**(i realize i'm a little behind here, and i still haven't posted our trip to thailand over a month ago which i am reminded about repeatedly, but come on, it's picture heavy and will take forever!...i'll get to it! - i swear!)
well, there are several reasons to take the island hopper when traveling to hono...one? - getting bumped from the direct!...no one ever said stand-by travel was easy!...but nonetheless, the perks are good!
the other reasons to take the hopper, which by the way leaves at about 8am or so, and lands at 2am (although that's only 10pm guam time), is because you can take that 14 hours (instead of 7 on the direct) and experience some of this!
the first thrill of this 6 leg journey, that travels from guam to chuuk to pohnpei to kosrae to kwajelein to majuro and finally to honolulu, is that each leg is a sort of travelling russian roulette...you just might get bumped off on one of these remote islands and have to wait several days for the hopper to get you back out later...non-revs are not cleared for the whole trip so we must get off at each location and get cleared again for the next leg...hopefully you remembered to check loads before you left!
ahhh, but once you're on that plane once again you can really sit back and enjoy the scenic route!...i can't say for sure quite where this is, but i'm fairly confident it's going into pohnpei or kosrae...i wasn't in good position for any other great shots, i have a knack for getting a seat on the wrong side of the plane for majuro and kwajelein or being right over the wing!
when going in/out of chuuk, look for the shipwrecks, apparently you can see them from the air but i haven't yet...i guess i need to try again!...i have heard the wreck diving in chuuk is hard to beat, we have had friends give rave reviews for pohnpei and "the village", and have dive instructor friends in kosrae right now posting about how great it has been...kwajelein is a military installation and they don't even let transitting passengers off the plane so i don't know anyone who has been there, but majuro is the coolest looking place and quite the landing strip (well, they all are in a 737 with 5000ft of runway!), but i wouldn't want to be there in a tsunami! - there is literally nowhere to go!
another reason to go to kosrae is these little delights...green tangerines...sort of like marrying a tangerine and a lemon...yummy! - they sell bags of them in the airport, more than you can eat and i think it's only a few dollars...but you can't take them into hono or guam, so you gotta eat 'em on the plane...they also have a spicy fire salt that alot of people dip their tangerines in...it is HOT though...one dip gave me instantaneous hiccups...
bear had two hopper trips in october and we were fortunate enough to make it on both of them...hopper out and direct back...a lovely little 2 day hawaiian vacation!...learned to surf, starbucks for me, coffee bean for bear, and old navy and target to stock up on cheap kid's clothes and "stuff you can't get on guam"!...happy times!
the girls playing mermaid ponies in the hotel...
the one with the super sweet expression is mine...ha!...seriously kid, you're in fiji - buck up!...this is before heading up the sigatoka sand dune hike...
after traversing the super hot dune foot fryer hill, we made it to the beach!
bear's girlfriend and wife frolicking up the beach in slow motion baywatch/bo derek style...
the next day lisa and i left at an absurdly early hour to head down to pacific harbor for the shark dive and zip line...blew up the underwater camera on the dive so no more pics from that day...waiting to get some from fellow divers...but this picture is clearly before lisa started puking off the side of the boat!
i think ella was pretty impressed that bear flew us home...when he talked on the radio called them by name and her jaw dropped...
they loved the turtle club...this was some of their body paint from the first night...they left with all kinds of loot...they were happy campers!...you cannot beat the fiji sofitel for childcare...top notch!
