Heading to the Airport, we all parked the Jeep - unloaded the Jeep and bus drove right past us and left the parking lot and headed towards the Airport. We all stood there with our mouths open, arms wailing... Sharon had to walk to the front gate and have the driver come back for us "CODE RED". We loaded the usual fish boxes, suit cases, dive bag, net case, our carry on's and Austin's back pack onto the bus. Got to the Airport and had a Skycab help us with our belongings, Oops! Forgot to sign the Passports... Opps! One to many bags and ouch, $74.00 later we are on our way.

Dallas gave me a clue to where we were headed...Clue # 1 ...It will be on the next plane with us??? What kind of clue is this I thought!!! Dallas got on the plane and became very anxious. I know this for a fact because he didn't eat his dinner, only crackers and cookies. It was last year that he went thru that traumatic flight home from Fiji when he went into A Fib. This is the 1st time we have flown since that happened and I am sure it was still fresh on his mind. It was on mine also. Although he did play plenty of Pokeman Pinball with Austin. That's a good sign. We watched "Return to Me", written and directed by Bonnie Hunt." It was a very good movie, a young Irish Italian girl has a heart transplant and ends up meeting the widower of the heart donor and falls in love. Austin is playing lots of Game Boy, coloring with his gel pens and punching holes in paper.....And of course asking every 15 minutes if we are close to landing yet...

At the suggestion of Nancy Baiardo, I'm reading "The Poisonwood Bible". She said it reminded her of her upbringing. It has over 500 pages so it should last me the entire vacation.

Here we are on our second leg of our journey, just taking off from Los Angeles. Dallas was getting nervous again even more now that we are heading towards Hawaii. He mentioned his anxiety to the flight attendant who just happened to be a nurse. In fact, the nurse/flight attendant contacted the airport paramedics and they were checking him out in the rear of the plane. His BP was 150/120. But they said he was fine. Our options were to take the next flight which was next week or stay aboard. They talked for a bit and seemed to calm him down. I think once they told him that is heart was fine it seemed to settle him down a lot. You never know about these things. I did not experience it but from what he told me it was very scary. But he's a strong physical guy.

We arrived into Honolulu, Dallas has calmed down a lot. It's 1:00 AM. The flight to Honolulu was uncomftable. Austin was able to sleep. I think Dallas did to, probably from his Victoria Secret Mask. While I was trying to get comfy, and trying to snooze a bit, I knocked my 1/4 full wine glass to the floor and it smashed into a zillion pieces, but it didn't wake anyone, I think ~~!! :-) We had a 1 1/2 hour layover in Hawaii. Because it was 1 A. M. here, everything was was closed so everyone just lounged around waiting to re board.

We are now on our final 3rd leg of our journey heading towards Samoa in the South Pacific. I can't wait, it sounds so tropical and beautiful, but less commercial than Tahiti. Dallas broke down and told me where we were going on the way to Honolulu. See, I am braking his secretative ways down, slowly but surely. Maybe it was my cute smile that made him cave it. Do you think????!!!

We arrived in Samoa in the early dawn, the sun wasn't even up yet. We had a hour drive to the CoCo Nuts Resort, it was such a relief to finally be here. Upon arrival, the morning was becoming stressful. Our luggage was not on the plane. Dealing with the airport personal and then the hotel and trying to get in touch with Air New Zealand was not a way to start a vacation. Finally we got in touch with them only to find out that our luggage was still in Los Angeles. They, United Air Lines never transferred our bags over to Air New Zealand. So what to do now. What could we do!! We headed to our room which was called a "Tree Falle", meaning a tree house. Everything, bed, tables, chairs, were made from natural wood such as bamboo. The floor had a straw mat on it. The bathroom was the more traditional area, with a small sink, toilet but a fairly large garden tub with a straight shower head directly above it. The shower was open to the outside. There were bamboo curtains for privacy. There was double bed, Austin had his own twin bed. After settling in a bit, we headed to the beach. Dallas was the only one with a bathing suit. He packed it in his carry on...go figure!!