Welcome "home?"

We arrived at the airport about 80 mins before our United flight was scheduled to depart for LAX. For reasons that remain unknown, United demoted our listing from business class to economy and without any action on our part, decided to put us in seats that were in completely different rows. There 60 open seats. We inquired as to why this occurred, and they said it was because our last names are different. This was never a problem before we were married, so it's interesting that this somehow threw United for a loop.



We did end up going to the gate (with seats adjusted to be together, although pretty far in the back) and were just shy of the secondary screening, when we stopped short. This is not how we wanted our honeymoon to end - angry at the airlines, angry at the efficiencies of Sydney's Kingsford Smith International, and poised to spend the next 14 hours in mediocre seats. Right then and there, we canceled our listing. There was a Delta flight leaving in an hour to LAX, but we were already resigned of that option. I went on my phone and booked us a hotel in Fiji and a standby listing to Nadi.

It was an interesting journey to our resort, which is on its own island about 20 minutes from the main island. We met a driver after customs who drove us for about 25 mins to the wharf and then we bounced along in the boat to Serenity Island where we received a royal welcome with musicians, a welcome party with everyone saying "Bula!" and "Welcome Home!" It's like we were celebrities. Not bad for $145/night. We have a beachfront hut. Honestly, they all seem to be beachfront, as the island is maybe only a 1/2 mile around. Having arrived at night, we couldn't really confirm if our view was great.

We could hear the ocean, but for all we knew, we could be sitting on a pile of trash since it was so dark out. We fell asleep to the sounds of the waves crashing just 10 meters away as the rustling of the palm trees lulled us into a deep sleep. We haven't even seen daylight yet, but I think Fiji was a good choice...

Yes.