the next day, i packed up my stuff and ray, jan and i headed out for a final beachcomber trip. we were to get on a plane at midnight and fly back to the states, so we knew we needed one last day in the sun to buffer the shock of being back in so called civilization.

after packing up everything that i was taking home, i piled up the remaining stuff on the table with a big sign that said "free". this precipitated a fiasco in which i had to repeatedly and via many channels express to the hotel staff that, yes indeed, i intended to leave this stuff for the cleaning staff. fortunately, they were seen hauling the good stuff away with big smiles on their faces a little later. i'm not sure what they're going to do with the amplifier and the power strip, but i'm sure the cooler will come in real handy.

ahhh, beachcomber. another day of basking in the sun, snorkeling and other tropical recreation.

didn't take many photos all day, but we snorkeled and saw all sorts of cool fish. we were having so much fun, in fact, that when we poked our heads out of the water around 4pm and saw a bunch of people getting into a boat, we reassured ourselves that our boat didn't leave until 5pm and we had plenty of time for more snorkeling. shortly after that, jan and i headed in and discovered that the four o'clock boat was the last one to leave the island. i wanted to fly in a helicopter to pick us up at that point, but the resort managers found another boat to come by and pick us up instead. this is that boat.

on the way back to saweni, we finally stopped and got a picture of the live chicken meat bird sign. oh how we all loved the live chicken meat birds.

one last fijian sunset.

ray does his best meat bird impression.

later that evening, we had our final medwards spotting. he and sarah turned up just in time to catch the plane back to the states. our suspicions of their alien abduction turned out to be unfounded.

sunrise the next morning (actually the second morning of that same day thanks to more international date line antics).

touchdown in los angeles. we're back in the land of cheeseburgers and movie stars.

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