Almost home!

Greetings, gentle readers! I'm in the Continental Lounge at the Newark Airport with access to high speed internet for the first time in a long time, Praise Jesus. The internet in Palau is so incredibly slow that my impatient self couldn't bear to be waiting for a connection when I could be connecting with live people instead. The folks who work at Neco Marine and the Palau Pacific Resort, not to mention my best buddy Bert, are some of my favorite people in the world. My husband and I were treated like royalty and the precious bartender, Randy, made up a drink for me that will be the featured drink special for the month of May! He's calling it the Cherry Blossom. It's made with vodka, cherry liquor, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, a little lime juice, and a bit of triple sec. Add ice, blend, and decorate with an umbrella, long stemmed cherry, and an orange slice. I felt quite honored. Now lest y'all think I spent all my time at the bar, let me hasten to reassure you that was not the case. I am absolutely thrilled to announce that I continued my running training in Palau! I would get up at 5:30, eat half a power bar, drink water (unless the breakfast buffet folks had the juice set up in which case they would bring be a small glass of juice because they are the kindest people in the world,) do my stretching by the beach looking at the moon rising over the Philippine Sea (so incredibly beautiful) and then head to the activity center which opened at 6 a.m. Timothy was my buddy who staffed the activity center and was so wonderful and encouraging. Everyone was encouraging me to stay hydrated because Palau is 8 degrees above the equator and diving can be dehydrating. And since I was pouring sweat while running (the activity center was airconditioned but set at about 80 degrees and I'm used to running in my 60 degree workout room in the basement so it was tough!) I had to be really focused on taking a big bottle of my favorite iced-tea and lemonade mixture on the dive boat every day. There were two days when I had to combine walking and running because the heat was making me really feel sick to my stomach. Timothy was off that day and nobody had turned on the airconditioning in the room so it felt like a sauna. It made my respect for Rachel running that Chicago marathon and train in freakin Africa skyrocket. But I did stay on the treadmill for the entire 30 minutes--I just ran about 22 and walked 8 in different intervals. When I was walking, I cranked the elevation up to hopefully work some other muscles. I was really careful about stretching before and after. The other day I didn't run all 30 minutes I have to say I let myself get psyched out by this little Japanese woman who was older than the great wall of China and had on a Pacific Marathon 2008 tshirt. She didn't WANT the aircondition on. And she had the tv cranked so loud on the Japanese news channel that I couldn't hear my ipod! I had enmity in my heart towards her. And she kept increasing her speed, I'm convinced, just to intimidate me. At one point, and I confess this with a somewhat heavy heart, I was thinking "Desire, Determination, Discipline, Hiroshima, Nagasaki." I did ask God's forgiveness and tried to find room in my heart to admire her incredible fitness at such a very, very, very old age. Did I mention how old she was? She kicked my 43 year old butt from hell to breakfast. And then started lifting weights. Totally dominated me. Bless her heart.
But the last day, Timothy was back, the ac was on, and I did my 30 minutes straight and it felt great. So I have finished my 10 week training program, have run 3 days of week 11, and will probably plan to run tomorrow morning since my jet lag will have me up pretty early.
Our trip home has been uneventful. Our next flight leaves in about 40 minutes. It will be good to be home. As soon as my wonderful husband finishes downloading all the pics he took, I'll get some of them posted so keep checking!
Peace to all,
RevMutha

Scuba Diving day 2

First day of scuba diving went great. We did the Blue Holes and Great Drop Off Wall. We saw some sharks, a beautiful sea turtle, lots of school of fish, a cute clown fish in an anemone--the visibility was amazing.
Here's a picture of the Rock Islands. Today we head to Jellyfish Lake and then do three dives.
Jellyfish Lake is one of nature's mysteries. There are a number of these lakes in Micronesia, but only one is open and accessible to the public. And "accessible" is something of an overstatement. It is accessible if you're in pretty danged good physical shape. You basically have to haul in your mask, fins, and snorkle in a bag on your back and climb up a steep hill (there is a rope provided) and then go down this steep pathway to a small wooden dock. Once you get there, you're confronted by a huge lake of emerald green water. In the water you can see these flesh-colored orbs. Once you start swimming in the lake, the orbs become more plentiful until you are surrounded by millions, literally MILLIONS of them--they are jellyfish that have lost their stingers. It is both freaky and beautiful. I'll post a picture later.
Gotta go get some breakfast and then head out to the dive boat.
Peace,
RevMutha