I had a great Fijian birthday on March 17, 2025! Somehow the Nautica dining room staff knew it was my special day (Dave swears he didn't tell) and they arrived with a slab of birthday cake, a lighted candle, and a serenade of "Happy Birthday!" Very fun! Texts and calls from family members, even to the South Seas, convinced me I am still loved, even at 75!
Dave's and my main options for a shore excursion in Lautoka, the second largest city of Fiji, were a mud bath or a visit to a botanical garden. It was a hard choice, given the great photo of Jonny's family enjoying a mud bath in Fiji during their Christmas 2023 trip there. I considered taking a similar picture of Dave and me, covered in mud, and using it for our Christmas letter. In the end, beauty won out. We stopped at Garden of the Gods, a botanical garden that featured orchids
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It also included other striking tropical flowers and plants.
We had time, at the end of the tour, to just relax and let the beauty soak in. I never did learn what "BULA" stood for.
I search gift shops and markets, whenever I travel, for the essential gifts I bring home--jam for Robyn Petty (who says she won't accept anything else for keeping an eye out for packages arriving at our home while we're gone) and something distinctive for my long-suffering paralegal, Cate.
I did, indeed, find jars of local jam for Robyn. I also found my favorite candy bar, a Cadbury fruit and nut bar, in this former British colony. I have been eating Britain's Cadbury candies ever since I lived in Burma, as a child, and my father fearlessly made his way onto British ships at harbor in Rangoon to talk with their skippers. While we were there, he bought English candies at the ship's gift store for his children who were tagging along.
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