Josh and I have both decided that we will not be flying for a bit.  We have had enough “flying adventure” to last us a while.  Packing up our life into four check-in bags and two carry-ons is really not an easy task. Can you guess whose items dominated most of this space? 

We have flown a total of five planes in mere two weeks and have had quite the “turbulence” along the way. It started with checking into LAX for our Fiji-bound flight. We spent at least an hour packing and checking… and then rechecking… to make sure that our check-in bags weighed no more than 50lbs each so as to insure no overweight baggage fee.  We were perfect. … of course we were both wearing the heaviest items we owned and probably wearing too much clothing for a tropical island but we were determined to not be over that weight limit!

Low and behold, who knew they would weigh the carry-on luggage as well! We were TOTALLY over our limit and ended up dishing out a whopping total of $180 in overweight baggage fees. (Did I mention that we trying to stick so much on budget that Josh refused to rent a cart for $5 that would help us wheel our six bags around. So much for trying to be cheap! Josh almost fell over a couple of times with all the baggage he was carrying.)

                                                                  Waiting in line at LAX

This whole ordeal cost us a great deal of time in getting to our flight and when we finally arrived at the terminal, as passengers were boarding, Josh realized he left his baseball hat back in the security check-in, waaaay on the other side of the airport. Lovely. None the less, we made it to Fiji.

Leaving the Fiji airport made LAX seem like a walk in the park.

We made sure to get to the airport with plenty of time just in case there were any hiccups with baggage, etc. Apparently that was worthless because Fijians are known for having their own pace for everything… they call it “Fijian time.” Josh and I watched the guy behind the check-in counter rearrange everything on the desk, dust the whole counter, go for a bathroom break, and then dust again for about twenty minutes before deciding he was ready to check people in.  We had to laugh. When we got to the counter, the lady serving us kept swiping our passports through the machine. She must have done this about ten times.  “Problem,” she said. Uhoh.  “There is a visa for you, Joshua, but not one for you, Laura.” “What are you talking about?!” Josh responded.  Well, apparently the visa was declined for me for some odd reason and I could not leave Fiji.

That was it! Josh was headed off to Australia and here I was left to fend for myself on a remote island in the Pacific. (Don’t get me wrong… Fiji is beautiful… but I was ready to leave.) I was panicking.

The lady assured us that we could quickly fill out paperwork for a new travel visa now and we could get on the plane. So, we went over to a free computer behind the counter that no one was using. Twenty minutes later, we finally figured out which paperwork to fill out. After we completed it, we needed to pay a processing fee. Well, just our luck, our credit card didn’t work….our debit card didn’t work… we couldn’t pay for the travel visa! Panic! We had exactly 15 minutes to figure it out, check in our bags, and race to our gate to board the plane.  

We finally discovered that we could use paypal and that saved our day.

When we raced back to the counter to check in our luggage, our weight limit was over.. surprise…surprise.  This time, we ended up paying $630 Fijian… yes, far more than what we paid at LAX… same airline and everything. APPARENTLY each “port” can charge whatever they like for baggage fees. WHAT!? Well, we had no choice but to pay it. We weren’t going to stay in Fiji any longer.

At this point, you would have loved to see the beautiful interactions that Joshua and I were having.  Ha.  Pretty sure Josh threatened to leave me in Fiji, visa or not.

I don’t think we spoke two words to each other that whole flight.

In the end, we made it to Australia. We have yet to resolve my visa situation so that I can work (to make up for all the money we spent on baggage fees).  OH, and we did discover that some Fijian airport workers decided to take home some of my undergarments from my luggage to their wives.  Lovely.

God is in control. We will laugh at this some day… just not today.