Bula! Part 2 (Tuesday and Wednesday)

Lilly playing her drum in the town.
Lilly & her favorite babysitter at the kids club.

Lilly trying on the grass skirt that she made at the kids club

Daddy & Lilly on the way to the kids club. Isn't Lilly's princess backpack the cutest?

Lilly & one of the villagers.

Lilly & I were given flower lei's in the village.

Lilly & her musician friends in the town; the guy in the middle was the head of the kids club, and also our tour guide. He also managed, the day before, to put two french braids in Lilly's hair.

Lilly on the far right, being held by one of the Fijian women during the cultural performance.

Lilly & me at the firewalk.

Jon, Lilly & I with our new friends at the firewalk.

Our last picture at the Shangri-La. Outside breakfast, of course.

Missy Moo and her Mommy

Princess & her daddy.

Our boat trip ended up being canceled on Tuesday afternoon due to rain, so when Lilly woke up from her nap we hit "Happy Hour" at a bar near the pool. We ended up talking to a few other couples with kids Lilly's age, and the girls all played together. We then headed over to dinner at an Asian-style restaurant. Lilly loved her vegetarian eggrolls, but was less impressed with the chicken and broccoli. Luckily Lilly always gets what she wants, and convinced the waitress to find a piece of regular sandwich bread for her to munch on while we ate. Afterwards, we hit up the disco again, and Lilly loved dancing - she could actually keep up with some of the dance steps they were teaching.

Wednesday, Lilly went to the kids club for the morning, and participated in boat racing in the pool, followed by making grass skirts. Meanwhile, Jon & I played tennis and went to the "adults only" pool for a little while. We picked her up at noon, got her lunch, and then hopped in a bus to go on an afternoon tour. She fell asleep during the driving tour of the local neighborhood (the school, hospital, & villages), and then we stopped in the nearby town for some shopping. In the one air conditioned shop, Lilly was serenaded by a few musicians; she had the best time singing and dancing. Then we went to a "eco park" where they had animals. At the beginning, they took out snakes and iguanas for the kids to hold and pet. Unfortunately, even while we showed Lilly how to gently pet the iguana, she decided to grab it from daddy and squeeze its head tightly. After a 10 seconds we were able to pry her hands off him, and he, looking relieved and fortunately unhurt by the incident, was handed back to the person in charge. Lilly, however, then realized she wasn't supposed to do that, and burst into tears. She calmed down after a minute, and we reminded her that she needed to be gentle with animals, but we all declined to hold the snakes!

The last part of the tour was visiting a local village. The women there were so friendly and loved Miss Lilly, and they sang and danced and gave us some local food to eat, and some "Kava" to drink. Not really sure what Kava is, but it looks like muddy water and burns the tongue a little, although it's not alcohol, supposedly.

That night we went to a "Firewalking" and cultural show/dinner. Lilly loved the firewalking, or at least, she loved the ceremony. They had stadium type seating in a decent sized arena, and Lilly walked from our end all the way to the other side, stopping at each couple people to say hi and wave and blow kisses, before walking all the way back. She did this about 3 times, and everyone loved her. Then we had the dinner, and she surprised us by eating vegetables (peas, carrots & corn), and then she got up on stage for the end part of the concert. This was our last night at Shangri-La and it was definitely worth it!