T minus 3 hours

Justin and I are all packed and ready to go! Between the two of us, we have seven bags filled with pipets, chemical reagents, a turbidimeter, an incubator, lollipops, Costco-sized quantities of soap (for gifts), and snorkel gear. Everything one needs for a typical trip to Fiji. :) We're a bit nervous about the weight of the bags and the suspicious-looking vials of green chemical reagents, but have been told by the airlines it should be ok. 

We will fly to LA and then take a 10 hour flight to Fiji, arriving at 5 am on July 6th. Then we will have two days of vacation on beautiful Wayalailai Island before heading to Buca Bay (pronounced "Butha"), where our work will begin.

See you on the other side!!

ps. We just figured out that Fiji time is 19 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time; or you can think of it as a day minus 5 hours. So right now it's 1:43pm on July 4th here in California, but it's 8:43 am on July 5th in Fiji.