So you might be wondering where Nana has been for the past six months since my last blog was published. I had all good intentions of re-capping our 2023 adventures with Cooper much sooner than this but my senior life without Cooper often gets in the way of penning my continued Cooper chronicles.
In the last post focusing on Papa Jesse, I had realized that Nana Beryl still had a lot to share about the organization and experiences of our continued Cooper visits, which in 2023 were in Fiji (twice), California and Telluride. Despite living extremely far apart, we actually have had 24 visits worldwide since Cooper was born in 2016, despite losing 1 & 1/2 years due strict Covid prohibitions. And much thanks is due to Stacy who has found many ways and places to connect Cooper to his grandparents.
Having taken the multi-city European vacation with our family of five in November 2022 (as described in blog posts 41 and 43), we planned the next gathering in Fiji for the following March to coincide with first-grader Cooper’s two-week school break. By then Chef Jason had begun the position of Executive Chef at Nanuku, a luxury beachfront resort nearby their Pacific Harbor home. That inspired me to look into staying at Nanuku for a few days to break up our two week Fiji visit and afford us the use of their resort activities. I very fortunately found an excellent rate on Expedia (considerably less expensive than the rate being offered directly on the Nanuku website) for a one bedroom garden villa that could accommodate two adults and one child, if Cooper would like to stay with us.
We caught up with our Fiji jet lag for the first few days by relaxing at our family’s comfortable home and property. We are always excited to see how Cooper has grown and matured since our last time together, which is not as discernible on our weekly FaceTime calls when his attention to our conversation is usually limited. On this trip, I noticed Cooper often repeated the expression “That’s hilarious!” when something was especially funny to him. Nana thought that her 6 & 1/2 year-old grandson’s expression was also quite hilarious, the verbal equivalent of LOL.
Papa and Cooper engaged in a favorite tandem activity, fishing right from their property’s river dock. Papa even caught a small but edible fish, gutted and fried for lunch by housekeeper Marama.
When it came to river activities, Nana has favored kayaking, following Stacy who stand-up paddles with Cooper riding the board and their two dogs swimming alongside.
Indoor activities included repeated viewings of Cooper’s favorite animated movies. They have an enormous collection of DVD’s. And viewing was often accompanied by Lego construction. Cooper has become quite the Lego master, whether competently following the instructions for a new set or impressively making his own creations from a growing bucketful of dismantled sets of intermingled pieces. I do not have the imagination to build a Lego structure nor have I mastered the learning curve for assembly instructions. But my forte was locating a specific tiny piece among hundreds, like the miniature Lego bird that Cooper frequently sought.
Stacy encouraged Papa to play Battleship with Cooper.
Meanwhile, Papa could often be found in his favorite resting and reading spot, the lounge chair by the pool, where Cooper was often engaged in water play, eventually to be joined by Papa.
Nana and Papa provided some full-time Cooper care when both Stacy and Jason were busy with work obligations. When Stacy had a late work meeting, grandparents and Cooper walked to the Establishment, a nearby riverside restaurant for dinner. As we ate outside, our main task was watching out for Cooper who gravitated to the dock and any other kids in the vicinity. Cooper’s restaurant order was typically fried (fish or chicken) with chips (equivalent of American French fries) with tomato sauce (ketchup).
A few days into our visit we took a busy day trip to Suva, an hour’s drive away, where Stacy needed to do some work at her office. She left Nana, Papa and Cooper at the Damodar City Centre for entertainment at Tom’s World amusement centre, a movie, and lunch.
Cooper has his favorite Tom’s World jumping activities and loves riding the snowmobile arcade game, even though the inside air is rather warm, as you can see by active Cooper’s sweaty appearance.
Stacy picked the best movie for Cooper that was among those currently showing, the recent release of Dungeons and Dragons: Honor among Thieves. When Nana and Papa are with Cooper, we go to lots of films we would never see otherwise, actually just like we did when our kids were young. We weren’t particularly familiar with the dungeons and dragons game, but the movie starring familiar actors Chris Pine and Hugh Grant was relatively entertaining for the grandparents. And Cooper enjoyed it, which was the whole point of going anyway.
We picked a clean kid-friendly restaurant for lunch, which had more fried foods and house specialty lemonade. A nearby table having a birthday party kindly offered Cooper a piece of the cake.
When Stacy picked us up, we went to Cooper’s friend’s birthday party, which was a riotous event of kids running around the property, in and out of the swimming pool and through the obligatory bouncy house.
We ended the day at Tiko’s, a distinctive Suva restaurant in a boat moored by a dock.
It was a long fun but exhausting day, as I am reminded by writing about it.
The next day we got ready for our move to Nanuku resort, and Cooper seemed happy about packing up to stay with us. He and Mom chose favorite comfort and activity toys to accompany him. That afternoon we only had to drive 10 minutes from their house to check in for our three-night stay. We were especially welcomed at our beautifully appointed garden villa with personalized sign on the door and shell pieces in the bottom of our private pool spelling out “Bula Jupiter Family.”
The accommodation definitely lived up to the glowing Nanuku website description, which is also confirmed by my photos. “Take a dip in your private plunge pool, and relax afterwards on the plush double day bed in your thatched-roof poolside bure. Woven magimagi ceiling beams and handpicked local artwork honor Fijian culture and heritage.” We were quite overwhelmed by the luxurious appointments.
Two adult bicycles were supplied to our room so Stacy brought Cooper’s bike from home. Cooper loved biking independently throughout the resort property.
He was also especially excited go to Kids Club, where he was introduced to the attentive staff and fun activities. And on our first evening at Nanuku Cooper participated in the nightly torch lighting ceremony, complete with wearing traditional Fijian attire. Even Dad Jason popped out of the kitchen to watch the procession. How special and what a great photo op!
Dinner was our first meal to experience Chef Jason’s menu at Nanuku, and as always, his creations were delicious. And the setting on the outdoor beach and water-facing patio was delightful.
After dinner we still wondered whether Cooper was going to stay with us overnight. Stacy helped Cooper prepare for bedtime and he hung out for a while with everpresent Oo-oo, his indispensable soother monkey, on the patio day bed.
Although the living room had been set up with a twin bed where Cooper had arranged all his toys, Mom Stacy thought he might like to sleep on the large bench at the end of his grandparents’ king bed. That was reminiscent of Cooper’s last night at our Florida house the prior year when Cooper surprised us by spending the night on the bench at the end of our bed in Nana and Papa’s bedroom.
After Stacy tucked Cooper in at Nanuku with his viewing tablet, he was very content to say goodnight to mom who went back to their house. And later that night Cooper eventually transferred himself into the roomier bed.
The next morning early rising Papa Jesse and Cooper went off for a bike ride. What a terrific grandfather/grandson bonding activity.
Eventually we all rode bikes over to the main lobby and patio breakfast area, where we were visited by chef daddy.
Cooper rushed through breakfast because he was so excited to go to the kids club. He enjoyed riding their kids zip line and did lots of supervised beach and pool activities with the staff.
Nana and Papa were essentially excused from much grandparent duty because Cooper was so happily preoccupied with kids club. Jesse and I relaxed at the lovely main pool and beach area.
Stacy got to stay home and get some work done, and came back to meet us for lunch where there was a special sign in honor Cooper.
Cooper joined the torch lighting procession again on our second evening, which provided for more special photo ops.
Of course, we enjoyed another delicious dinner a la chef Jason at the balmy Nanuku dinner patio.
On the second night there was no doubt the Cooper would be spending the night with Nana and Papa. He was fully adjusted to the resort life. And the next morning Cooper and Papa repeated their pre-breakfast bike ride.
Stacy came back for part of the day for water sports: snorkeling (Nana’s favorite), stand-up paddle boarding for Stacy and Cooper, kayaking for Nana.
Due to our family connection with Chef Jason, we were generously offered discounted food and beverage charges, and two massages, happily accepted by me and Stacy.
What a wonderful three-night stay we all had at Nanuku, especially spending extra time with Cooper and treating him to a terrific resort experience for kids, while he still got to catch up with Mom and Dad on the property. We were also grateful to Chef Jason whose new Nanuku position inspired our looking into staying there, as well as having some wonderful meals.
We left Nanuku with lots of happy memories but we still had several more days to our Fiji trip. Stacy suggested another day trip Suva for errands and fun. Cooper had visited the recently renovated Fiji Museum with his class, and was interested to share what he had learned. Jesse and I had been to the museum previously but liked the idea of seeing the new exhibits through Cooper’s eyes.
Just like in American museums, the gift shop is the last stop on the way out. I noticed an attractive kids shirt depicting the voyage of a traditional Fijian “Drua” sailboat with which Cooper is familiar and has several models. He commonly calls it the Moana boat from the animated film he loves.
Cooper didn’t seem very hungry at lunch but we didn’t realize there was anything wrong with him until he was very fatigued at his late afternoon karate class. He had been looking forward to wearing his new karate uniform that his mom had ordered to Florida and we had brought among the stuffed arrival duffel. And Nana and Papa were looking forward to watching Cooper in karate class. Unfortunately, Cooper didn’t last too long. Stacy recognized that he was lacking energy and felt very warm, even moreso than an energetic boy in a tropical environment.
That ended our Suva day trip, and unfortunately began a several day illness for Cooper, which coincided with Nana and Papa’s last few visiting days in Fiji. But we understood that the best laid plans get derailed when a child gets sick. Jesse and I were fine to take it easy with our family, watching Cooper assemble more Lego constructions, draw imaginative pictures, engage in crafting projects, and view more animated films.
Both Jason and Stacy made us some delicious meals at home. Jason created a delicious preparation of local coral trout for dinner one night and stir fry another night. Stacy put the leftover coral trout in yummy fish burritos, accompanied by amplified seaweed salad. Their house is undoubtedly the best “restaurant” in Pacific Harbor.
Although we did go back to the Establishment for a dinner coordinated with a local wine tasting event, where recuperated Cooper had more fried fish and chips, and coke.
Except for the remote island location, Cooper’s life in Fiji is not all that different from American 6 year-olds: school, sports, play dates, birthday parties, biking, fishing, movies, and lots of energetic little boy activities, coordinated by two very loving and involved parents.
Nana and Papa left Fiji with full bellies and full hearts.
Describing our first Cooper visit of 2023 has already developed into a lengthy blog post with many accompanying photos, pictures that are the proverbial equivalents to a thousand words each. So I am going to conclude this post now with the intention to pen more about 2023 in the near future. Because there are a lot more Nana/Cooper tales to tell, the next one in California in June where Stacy brought Cooper for her work meeting and requested grandparents for child care assistance.
And I do feel a self-imposed pressure to complete the posts for the 2023 year because we have an extraordinary upcoming 2024 family trip that should be excellent material for a future blog post. Hint: there will be lots of wild animals. Stay tuned for that one too.
I love seeing Dr J so relaxed! All of you look great and like you are having tons of fun.
Bula!! Loved this post Beryl! Besides "Cooper’s life in Fiji is not all that different from American 6 year-olds", he is so enriched by travel, different cultures and language, special knowledge of the sea....he will grow up to do something as special as his Mama. Are you preparing for a safari?