanksgiving meal last year. While traveling we tried to spend some holiday cheer. We gave a loaf of banana bread to a guy at McDonalds and he was really thankful since he was spending the day at work and away from family. The other guy we gave cookies and water to, said they were "kinda hard" cookies. Well, so much for the gratitude. Ha. 

road trip!

stuck in Dallas traffic

I am SO thankful for all the wonderful friends God has blessed me with. 

People are so much fun, aren't they!? :) 

Last Days in the Tropics

While life in Fiji was slower than my own crazy life at home, I still found plenty to do. Always helps that I had some awesome new friends to spend time with, as well as old friends that I hadn't seen in a while! I enjoyed my time with the Grays. I hope they were as glad to have me as they said they were. I can attest that it is nice to have someone from home visiting. Tho' I couldn't bring the cold, snow and hockey sticks, we still had a good time. And we've made plans for when they come back to Alaska.... I think somehow I owe the boys a steak dinner. Haha

Some things I experienced were brand new experiences.... like standing outside waiting for the bus.... it's bright and sunny and in a matter of seconds, the sky opens up and dumps buckets of rain. So I go back to the house to get an umbrella, head back out to the edge of the driveway.... now with an umbrella, one that leaks a bit, I must say. After waiting in the pouring rain for about 45 minutes I decided to change plans and stay in that day. Sunshine and rain is a good description of Fiji. 

with my leaky umbrella

My final week at the Grays, I got the urge to do some baking. Course, they were pretty okay with that, seeing as they have three older boys who like to eat. :) Bro. R had some misgivings about my cooking abilities, though in the end I think he conceded that I do know how to cook. Pretty sure he just liked to give me a hard time. One day I made cinnamon rolls; a double batch to be exact. That was a lot of rolls! but they were gone within two days. I also made apple pie that week. And gave them a recipe for BBQ sauce (thanks Carpenters) that we made pulled pork with. It had a slight twist to it, so it was more like Fijian Louisiana bbq sauce, but it was still good. 

half of the batch

yum!

 We had Youth Night my last weekend in Suva. Many of the youth I had met previously, but we had others show up also. It was a grand time, I mostly just hung back and watched the excitement. The highlight of the night had to be CG acting like a pig. Ha! And Bro. J did an excellent job teaching and sharing the Gospel. 

yay! their team won!

Saturday we went out visiting. During the time I was out and about that day, I baked in the sun (the most sunburn I had of the entire four weeks) and got drenched in the rain. Like I said, Fiji = sunshine and rain. The morning was sunny and HOT and then the afternoon was cool and rainy. There was impressive thunder and lightning! I LOVE thunder & lightning. But my friend who was with me doesn't have the same appreciation. :) 

I am so grateful I had the great opportunity to travel to Fiji, visit my friends, make new ones and mark another country off my list to visit. :) The people are very friendly and I have many wonderful memories of my time there. Hot climates are not my favorite, but it was an awesome experience. 

last Sunday

my amazing housemates

Singleness

I have been following this blog for a while. Never met Grace, but every time I read one of her posts, I can SO relate to it! Many times, it is the exact echo of my own heart. Here are two posts in particular that spoke to me. It is Grace's words, but I could have been mine. (tho' she writes better) :)  

Thankful for others who understand!

http://gracefortheroad.com/2013/09/26/sojourning/

http://gracefortheroad.com/2013/11/26/we-can-find-you-one/

Around the Island

I know I'm a little behind on blogging, that's what happens when you travel and internet is not readily available all the time. oh well, life happens. 

One week while in Fiji, Filo and decided to travel around the island. It's a fairly small island, so you can drive all the way around in a day (roughly 10 hours). But I wanted to see more than the road, so we took about four days to do it. 

First bus ride was almost four hours. We were only stopping briefly in that town before heading to a small village on the beach. While waiting for a our bus, we had a little food so had us a mini picnic on a random cement picnic table near the river. Only thing was it started to rain, so we tried eating our food without it getting soggy and keeping our possessions dry. It didn't rain long thankfully; we had a taxi driver next to us that kept talking to us, he offered to let us sit in his car out of the rain if it got bad. Ha. 

When we arrived at the village, it was pretty quiet. Everyone was at work still, so after greeting the old grandfathers we went for a swim. It was raining lightly, but hey we can swim in the rain too! That was only my 2nd time swimming in an ocean. We also went swimming the next morning in the beautiful, bright, HOT sunshine. We ate fish (go figure) for dinner and there was octopus soup for appetizer, but after one bite, I determined I wasn't hungry. ;) 

The sunset was spectacular. We sat on the big rocks overlooking the ocean and watched the sky change colors until it settled into a deep blue. So cool to sleep at night with the ocean roaring and crashing in the background. 

after swimming in the rain

eating fish Fijian style 

3rd time swimming in the ocean!

sunset at the beach

the village near the beach

traditional Fijian hut

The next day we traveled on. Stopped on the west side of the island for two nights. Went into the big town of Nadi (pronounced Nandi) to look around and do some shopping. Don't think I bought anything though. I didn't realize that they sell Ugg boots in Fiji! Yep, they sure do. Have no idea why you would want to wear winter boots in a tropic climate. crazy. (shaking my head)

day two of traveling (at a bus stop)

look like a tourist, eh? 

traveling by bus 

I had a great time! The last day we traveled by taxi, since others were going our direction and they already had a taxi reserved. It saved us money, but no a/c in the car, so rode with our windows down. My hair was blown to frizziness, I was hot and sticky and the sun burned the top of my knee. Yep, the only sun burn from that week was the top of my knee. Weird. Both Filo and I were so glad to get home that night. 

We had  a lot of fun.... I enjoyed swimming in the ocean and she liked the small green friend in her purse. Ha!

last day of traveling (headed home!)