Our international jet-setting poocher

Well we parted with the pooper on Sunday. We packed her into her "box" as we affectionately call her crate and put her on a plane to Los Angeles. My parents still love us enough to have driven up to LAX at 5am to pick her up. My dad sent us this picture to assure us he did in fact pick Cheddar up and she's still in one piece. Apparently he had to wake her from her nap for this picture, can you tell she's pleased? =)

And so it begins...

Moving that is. I am currently sitting on the floor with my laptop and hubby "supervising" the packing. It's funny, everyone says "Oh they come and do it for you, you don't have to do anything!". Wrong! We've spent the last two days trying to figure out what we'll need for the next 2 months en route to Virginia. Once we siphoned off our bathroom with all the "Don't pack this!" stuff, exiled all of our yard sale stuff to the backyard this morning, we found out we had to sort through all the rest of our junk to remove liquids, food, flammables (spray paint I knew, duh. But nail polish??), batteries, light bulbs and candles. Because they won't do it. Given they arrived 1 1/2 hours late AND took two breaks before noon tells me it's going to be a LONG two days. I pitched the thought of running out to get food for them because it'd only give them another reason to take a break. Oh Guam!

Holy Cow Palau!

Well I’d say Colin and I kicked off our New Year’s with a bang. We hung out at home, ate pasta and watched Flight of the Intruder. Woo! I can’t say we’re the most adventurous couple when it comes to partying but we are when it comes to travel. We also spent that night packing and flew out the next day to Palau for the week. All of Colin’s travel paid off and earned us two first class seats and a visit to the President’s Lounge. I’d have to say traveling is 99% more enjoyable if you do it first class. Hands Down.

For the next three days we packed 8 dives in one of the most gorgeous places on Earth. Seriously this island is right out of National Geographic. We spent every day out on the boats cruising around many of the 343 islands that make up that tiny nation.  We spent over 7 hours underwater that week exploring EVERYTHING. The corals were so colorful and perfect, the turtles were so happy and friendly, even the sharks were friendly (I think). Considering our dive buddies came all the way from Europe & the States, we knew we had to be in a pretty good place! 

I’d say our most eventful dive was in the German Channel where we came in contact with Palau’s famous Manta Rays. They have some enormous rays that span from 6-9 feet wide! An 8 foot white ray seemed to have figured out Colin and I were the true rookies of our group and decided to have fun with us. That included a game of Chase the Newbie Divers, a game of which NEITHER of us were expecting (nor desiring). I wish they had told me about that BEFORE the dive to save our friends from such entertainment. That was also my shortest dive as I went through copious amounts of air during that encounter, grrr. I’m still pretty new at this so hopefully I’ll soon learn how to relax like all our dive buddies seemed to do.

A Black Manta Ray...very few of these exist in the world. It's like seeing a person with one blue eye and one brown eye. That rare. 

Me going "Whew!" after the Manta chase.

So pretty much every day consisted of us out on the boat or in the water. At the end of each day we hung out at the bar back at the dock to enjoy the sunset.  A gorgeous sunset I might add. Overall the trip was pretty fantastic, I don’t think any camera in the world can do that place justice but here’s my attempt to share a few of our experiences with you. 

 Almost every view included at least four shades of blue water. 

A blue clam, one of the sunken ships we visited had these encrusted all over her mast and beams. 

Thousands of fish would surround us.

Here's Colin and I giving the peace sign in Chandelier Caves. Apparently Japanese honeymooners insist on having their picture taken in this particular cave. Cheezu!

We also visited Jellyfish Lake. Essentially this is an ancient saltwater lake completely surrounded by land...hence the lake part. ;) Because they have no predators around them these jellyfish have lost their stinging capabilities. Therefore, you can play with them!

I thought I'd try out my underwater video skills. 

We kayaked the Black Tip Lake where Black Tip sharks live. (Again, they didn't warn me about this...eeek)

It was only until we found this unfortunate sight that we realized why we could not find any sharks. When a shark is killed or dies for some unknown reason, the others bail out for a few days. This was one of those few days. :(

Overall I think the trip was a success. When you can see things you only thought existed in books and magazines, you begin to realize there is so much more out there in the world. We hope to continue our adventures long into our marriage because theses experiences are truly unforgettable!