Our trip to Fiji starts in 2 days. Packing dive gear is no real problem. We know what goes in the dive bags: mask, fins & booties, snorkel, wetsuit & hood, BC vest, regulator. That's it. We don't pack weights or tanks - the boat provides that.

Clothes aren't too bad either. We take every bathing suit we own, a few tshirts and shorts and a hat. That's about all you need when you're going to be on a boat in the South Pacific.

But, all those miscellaneous things like camera battery charger, dive log book, passport, toothbrush - we're so out of practice with packing. Our normal mode of travel is to turn the key and drive off ... with our whole house (including the kitchen sink) with us. This time, we started packing about 5 days in advance, in hopes of not forgetting anything. We used the driver and passenger seat as our 'staging area' - the one place that wasn't in the way.

Odie is going to be staying with Jim's parents. We got him groomed yesterday so he will smell pretty for them. The motorhome will stay put. Paradise Island has a 'storage' rate of $5/day plus $3 electric. I really like the idea of leaving it parked with the electricity on so the air conditioner can run a little while we're gone.

We will be taking Jim's laptop computer with us - mainly to be able to get the pictures off the camera. Otherwise, we'd have to buy a dozen cards! We did already buy one more card - a 512k. Along with the original 256k card, that gives us capacity for about 300 photos. We'll probably shoot that in the first couple days! If we have a WiFi connection somewhere along the way, we will post a Blog entry. But I'm not counting on it - especially on the boat.

I expect to have quite a backlog of pictures and blog entries to make when we get back. And, there will be lots of underwater video too. I will NOT be taking my good camera underwater - an underwater housing for my Canon Digital Rebel runs over $2,000! But, I did find a film camera for $20 that claims to work down to 100 feet! It was only $20 - so I got it.

It may be just because I have Fiji on the brain - but there have been several news items from there lately - have you noticed? Keith Richards, out of his tree, in Fiji. Tori Spelling gets married in Fiji. And - Massive Earthquake in Pacific threatens Fiji with Tsunami. This one had us worried. But, if a Tsunami had been spawned by this earthquake, it would have hit Fiji in a matter of minutes. That didn't happen, and the warnings were lifted.

Back to packing!