A Guam Thanksgiving

It's been a rough year in the Weaver household, but we're very thankful that we've been able to get through all these obstacles while also having some of the most life changing experiences ever.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Jason, Angela, Jerome and Lynn down in Jerome and Lynn's apartment. Stephen nominated me about a month ago to make the turkey - which turned out to be the best in my four years of thanksgiving turkey cooking. After 24 hours of brining the bird, it cooked to a beautiful golden brown color with nice glossy skin, and it practically fell of the bird while Stephen carved with out being dried out. In our group effort, we also enjoyed spinach and artichoke dip with chips and veggies, creamy hand mashed potatoes, from scratch cranberry sauce, cinnamon yams (I can't even describe how good they were), stuffing (with homemade wheat bread), some saucy gravy, Japanese and Filipino rolls, the ever classic green bean cassarole, fruit salad ambrosia, and chocolate chocolate cupcakes (the made from scratch frosting was to die for).

After multiple helpings to the main meal and dessert, we played dominoes for hours - 15s down to 7s for those who know the game...then we had to let Jerome get some sleep for work the next day.

In all it was an amazing day and we feel blessed to have been able to enjoy it with such great new friends. We hope everyone we know had a great Thanksgiving and that the holiday season finds us all in the spirit. It's definitely put me in the holiday cooking and decorating mood - so watch for some recaps of the Thanksgiving cooking (because I also made chocolate chip pumpkin bread and turkey soup for the weekend) and the decorating of the cutest little tree ever (thank you Karen!!!).

How to bust a (coco) nut in Guam.

Just prior to our weekend in Oahu, we took a nice little hike to a secluded little beach on the northwestern side of the island. I think it was about 40 min walk. Up and down some small coral rock formations that break up the sandy stretches and through the water around some others that didn't look as easy to climb, and we soon found our little sandy slice of Guamness.
Matt, Vic, and Katherine initiated the hike and KW and I thought it was definitely worth it. They all snorkeled and said it was pretty good (which translates to very good in other parts of the world). Something about a 75' anenome filled with clown fish....and chock full of other stuff. Three guys snorkeled by that were catching octopus. They were the only intruders into our day of sand and sun.

So, what to do after a good hike, and some sun and surf? How about busting a nut with Catherine, matt and myself. Sounds like fun? Tasty too!!

So, it's not really as hard as cartoons can make it out to be. First, try to climb the palm tree and knock one down. After that doesn't work, grab a large stick and knock a nice green one down. Smash it on a rock or log and taste it. Pretty nasty. Next, go take the stick and knock down a brown one that is ripe and infinitely harder. Spend a half hour or so cracking it on a coral chunk and a log. Don't bother with the Catherine-inspired sea shell cutting technique. No matter how sharp the shell is...it's a pain. Besides, the ever-prepared Matt had a knife.
Once you get the outer shell off, the inner nut is the good part. Surprisingly, the cartoons are inaccurate regarding this part too..... the three little dark spots don't wink at you. So, take a knife and stab two of the holes and cut the "eyes" out. One is for drinking out of, the other is for venting. Don't mix the blood from Matt's cut finger into the coconut milk though. That would be nasty. The eyes are the softest part, and make it easy to not spill the coconut milk. A Dewalt drill would be better, but the knife worked well. Once you drink the yummyness, smash the nut on something hard and eat the white part inside. Delicious and good for your hike back. A machete would cut your time from half an hour to under a minute. But, at least if you Gilligan Island yourself in the tropics without one, you can eat nicely.
Extra credit Bonus.....
Carefully crack the shell in half and make your female companion a coconut bikini top. She likely won't wear it, but at least the thought was there.

Getting off this rock for a few days!

Just wanted to say "YEA!!!!"

I'm getting off the Guam rock for a few days by going to work with Stephen tomorrow...how weird is that? I'm joining him on the island hopper to Honolulu (this being my very first trip to Hawaii - and probably one of the shortest any of you have ever heard of - we'll be on the island for 50 something hours).

I can't wait to just be somewhere different...I'm not feeling anything of the cabin fever I've felt at other times this year - but I do think I was going to be hitting a wall soon enough. A perfect break in the Guam life so I can come right back to it and enjoy some more. And with a car rental, we hope to check out the north shore and I'm hoping to eat a good burger and a sandwich from the Whole Foods (like back in the days of field work for ENSR).

Hopefully we'll get some good photos to share, and perhaps a funny story or two.

Traveling Home for Our September Visit

When we travel stand by it's all about checking the magical load numbers before you go to the airport, gambling if you'll get on the plane as a standby, or if you'll be looking for an alternative routing. So around 8am on the 3rd (guam time), Stephen checked, and it all looked good- now I will note that he had a ticket for him (no stand by) because he was on the way to training...he was really checking how my stand by status looked. I looked to be the second to get one of three seats. not bad, considering the day before I was second to get none of minus eight seats (over booked by eight and then one person who ranked higher than me in the standby).

It's not until we're at the actual gate, that we meet a lovely dispatcher from Houston, who's trying to get home, that we learn that the flight to Honolulu (which also goes on to Houston) that morning got canceled and they rolled 20 passengers over on to our flight to through Narita (Tokyo). So the two of us (not stephen, the dispatcher and I) are thinking, we just got bumped by revenue passengers and that she and I may be looking for hotel rooms in Tokyo. Then the gate agent hands us our new boarding passes and says we're checked through to Houston...what!

Even in Tokyo, we were nervous nellies. They took our dispatcher friend's boarding pass at one point, which we thought was bumping her off, but turned out to the JAL employees that cover for CAL there, it was very important that they write "OK" on it. After loading the plane with all three of us in first class, we kept watching the JAL employees who were coming on board to rearrange passengers (we don't understand their system but just thought they'd be coming up to us next to say we had to give us our seats).

The nauseous feeling finally left me when I heard the landing gear being pulled up into the plane as Tokyo was growing smaller. Then it was time for 14 hours of good food, lay out seats and the new on-demand video/music system (built into each seat). Yup, I think I got lucky this time.

And let's just say, this also meant I got out of cooking Stephen birthday dinner. I had made mini-chocolate-chip pancakes for breakfast before we left, but I can not compete with: open bar, sushi and lobster for appetizers, variety of hot rolls, filet mignon, the other side dishes, ice cream and fruit cobbler, cappuccinos (okay we skipped those because we had to get some rest on the flight, but they do have the machine on board) and then don't forget the omelet and fresh fruit and all cinnamon rolls for breakfast. No one should judge us for eating all that (plus we later had dinner in Houston) because the 3rd lasted over 40 hours for us...I think somehow that justifies all the eating :)

Now it's training time in Houston and I'm just waiting until we can get on another plane and head up to CT to see you all!

Sunday Afternoon Stroll

Stroll maybe the wrong word...hike, sweat, climb, sweat, walk. Yeah, that's more like it. Stephen took me up to the Nimitz Hill area (that's the hill/road he likes to ride his bike up and down and up and down...and this area is where he's been mountain biking before) for a Sunday hike.

We parked pretty close to what I'd call the top - just a few hundred feet lower than all the TV towers on island that occupy the peak. It was a rocky, but slippery narrow path down to an amazing waterfall, from which Stephen pointed out where he hurt his ankle a few months back while I was in CT. We then had to use a series of ropes to get down closer to this spot of hurtful memories, during which I rolled each of my ankles once though I could still walk on them so no harm no foul. The waterfall looked even cooler from below - though the water at the bottom looked murky so no getting in it. It so weird, from up the hill by the towers you couldn't see the waterfall, just hear its little roar coming out of the valley that is lined with palm trees - very distinctively telling you where the water is. So from on top of a grass hill (and the grass can cut you here) we had descended into a tropical jungle area. Now it was more ropes and slippery clay areas that we needed to climb up to get back to the grasslands. Yeah, that's the point I almost had a break down, as I am sweating through all my clothes, the mosquitoes are starting to think I might be tasty, and I can't see the towers to know where the car is. But I kept it together and even impressed myself as I hauled my butt up some steep rocks/seasonal rain washouts with and without the help of ropes and Stephen.

Once again in the grasslandish area, we were on the easy part of the trail - the 4-wheeling area. We have the smallest Napa Auto Parts ever here, and there were so many of these people out 4-wheeling it up - I have no idea what they must spend on shipping, never mind the crap they install on those vehicles. We saw one jeep on it's side get righted as clouds of coolant burned off his engine - wonder if it will ever leave Nimitz Hill now that he started the engine upside down? It sort of made us sad, because these guys keep taking over the hiking and mountain biking trails which widens them and makes then pits of mud. There are so many trails out there and the trails after a good rain, re-level themselves in a way, that you should be able to not need new trails for your 4-wheeling. But to each their own, I guess.

After Stephen ran up a few hills to figure out the way out, we got back to the car and road home. All in all a great hike, and I'm just proud to say I did it. Never hiked anything like that in Connecticut or anywhere. Bonus was bumping into a guy in the parking lot with a nice road bike when we got back. There are other bikers on Guam!

It's an Empty-Box-of-Tissue Kind of Morning :..(

It's a gorgeous monday morning here in Guam and I am sad. Football is on and the sun is warm outside, yet my nose is runny and my eyes are watery and red.

Maggie is gone. It seems cliche to say how unique and special a dog was. Yet, anybody who ever met Maggie and had her jump up and nap in their lap, or play "tag" with her would know that it wasn't cliche. She never chased a ball. She actually did play "tag". She never growled. Never. She woofed only when she needed somebody to open a door. She was precious and gentle as could be, to the point where it was kinda silly. If God ever made a more perfect furry companion, I would be stunned to hear it.

I was really looking forward to playing with her when I went home next month. I hadn't seen her since Christmas time, when I took these pics of her. I didn't realize how much I would treasure them as they're the only pics we have of her that I know of. Sleep well BabyDog. Your Boy misses you very much.

Making Mango Jam

Success! Making this mango jam was so easy and "sooooo gooooooood" to eat.

So this little island of ours does not provide the normal access to products I'd normally use in the states to make jam (pectin, canning jars, wax), but I found a bunch of simple recipes for mango jam that didn't need pectin and gave it a whirl. Not the ideal project for a condo with the A/C just coming back on - but if you're going to be sweaty, you might as well get some jam out of it.

The basic recipe was: two mangoes, chopped up and boiled in a cup of water to get them softer (medium heat). then off the heat to use the potato masher (no food processor with us or pastry blade) to mush them up to the consistency we like (sort of chunky, you can mash more if you like). Return to medium heat and add about a cup and a half of sugar, dissolve and bring to rolling boil. I think that's when I added the juice of one lemon (no pectin products on island so I read you can use lemon juice to help it "jam" up). Then boil and stir until it's jammy. Also couldn't find any wax on island, so the jars will be living in the refrigerator for their short lives. I did sterilize the jars in boiling water just to make sure nothing starts growing from the bottom up :)

The 1/3 full jar is almost gone with just our breakfast this morning - so I'll assume that SJW likes the mango jam. I'm sure this is going to be a repeater.

Yap and Palau

Kw and I spent a week or so in a couple small islands doing some diving/snorkeling and sightseeing. Yap is a small island in the Federated States of Micronesia. The Republic of Palau (independent since 1996 or so) is a group of islands world recognized as one of the best dive islands anywhere. Yap is much lesser known and much quieter but the diving is on par with Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

YAP
Yap was first, we flew direct from Guam and arrived an hour or so later. Yap is not a destination most people have heard of. With only Continental Airlines serving it, and only 3 times per week to Guam and 3 times per week to Palau, it is really just a stopover to and from Palau and Guam. A small handful of people get off and on in Yap, with most of the passengers just flying thru.

We spent just a couple days in Yap at a small 5 room inn called O'keefe's, and left wishing we had a couple more to spend. Yap is the most untouched piece of real estate I've ever visited. A Pacific island where there is just a few small places to rent rooms and a couple small restaurants around the dive dock. Being in Yap will give you the feeling of intruding upon a simpler time and a place, yet it is so welcoming that you can feel a connection with it from the first person you meet (after the Customs people).

We arrived late at night and the dive master/owner Dave from "Beyond the Reef" met us at the airport to make sure everything was set up for the next morning. BTR is friendly, experienced, very affordable, and knowledgeable. We asked to dive to see the famous manta rays. A 15 foot tip to tip span, the mantas have a prehistoricly large quality, and are as gentle as they are large. We saw one in the first 30 seconds of the dive and another 4 before the hour was up. They are mesmerizing to watch gliding effortlessly thru the water, just 10 feet from your mask. I'd do that dive again and again. The second dive would prove to be less relaxing.

We splashed into a site called Shark City. Not Shark Street or Shark Town....Shark City lived up to it's name. A heart pounding 13 sharks circled below the boat as contemplated the intelligence of this whole idea. Not surprisingly, I jumped in wide eyed and sucking down the air in my tank like an Irishman sucking down Guinness on Saint Patty's Day....which is a little funny 'cuz the 2 other people diving with us were honeymooning from Ireland.

I don't care how many times the dive guide said "Yap sharks are friendly"...they look at you and you know they are thinking "hmmmmm....is that guy a 2 bite or a 3 bite?" When there are 13 of them, you wonder which one of them is having a bad day and wants to take it out on a tourist. It was a great dive. I have no idea what it looked like, though. I think it was a steep wall, but all I could see were sharks. It was great though, because they didn't bite me or Katrina. I wasn't too concerned about the Irish couple.

We ended up back at the dock safe and sound, without any underwater pictures. You wouldn't be looking thru a camera lens either with that many sharks surrounding you. We did get a couple pics on the way back in...some cool looking boat and a baby manta ray playing at the surface of the water doing some loops.

We ate a fantastic dinner on a ship-restaurant and called it an early night.

The next day we were flying out late at night, and after breakfast, rented a car for a little island exploring. After driving around the island for a couple hours on mostly dirt roads and talking with a guy walking around his village with a machete, we had gotten a pretty good grasp of Yap. We had learned that it was mostly an agricultural society, and that there is alot of history to the native people (the stone money is awesome to see, and when you learn the story behind it, it is dumbfounding). We learned that there aren't really any jobs in Yap. If you do have a job, the going hourly rate is around $1 per hour and it is part time. Hopefully, you don't need to drive to work, because gas is $6 per gallon. You could end up working just to pay for your gas to get to and from work. This makes it silly for most village people to get a job in Colonia (where the dive shop is and the hotel and diners are). Outside of Colonia, there isn't a single business or restaurant that we saw. People fish, farm, and feed themselves. Just when we were finishing up with our island tour, something spectacular happened.

Driving down the road, we saw a village ceremony going on near the meeting house (village men's version of town hall). KW and I stopped and debated, once again, the intelligence of crashing this party. Much like with the sharks, we eventually jumped in. Knowing it could be days before anybody missed us, let alone found us, we were very cautious and respectful when approaching the gathering. We stood around the outskirts for a few minutes trying to blend in, which was pretty silly given that every head in the place seemed to turn and stare at us 2 whiteys as we slowly walked up. It wasn't long before a gentleman (he said his name was John...but I have my doubts) invited me over to sit and talk with the Chief. He told KW that she had to sit with the other women about 20 feet in front of, but not with, the men.

They wanted to make sure we had no cameras and made it clear this would not be appropriate. We didn't have it with us, but it was in the car. The Chief and John explained to me that we had crashed a Bamboo War Dance. Curious who they were going to war with, Chief explained that this dance was a village history of past wars. It was sacred to them and usually only village people allowed to view it. He wanted to know who sent us here, and I explained how we came about them. They don't want guests stopping by, but were very welcoming once they understood that we stumbled upon them. Kw and I watched the village history dancing before us thinking this is something that National Geographic would likely report about, if they knew where we were.

The Chief, John and I talked in broken English for an hour or so as the War Dance continued. We talked about so many things...but the short version is KW and were told to come back and stay as members of the village in their guest accomodations. He explained that as we had witnessed their history, it was our village now too. John said I have to come back so he can teach me to spear fish so I can feed my family :)....but don't tell anybody the name of their village because too many tourists will come, and they don't want them. I can't say I disagree.

I realize that certain experiences can't translate well thru a blog. Maybe if you could hear me tell it, rather than reading it, you could hear their sincerity coming through in my voice. Maybe I could try to tell you how I felt watching their War Dance unfold, yet not knowing the feeling of the villagers as they watched, or how I think one of the men made the new white guy the butt of a joke without him realizing it. Maybe KW could tell you about the children that wouldn't take their big white eyes off her light skin and her golden hair, and the grandma that wanted KW to sit closer. Maybe we could tell you all that, but vicariously through our story, you likely still wouldn't know how it felt no matter how well told the story was. I wish you could feel it though, because it was.... like...kind of....hmmmmm. Yeah, sometimes it just doesn't translate through a blog.

Palau
Leaving Yap with a promise to return, a new village to call "home", we boarded the flight to Palau.

Palau is a developing island nation, with unparalleled diving. Unfortunately, it also comes with some baggage. It's kinda dirty in Koror (the main town) with some good restaurants and a choice of several places to stay, but prostitution on the streets and Chinese massage parlors dotting the landscape.

Putting the seedy side out of mind, we pretty much got up early, dove, had a couple drinks and dinner and slept. It was so nice.
We dove with Sam's Tours out of Koror. Our dive guide was Daniel. Anything you wanted...from dinner recommendation to dive site suggestions and a little tour every trip out of the marina, Daniel made the vacation in Palau better than just diving.

Matt and Vicki joined us after the first day of diving and ended up convincing us to stay an extra couple days beyond our original plans. Of course, the quality of diving made the choice that much easier. I dove 4 consecutive days twice a day and three on the last day that included a cavern and a wreck. Needless to say, I was beat. Kw snorkeled everyday I dove, except one when she needed to catch her breath for a day. The last day we kayaked and snorkeled and wished we had dove again instead.

We dove at Dexter's Wall, Blue Corner, Big Drop, Blue Holes, Pelileu Express, Yellow Wall, Jellyfish Lake...which was alien-like freaky, Siaes Tunnel, ,Ulong Channel-famous from Survivor Micronesia, and finished up with a wreck from WWII with lots of explosives still on it. These dives all had some different twists. Some had big Green Sea Turtles, most had a couple sharks ranging from white tips, to black tips to the larger Gray sharks. Gorgeous corals and tons of colorful fish, a manta ray, the wreck dive and some caverns/caves to explore.

The diving was awesome, and the company we dove with was great. We met some really fun people (some from Cabo in Mexico, some from Windsor, Connecticut oddly enough), had some great local beer and slept alot.

Not the cultural experience of Yap, but a heck of a good time that we'd go back for again.

Once? Twice?1? Three Times!@%&*!??!!!!!!!!!!

Finally, the Guam National Triathlon Championship day had arrived. I had been training to do this Olympic distance race as a relay member of TEAM TRI-W. I was training hard for the bike portion for awhile, and my teammates Catherine-the swimmer- and Matt -the runner- were all well prepared as well.

We had sized up the competition over the previous few weeks and began to realize we could very likely win the Relay Division. I have been riding harder and faster out here in Guam than ever before, and Catherine is a former Clemson University swimmer with former swim students currently in the Olympic trials for Beijing. She also won the overall female Cocos Island Crossing race earlier this year. Matt is built to be a runner, and delivered on his prediction of 7min miles despite the absolutely grueling race course in the Guam mountains.
As a sidenote- a member of the AIR FORCE International Triathlon Team said it was the most difficult Olympic distance tri he'd ever seen. He travels the world doing them, so I guess he'd know. The ocean for the swim was very rough, the skies opened up a tropical deluge on the bike course, and the run was under a muggy oppressive sun. It doesn't get much better than that.

Race started early. 430 am wakeup. No sleep that night and ready to tear it up. My adrenaline had never been this high for a race.

Catherine hit the water to get the race started. She could've pulled a wakeboarder behind her. The ocean was very choppy, and several people abandoned, some in tears, before their swim was completed. She was the first of about 70 people out of the water. She had given our team the position of the leader on the course with a few minute head start going onto the bike portion.

She ran to the transition, tagged me and I was off on my shiny new carbon fiber bike. My adrenaline was pumping, and I felt sooo strong and confident. I made it about 15 feet before my rear tire blew. I was stunned. In utter disbelief, I stared at the flat tire in rage. Regaining my composure, I flipped the bike up, did a tube change and was off with several guys in front of me now on the course. I caught 3 of them very quickly as I channeled my rage into the bike. I flew by them like they were standing still, then a few more. I don't think my butt was in the saddle for the first 2 miles. Then, it started to pour rain. Tropical downpours are bad on a bike course when you can't see anything and are still pedaling the bike like you stole it. The roads were under as much as 3 inches of water in some spots....not to mention the roads are potholed and broken pavement in many areas to begin with.

At the halfway point, I was within 1:30 minute of the overall leader on the course and still feeling super strong. I was averaging around 22mph despite the rain and crappy road conditions. Inside the 6 mile to go point, I was within a short sprint of the Relay Division leader, maybe 1/8 mile at most. There were 3 of them in the group and I felt strong to catch them. I was having the race of my life, even the ride of my life. Never felt better or riding faster and had lots in reserve. I think I was actually getting stronger as the adrenaline of returning to this lead group surged. Then, in an unbelievable turn of events....Pffffffffffttttttt. Another blown tire? This can't possible be 2 in the same race? Not in the Guam National Championships! Not when I am in the race and riding like this!!! Not when I have teammates that will be let down.......

But it was true. If the first flat was unlikely, the second was devastating to me. I contemplated riding it flat, but knew that 5+ miles would destroy the wheel and not make it to the finish line. Regretfully, I stopped and changed the tube....again. Patched it actually, because the spare tube was already used earlier. I couldn't find the small puncture. It took way too long. Finally, I found it, and was off again after about 5 minutes total for the repair. Ugh! Well, I thought.....go. Go harder. Go like you've got teammates and friends depending on you. Turn yourself inside out if you have to, but go. And so I did, for about 50 feet.

Yes, in races as in life, sometimes it isn't a matter if you win, but you're going to finish one way or another and hopefully, there are friends around you when it's over. Due to unforeseen events, your race may end earlier than you expected, you can even abandon the race when it gets too tough, or you can put your head down and go. Alot of people had passed me after that 2nd flat tire. Some were people I had passed earlier in the race after hammering out the first 12 miles following my first flat. And there they went. Winning was now out of the question, but I was determined to go....yet, it happened again. A nearly comical, unfathomable 3rd flat, a mere 50 feet or so after my second. I wanted to just walk back the 5 miles in the rain. Just getting back up, only to be kicked down again.

Stunned and hurt don't begin to describe the feelings. For comparison sake, I haven't had 3 flats in the 6 months I've been riding out here, never mind on the same day or ride. How in the world could this possibly happen?

I was very near one of the race officials when this happened. What to do? Call for a ride back, or get up and go. I patched and cursed this 3rd flat, pumped it up, and got back on the bike. Those feelings of disappointment and "what could have been" turned to a deep feeling of anger and rage like I've rarely felt. Throwing all caution and good sense to the wind, I clenched my jaw shut and pushed the last 5 miles like an all out, leave nothing on the course, screw the cars, get the hell out of the way because I am NOT merely racing....I am living. I passed many of those who had passed me after my 2nd and 3rd flats. I knew I couldn't catch the leaders again after that long of an ordeal (7-8 minutes) , but I didn't care at that point. I wanted to put LIFE on notice that I am sick of being kicked around for this year. I'm not complaining here, but it's been a rough year. It's time to pick on somebody else. So, I got back on the bike and didn't care about winning. I wanted/needed to prove to me that I was unstoppable, if only for 5 miles.

Coming into the bike finish area at around 30mph, I hadn't even realized how quickly the last 5 miles had gone. I was a bit surprised I was there already. As I got off the bike and tagged Matt to start the run, both calf and hamstring muscles simultaneously cramped and I fell beside my bike. I was unstoppable for those 5 miles and not a foot more. Everybody in the transition area (KW, my team and some others) had heard about what had happened to me on the course with the last 2 flats. I don't know if other competitors or the officials had relayed what happened.

Matt was off on his hell-run and I was lying in the grass staring at the sky, wondering what should have been. Clearly, we didn't win. Matt turned in one of the faster times on the run, though. He finished strong.

When all was said and done, I still felt terrible about what happened. Catherine had won the swim, Matt was a very solid runner, and I would have had about the 5th fastest time at 1:08 on the bike had better luck been with us, according to my computer. Instead, I was in at 1:23 (about midpack)...15 minutes and a 1st place medal lost to 3 flat tubes and karma. As it was, we still finished 3rd overall in the Relay Teams, bested by another Coed team and an All Male team.

The three of us had done our absolute best, and we knew it. I could never have expected us to do any better individually or as a team. I'd love to race with them again, we kept it fun and still competitive despite the hard knocks. I guess you can't always control what bumps life throws at you, but you better get back on the bike. Whether it's 25 miles to go, 5 miles to go, or 5 miles minus 50 feet to go.....you can't let life push you around. Get up and push back, again and again and even again if you have to....and maybe get some tubeless tires to help along the way.

Fishing Trip

Matt, Dave, Ben and I chartered a sportfishing boat yesterday. It was so much fun!!

The day started out early. We met Capt Eads at the dock at 545Am. His boat "Lucky Strike" was full of fuel, drinks and hope. We were going fishing for the big Marlin. It was going to be a long day.

By about 615, Ben and Dave were on there second MillerLite. That's way to early for me to start, unless I've been up all night already. A school of dolphin came out to play in the boat wake for awhile as we motored out. They were jumping the wake and flipping upside down. I think they were having a good time. Better than us at this early point in the day. Around 715, I decided it was late enough in the day to join the fun. I grabbed a MillerLite and one for Matt, too. We dropped the lines in the water as we trolled behind the boat, wondering who'd hit the fish first. The Captain gave us some instruction about the reels and the "fighting chair" in case we hit a large one.

Around 9 we had our first Marlin strike. It hit the rig and knocked it about 40feet forward and tangled the lines a little bit. It didn't appear as though it wanted the rig. It wanted the rig out of there. Some pilot whales and more dolphins came out to play. At least we were getting a whale watching tour.

At this point, the betting began and we broke off into 2 teams. Matt and I vs Ben and Dave. Bets were laid for first fish and total weight. Ben and Dave's side of the boat had a strong hit around 10Am, and the fish took the hook for a couple seconds, taking extra line out from the reel, but ultimately, spit the hook out and left us empty. I wasn't too upset at this point. At least Matt and I hadn't lost the bet yet.

Around 11Am, after 5 hrs of practically no excitement (except for shotgunning MillerLites and trying to push Ben overboard), Matt and I had our first strike. About 100 yards off the back of the boat, I saw the fish hit the bait and jump clear out of the water. I screamed "Marlin!!" as the line spun backwards out to sea. The fish jumped 5 or 6 times clear out of the water. We all jumped up to clear the other 4 lines out of the water to prevent tangling as the captain went into reverse prevent the fish from taking out more line that we'd have to get back. I jumped into the chair and Matt fought to get the rod over to me and anchored into the chair with me. I reeled hard for 10 mins or so and the fish was still taking line OUT. It is very disheartening to be working your butt off and look down at the reel to see line still going out. It is more disheartening to know that we were in 2000 feet of deep water as the fish went down.

Matt and I switched out and he popped into the chair to fight awhile. He started making some forward progress as the fish eventually began to grow tired. We swapped again and I reeled hard the last 5 minutes or so to get the fish to the side of the boat. We were all cheering and yelling as the fish gave a huge last ditch effort as the fight came to an end. The capt gaffed the fish as he, Ben and Dave hoisted the fish up into the boat. Dave and the capt humanely silenced the fish with a couple quick strikes. We dropped the lines back in the water to troll on our way back to shore to get the fish weighed and filleted. Covering the fish in ice and a wet blanket, we hooted and hollared all the way back. Matt and I had landed the biggest fish any of us had ever caught, and won all the day's bets in the process.

The excitement was huge and as we pulled into the dock, the Japanese tourists' cameras started flashing as the hoist pulled the fish off the boat. Matt and I worked great as a team and landed the fish in about 25 minutes (60 minutes is what it usually takes 1 person). We sold 92.5 lbs of meat to the store, and kept around 25 lbs for ourselves and cooked up some Marlin Steaks, invited over some friends for a fish grill, cut some for Sashimi (holy smokes....best sashimi I've ever had), and froze a dozen pounds or so. The pics on flickr are every bit as much fun as they look! More pics will be up shortly. There's 10 or so now. This was one of my best days out here in Guam. The feeling of fighting with a fish like that and feeling how powerful they are, watching him jump clear of the water from 100 yards out as he struck and hearing the reel back-spin out with such ferocity, was something I will never forget.

Saipan and Tinian Islands, CNMI

This past week, KW and I enjoyed our first getaway since her return. We kept the schedule light and flexible as usual and didn't plan a single thing. No hotel nor car reservations and certainly no itinerary.

KW flew out by herself to meet me in Saipan. My work trip ended in Saipan, and rather than return to Guam as scheduled, I got permission to stay behind to start a vacation. Saipan is smaller than Guam, so getting around is pretty easy. We got a car, drove to the Hyatt Resort (I was told our company has a corporate rate) and had a message to meet a couple friends for dinner. We had told them we might be doing this and that we'd try to catch up with them if we did. Matt works with me in Guam, and Vicky-his lovely wife, and KW get along well.

We had Thai dinner the first night. Nothing spectacular. I guess we've been spoiled with all the different Thai/Balinesian/Indian foods we've been able to try out here. Some of them are absolutely spectacular.....but not this place.

The next morning, Matt and I dove The Grotto. It's one of the famous pacific dives out here and I could see why. There's a few pics of it on our flickr. It is a sinkhole inland that connects through caves to the ocean. It is formed by dissolved limestone collapsing and eroding. The water is dark and the dive guide had a flashlight to help a little. Divers have gotten lost and died down there in the caves or gotten to the ocean and not been able to get back in the cave. The coast line there is very tall cliff with pounding, violent surf. You don't want to get stuck outside not able to get back in the correct entrance. The guide was a good investment in our longevity.

The dive was stellar. There were some fish. Some pretty big fish, sea turtle etc...but the star of this dive is the rock formation and caves and the electric/neon/explosive blue colors from the sun shadowing the underwater limestone caves. I've never seen the color before, so I don't kow what to say about it. You need to Google "saipan grotto picture" and see some underwater pics, but even that probably wouldn't be fair.

Later that day we drove around and did our tour of Saipan. Overall, the island is prettier than Guam. Smaller, and somewhat less touristy, with wayyyy better roads and overall maintenance of public parks (even security in the parks!!) and such ...it provided a picture of what Guam could've been like if GovGuam weren't corrupt.

Our tour took us to the Suicide cliff and Banzai cliff. Sad stories relating to WWII and these cliffs. Apparently, Japanese generals told their soldiers that the US forces would torture and canabalize them. rather than face such a horrific doom, they threw themselves off Banzai cliff to their demise as the US forces approached. As the word spread of the US force's alleged treatment to Japanese families, they gathered at Suicide Cliff and one by one...youngest child first father last, pushed each other off the cliff.

The rest of our tour was pretty, but nothing remarkable to post about. We finished the day at the resort with some pool B-Ball and dinner at Bobby Cadillac's.

The next day, we flew over to Tinian Island for a day trip. The short flight took us to an even smaller island, with few inhabitants. Tinian was famous for being the largest airport in the world at one point. It was infamous for being the airport where the Enola Gay loaded and launched from. The 2 nuclear bomb loading bays are still there and preserved under glass structures as National Historic Landmarks, with photos from the period. (pics on Flickr). The area is heavily overgrown and not maintained well. There are bomb shelters nearby, old building structures and of course, all the runways the military built up during the war. It was somber to think that I was standing where the Enola Gay loaded an atomic bomb that would shape the world we live in. How much different would our world be if the events that took place here never happened? For better or worse, things would be remarkably different.

Our Tinian tour also took us to a couple neat spots....the Blowhole (pic on flickr) and the Tinian Dynasty casino...no pics, sorry.
We finished the day flying back to Saipan and going to watch the sunset at Wing Beach (a WWII airplane crashed there giving the name) and met some people who started a beach bonfire.

Last day...world's most pointless snorkeling tour to Managaha Island. It sucked and I don't want to talk about it. Those 3 hrs of my life are gone.
Fortunately the boat driver stopped at a Jap Zero plane that crashed upside down in about 25 feet of water. We snorkeled down to it to get a closer look. That was the only part that was worthwhile from that day.

We checked out and left back to Guam.

Mango Fest

We spent part of Sunday afternoon with Matt and Vicki at the Second Annual Agat Mango Fest. Agat is a village at the south end of the island and Stephen had heard of the event some where so we just drove down to see if we could find it. Holy Moly! I've not seen so many cars on Guam all together except at the Kmart.

It was your typical street/park carnival - with a mango theme for all the kids games, a huge bouncy thing and a stage with local groups showing off their talents in music, dance and martial arts. There were tons of vendors encircling this beach-side park, selling anything from locally crafted wood, to plastic things from china (there's always a few), to plants, to food. Yeah, the food was why we were there. We all started out with some sno cone/slushies in mango, strawberry or tropical blue. Then Stephen and I tried some banana/mango donuts (hole style). They were a bit greasy and all banana flavored. Later we waited forever in line for the other lady's mango donuts, and they were worth it. Just mango, a few chunks here and there, and not greasy. We also picked up some homemade mango jam - I've now been assigned the duty of making this for us at home because it was so good. I doubt the jar will last the week once we open it.

Strangest thing though - no one was selling actual mangoes. We thought we'd be able to pick up a bag of them from a local and eat them all week, but not the case - just things made with mangoes available. They did have a 4-H type booth, with prize mangoes for different types, nicest looking mango, weirdest looking mango and best mango plants. As well as having demonstrations on pickling mangoes, the mango donut making, and grafting/care of mango plants.

All in all a cute local event that I'd probably attend every year if I could. Especially if Vicki opens her booth for fresh lime squeezed over chilled mangoes.

Thank You All!

Thanks to everyone who was so good to me while I was in CT. It was a hard two months but it was easier with your calls, emails, visits and pick-me-ups to me and SJW.

Mom is doing quite well - back to work and everything. She's kicking butt at the cardio rehab center three times a week and will hopefully stay on schedule for getting back to 100%.

SJW's foot is getting better each day. He even did an hour ride on the new Lemond yesterday. The foot was a bit more purple afterwards, but did you really think he could wait more than five days to ride that bike as it stared at him in the living room?

Me - well, back in Guam, sleeping better, SJW says I'm getting less yellow everyday. I hope the blood work at the end of this week supports his observations. Most days I'm feeling better, but I'm taking it slow because a return trip to CT to see a specialist is not on my list of fun things to do this summer.

That's about it for the update! Thanks again to everyone!

WELCOME HOME KW!!!!

As some of you may know, Katrina is finally coming back home to GUAM after a little over 8 weeks!! The adventures can continue once my stupid ankle/foot finishes healing it's boo-boo from my mishap. There's a nice pic of it here for all you purple foot fetishers. Thankfully, I'm off the crutches earlier than expected and should be doing everything in a couple weeks, I think. Much better than the original projection!!!!





We'll probably be on this rock for a couple weeks before my next group of days off to explore some more. Thinking maybe Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. They're close enough to do easily and should still be a good time, but maybe some other islands like Yap or Palau instead.....

Katrina will be on a 3rd world boycott for a couple months, so maybe New Zealand in July and Japan in August (which would fit nicely with a sunrise or sunset ascent of Mt Fuji).....

By September, she may be up for some other remote traveling...or maybe not....but that's too far out to think about anyway.....

For now, it'll be nice to just have her back home safe, sound and likely jet-lagged.

Sidenote, a personal thanks to all you back home who helped KW while she was under the weather while I couldn't be....Thanks for the dinners that got dropped off, the emails or phone calls, getting her outside here and there, and most of all the concern and compassion expressed by so many of you. Tough times, but made easier by you all. You make it very easy to remember who your friends are.

WTF

Ok, since KW left island, there has been 3 earthquakes in the last 26hrs that were 5.0 or higher and epicentered within a few miles from here.

I think KWs departure has angered the Chamorran Volcano god. I need to find a virgin to sacrifice to keep the building from swaying around. I'll let everybody know when I find one.

Shake, Rattle and Scream Like A Little Girl

So, Katrina is back in CT now, and I finally get to feel the earth move under my feet. The Island got hit by quake at about 6 am this morning. The epicenter was actually on the island, just a few miles from my condo, not off in the ocean like they usually are. Having never felt one, I thought it was cool as I bounced around in my bed. Until it didn't stop and I could hear the rumbling sound from it. Then the building swayed a bit and before I knew it I was in the door jam thinking "If I have to, I can balcony-jump to the pool when the building starts to fall." It's only 7 floors and the shallow end below.

Fortunately, it stopped as i finished that thought and went back to sleep after an hour or so. US Geo site listed it as a 5.4 Not enough to take a building down, but definitely enough to take down a guys ego.

Australia - Port Douglas - March 2008

The latest trip was to Cairns, Australia. It's in Queensland on that east coast of the peninsula coming out of the north east corner of the continent. We actually stayed in Port Douglas - Cairns is a metropolis because it was one of the first towns to boom with the Great Barrier Reef tourism - much too city for our tastes though we spent the last day there, more on that later. Port Douglas is a smaller town one hour's drive north of Cairns, that has lots of charm still while catering to the reef visitors (lots of places to eat/bars and shops). It's also closer to the main rain forest areas.

Our accommodations were at the Port Douglas Retreat - stay 6 get 7th free, worked out to be about $95AU a night which is pretty good price there (it's also off season which helped). Nice place - have little kitchenettes which we didn't utilize but should have, a cute pool area, enclosed parking (it's rainy season so getting out of the car and in the building without the rain pouring on you is nice). The managers always had good advice on tours without pressure to use any one in particular...the downtown "tour info" are totally fronts for specific tour groups.

While we were there...we did a ton of stuff! There are a million more tours and things to do in the area (different reef tours, different rain forest tours, you name it). We also tried to amuse ourselves with free entertainment too - like a hike and taking photos (total on the way home was over 200 - we deleted a lot there and then slimmed it down to what you see on flickr - Stephen was quite funny with the captions this time around). Back to what we did:

The Shannonvale Tropical Fruit Winery - just a bit north going towards Mossman. Tony Woodall greeted us and set up our wine tasting. He's a funny older Brit who relocated to Australia back a few decades. He's now in retirement doing this great job of introducing people to fruit wines and explaining everything we could quiz him on about it. Neat environmental note was the winery gets cardboard boxes from the local market and shredded paper from the local printers and that's their mulch - nothing store bought other than some minerals to correct the soils! (what a change from Guam - where aluminum can recycling has just been introduced in intro program this past year). We tried 12 wines: Mango, PawPaw (papaya), Pineapple, Jaboticaba, Ginger, Lychee Dessert Wine, Mango Dessert, Yellow Mangosteen Dessert, Lemoncello Port, Orange Port, Grapefruit Port, and Black Sapote Port. We actually agreed on favorites (the same top four - in different orders, but the same): The Mango Dessert and the Yellow Mangosteen both of which cry to be savored for cocktail hour in the summer by some body of water, then the Jaboticaba - a light tannin/light acid red wine. The Black Sapote Port by far was the most amazing. This fruit is bazaar. In the raw it does not taste like anything, until you pair it with something else or do something to it. Then it can share up to 16 different flavors! The wine does just that...here goes: chocolate, licorice, dates, prunes, malt, aniseed (anise), sarsaparilla, maple syrup (Stephen tasted that right away), raisins, coffee, caramel, vanilla, black musket grape, molasses, figs and English Christmas pudding (though we didn't know what English Christmas Pudding tasted like so we took Tony at his word).

Daintree Rainforest area - we too a river tour on the Croc Express from the Daintree Village. Wound up not seeing any crocs :( but we did see a kookaburra in the wild, some snakes, and a water dragon. As we past a section of old rain forest (never been chopped down for farming) you could feel the cool air rushing down the hill and over the river - almost gave me a chill. We did skip the "other side" of Daintree up towards Cape Tribulation ("cape trib")...it seemed like a lot of boardwalk type hikes to the water and other expensive tours things that we'd be doing elsewhere or had done (hello zip lines in Costa Rica = Jungle Surfing in Australia).

Mossman Gorge - The river there has cut through the rain forest and somehow grown nice walking paths, bridges and safety railing lined lookouts. There's one circuit loop hike after the bridge which took us an hour with our photographs of nature that did not like to cooperate. The over looks of the gorge are beautiful, with lots of rounded boulders sticking out of the water. There were peopl swimming in the water but we decided it wasn't our cuppa tea when we saw the weird euro guy get out of the water in his dark colored (thank the Lord) underwear. Enough said.

The Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Santuary - (right in Port Douglas) - We did "Breakfast with the Birds" there, a buffet and actual birds hanging out around you, staring down your sausages. Once we were fed and didn't feed anyone else, we had a full three hours of checking out all the animals and of course the photograph taking. They have all the animals you'll want to see - koala, the birds including two cassowaries, emu, kangaroos of all sorts and their relatives, crocs (estuarine and freshwater). Stephen took the best picture of a Kookaburra ever there (see inset), and then a bunch of the Cassowary. I think we're obsessed with the cassowary because it's considered a keystone species there - which means their whole ecosystem there depends on it, and with it's slimming numbers they're scared of what may happen if it does disappear in the wild altogether. Sort of like when we hear people talk about frogs in the Brazillian rain forests. We spent a lot of time messing with our camera trying to take pictures of the animals as you can see by the flickr. I even hung out Pepper the (slightly disgruntled) koala - they don't let you hold them there, but I pet him and he seemed to want nothing more to do with me

The Coffee Works tour - in Marabee about an hour drive. We tried 20 coffees, 4 teas, 2 liquors, and 12 of their 24 chocolates (not all coffee flavored)...oh, and we checked out the super hokey museum of coffee and tea related items. The off season price made it okay, but if in season I wouldn't pay the double price. The funniest thing was the guy who did all the recordings for the personal tour handsets in the museum. He must be the collector of all this stuff and quite proud to know all of it's history - and kept stammering through the dialog and telling us how each piece is a must have piece in a collector's collection. The whole drive to Marabee was worth it because on the way back we saw kangaroos in the wild (but couldn't get the camera out quick enough, dough!)

Diving the Great Barrier Reef - we went on Poseidon as was recommended to us by the hotel people. Had a light breakfast, lunch and two teas with snacks over the course of the day. Stephen was diving, I was snorkeling. Went to three different spots on the outer edge of the reef (better on the outer edge). Agincourt Reef, Ribbon Reef, and Castle Rock.

A Sunset Cruise on Raggamuffin 3 out of the Port Douglas Marina . 50ft sail boat - think America's Cup Race Boat retrofitted for living on. Us and two other people and the captain. we went fast, on keel and got wet. It was wicked fun and Stephen got to drive (that's when the big wave came over the bow and soaked us).

Hanging at the Marina - We spent a whole day just checking out boats, walking around and spending our imaginary budgets on the vessels we thought we'd like best.

Four Mile Beach - walked a little bit of it, being lazy Americans we couldn't walk the whole thing of course. It's stinger season so you have to check the board in front of the lifeguard station to see if swimming is allowed. The deadly stingers are like a cm cubed - so you won't see them and the netted area at the beach doesn't keep them out (just the large ones). The dive people said they are rare but everyone wears the stinger suits to be safe. The beach isn't really a nice beach to sit on or anything anyway - more of hard wet sand.


We also went hiking on part of their version of our Appalachian trail. This part was called the Bump Trail. From port douglas, go south on capt cook. Take a right on Mowbray River Road. Go over one bridge, take the right onto Oconnell? At the fork in the road, follow that over a "high" bridge and past a trail ride place. when you see the private property signs, park on the side of the road - the trail head is on the left next to the cow pasture - there's a sign for it. We hiked about an hour and got to "the landing" which is the top. we tried to go further but it was way to wet and gross, so we headed back. It's pretty steep and rocky, formally the only road over the mts into the plains area - some neat signs along the way tell the history. Bring water for sure and good shoes.

The last day with a midnight departure was hard. We didn't plan anything, so we took our time after a 10am checkout to eat breakfast and drive to Cairns. We hung out at a beach along the way (just went into a town along the way), then hung out at the cairns esplanade laughing at some tourists. There is a swimming pool there (public) and i saw they have changing rooms with lockers - but our stuff was all packed. Would have been a good idea.

Oh, and there is a departure tax - you pay seperately when nonrevvin' (I think it's built into the ticket price for regular pax) at the Continental counter when you leave - $85AUD.

First Class on the way back and planning the next trip hopefully for April (or May?).

Free Uke Lesson

Today I had the free uke lesson that came with purchasing the coolest instrument in the world.

It was a group of six adults and one teenager (there with his dad), and a bubbly female instructor, Maureen. She's a member of a pretty popular local family uke trio (I think her brother works at the Uke Hut too - because he's in the promo posters for the band with her).

It was pretty simple stuff, and I probably had the strongest music background, so I felt confident in what we were doing. The hardest thing right now is the uber cool strumming you hear in uke songs...for me that's the hardest because it's the most relaxed part. Everyone else was struggling to find the right notes (you know, the structured part) - but got the strumming. None of it mattered because with 7 new instruments they all were tuned at the beginning but quickly found that sour sound you expect from beginners.

Thus the tuner I just purchased and the now in-tune uke on the couch. All the strings were more than a half note off by the end of the lesson - for those music geeks out there who are now appreciating the sound of seven of these things out of tune but trying to play together. It was very Martin School Orchestra first rehearsal sounding.

Anyhow, I'm going to go try some more songs. Rock on!

Things that go boom in the night....or day.

Random stuff
....Stealth Bomber crashed on takeoff from Guam a couple days ago. I had nothing to do with it, but I can think of better ways to blow 1.2 Billion dollars. The 2 pilots are reported to be safe after ejecting, but I assume will have to pay off $600 Million each over the course of several years. They are rumored to be coordinating a Brownie-Bake sale. $20 Million per brownie.

....Also, an EA-6B prowler crashed off the coast a few days before the Stealth went in. All aboard were rescued via helicopter.

....Lastly, the local US military report has issued a Strong Gravity Warning for Guam and the coastal waters for the next week, with a slight chance of falling satellite debris in the afternoons.

Last Bali Day

So sad to see us go. Bali was a wonderful trip, and we can't wait to go back. Matt and Vicki are coming out to Guam in May, and although they don't know it, they are going to Bali with us as soon as they get settled.....or maybe before that.

Fortunately, our flight was late at night, so we still had a chance for one more $6 hour long spa massage. Katrina got a face lift, or facial or whatever girls get. I had a Balinese lady beating up on my body for hour. Good stuff. I felt like jell-o for most of that day, and the bruising is mostly healed. The bones take 4-6 weeks. Just kidding, but they do have really strong hands for their 90 lb frame.

We walked around a different section of Ubud for a few hours, scored some sweet Hindu t-shirts and a couple milkshakes. We spoke with a teak furniture shipper/importer that gave us a couple thoughts of furnishing an entire house and patio with handcarved and finished teak furniture. It is just so nice and cheap and high quality.

Well, we finally made our way back to the Bungalows, got packed up and left for Densapar, and the airport. A guard offered to let us through security for a bribe, since the ticket counter was inside security, and we didn't have tickets printed. Dave muscled his way through the security checkpoint much to the dismay of the bribe-seeking guard. The rest of us followed. Only 4 more security checkpoints before we finally reach the plane. Grab a quick bite, board up and sleep our way home.

Bali Day 3

This was my favorite day of the trip. Fried bananas not once, but TWICE for breakfasts. That's right.....2 breakfasts and both were fried bananas. Heavenly.

Oh, there was also an awesome 20+ mile mtn bike tour of the country side that started off near some magnificent volcanoes and lava flow and winded through some rural villages and rice patty fields and temples and stopped at some master wood carvers home for a tour of his artwork, as well as a tour of a family compound that reminded me of how fortunate we are to be from such a prosperous country. It also reminded me of how little happiness has to do with wealth.

Although the terrain wasn't challenging. Mostly jeep roads and paved stretches, there were some killer hills that I managed to show up the 2 guides and let them know who was the boss on the bikes. On the last one, the guide screamed "Like a Bull" at me as I passed him. I guess Balinese bulls are pretty good climbers, too. I've never seen an American bull climb anything steep. The last 2 months of running, lifting and biking the hills in Guam are finally getting my fat butt in shape, I guess.

The guides invited us over their home for lunch after the tour. The women in the compound cooked us up a feast that was the best food we had that week. There were several curry dishes and chicken satay and fried corn breads and a bunch of stuff that I probably shouldn't know too much about, but that was still really good.

After lunch/dinner at the guides home, we went back into town and did some shopping. It seemed like a fair trade to me (mtn bike for shopping) and we picked up some sweet looking incense burners. They look like lion heads with feet. It seemed like a great idea at the time, and we came back to Guam with 5 of them in our 1 bedroom apartment.

Other than that, the day was uneventful. Dinner was at a chic little restaurant that came highly recommended from a French tourist and a local guy at the hotel..... Cafe Wayan. It was great, like all the other places. There wasn't ever a bad meal, or even an ok meal. Balinese cuisine is just soooo good and flavorful. Of course the dinner drinks are also good for making dinner seem even better.

We ended the night at a Reggae joint, which seemed odd so far from Jamaica. But we stayed there for awhile. Jack D made an appearance and hung out for most of the night. Wouldn't have thought Jack would have been much of a reggae guy. He proved me wrong once again. After our fill of Bob Marley, we packed it in for the night.

Bali Day 2

Again our day began with a super breakfast at the bungalows. Each day began under the breakfast pavilion with coffee or super strong tea and a plate of fruit. The breakfast entree the first day was an egg omelet with tomatoes and onions and toast. The second day we enjoyed egg sandwiches with cheese, tomato and onion. It probably doesn't sound like much, but Guam tomatoes are not the best and the ones we had in Bali were exploding with taste.

Now full of good food, we headed out in a tour bus to go on the Elephant Safari. Let us note, elephants are not native to Bali (all of this is info our guide gave us). These elephants were from Sumatra, where they and the guides/trainers used to work logging. With the rise of machinery in the logging industry, they took three days to transport the elephants and their families to Bali - since the tourism market is so much stronger there. We watched the elephants be bathed - since they like to roll around in the mud during the night, and then we saddled up and went on a 40 minute trail ride along a ravine and back. All three elephants ate along the way, Ria (our elephant) even ripped out part of a garden in front of the gardeners.

The ride was precarious at parts. You never feel like you're on level ground and that sensation is worsened by going up and down hill. I had death grip white knuckles for parts of the ride - imagining our bench twisting around Ria's side and Stephen and I being sent down the ravine of which we could not see the bottom. So it's sort of like mountain biking.

When we got back to the beginning, the guides made one of us get off and the other sat on Ria's head/neck....and she took us into the "pool" (ie the bathing pond with dookies floating about) to spray water for photos. Stephen went first and was a natural - me, you can't tell from the pictures if I'm enjoying it or terrified. The elephant then did some stunts - getting on small pillars, climbing pillars and sitting down. Quite impressive that Ria didn't notice my nails digging into her head. Ria even let us sit on her knee for some photo ops...though the larger male was pushing her, and thusly me when I first sat down. It's scary when an elephant uses their cheek to push you away. Then it was lunch time for us at the elephant safari place- it was only 10:30, but we all ate it up and headed back to the bungalows.

The best way to spend that $6 bucks in your pocket in Bali is a massage at a spa - no happy endings! Stephen and I headed to one of the nicest spas up the road and for about $12 total, we each got a massage that removed all the aches and pains we'd accrued over the past few years. The rooms each have a shower and a bath tub and are half opened up to the rice paddie next door. Birds cooed, the breeze whispered and it was the most relaxing place we'd ever been.

Totally refreshed, we hit the stores and market again finding some summer shirts and a Will Farrell from Wedding Crashers bathrobe (still looking for the nun chucks) for Stephen and some sarongs and a dress for me. Upon return to the bungalows, our travel buddie Bonnie seemed to be rushing back from looking for the local nurse. We had missed the excitement of Dave cutting open his foot. A while later the nurse showed up, spoke no English and was looking forward to sewing up Dave's foot. After some difficult negotiation, Dave's foot was cleaned repeatedly with some unknown solution and then iodine, then wrapped up in sticky bandages. Later that night we took him to the pharmacy where they gave him three prescriptions (none of which when googled came up on English language websites). A true trooper, Dave still went out to dinner with us and then to the market to pick up some more Bintang.

Dinner was a long drive out of the main area of Ubud. We had wanted to go to one restaurant that had a crab night - but they were out when we got there, so the transport driver took us to his friend's place. Stephen had a curry dish in a coconut and I resorted chicken satay (again). The more interesting part of the evening was the open air part of the restaurant and the visiting geckos. By this point we're used the little guys everywhere (they're everywhere in Guam too), yet something caught Dave's eye. He kept talking about how big one of them was - it was around a corner I couldn't see, so I was thinking instead of four inches long it's five inches long. Nope. It was definitely 10 inches long and the wide part of it's head was probably 2 inches wide. We even got to watch it stalk some prey and gobble it right up. The locals must have thought we were crazy Americans as we almost cheered when it pounced.

All in all, a great day in Bali.

Bali - First Night and Day 1

Stephen writes.....
Bali is a must see place if you are in this part of the world...it's beautiful, the people are friendly, and it's pretty economical for a trip. On this trip there (because we're sure we'll be back) we went with our new Guam friends Ben, Meghan and Dave, and Meghan's friend from home Bonnie.

We got in to Bali in the evening and had our driver meet us at the airport. Once we cleared customs and got visas and exchanged cash, we met up with him outside the airport in a sea of chaotic taxi drivers looking for fares.

The ride to Ubud from Densapar was eventful. We felt like our heads were on swivels...partly because of curiosity for our new surroundings, but mostly because we felt like we were going to run over somebody on a moped. Bali's main source of transportation is the Vespa, or some other similar scooters. They are everywhere, sometimes with 2 adults and a couple children per scooter. They drive absolutely crazily. They weave in and out of traffic and you can barely see them at night. The roads are fairly well maintained, although I don't think I saw a yellow line anywhere. Occasionally you'd see a dotted white line down the middle. It didn't matter, though. The scooters ran down either side of you, down wrong way streets and were like those little summertime knats flying around you. Quite literally, it is chaos.

We arrive to our bungalow. Our driver, who also manages the bungalows, tells us to get some rest and we can check-in the next morning sometime. Our bungalow is sweet, as Katrina will soon describe. We are promptly brought a message from our friends we are to meet. They are down a block or two, enjoying some local evening refreshments. We still giggle at the name of the local brewery name.....Bintang. After relaxing from our flight and (now amusing) drive, we are all enjoying our little slice of Bali. By the way, the pizza is bad there. The Bintang is good, although Katrina didn't much care for it. Everybody else did. I guess it evened out the night.

Katrina writes...
We stayed at the Ubud Bungalows on Monkey Forest Road - in a double superior room, which means it had AC. It was awesome, a separate little bungalow for us, with a huge bathroom and shower, a porch and a vaulted ceiling. The door and window coverings - which I forgot to photograph but you can see similar ones on the temple photos, were intricate carvings with all the details painted. It included some of the best breakfast I've had in a long time and only cost $40 US a day.

Stephen went out for a morning run, and explored the local surroundings before anybody got up. After breakfast on the first day, we explored the reason for the name of our road - the Sacred Monkey Forest. A small fee and purchase of some bananas and you're in. It is an area filled with monkeys, all wanting those bananas you purchased, and being a little aggressive about it. The guides just say - give them the bananas and when you don't have any more they'll leave you alone. Unless you're Ben and the guide has you sit down and hold your arms out with bananas. There was a little tail in mouth action there. The monkeys (once you're out of bananas) are a little curious about you, but go on with the daily activities of grooming, chasing each other and harassing Meghan. We went into the temple there and checked out the amazing carvings on everything, as well as the monkey's licking the walls - we think for the moss but we're not sure. On the way out we just watched the other tourist who'd just entered with their bananas and laughed. It's sort of funny when they monkeys aren't climbing up your body.

From the Monkey Forest, we headed up MFRoad and had lunch on our way to the large market. The market is one deal after another - Stephen is the master of offering a price and pretty much walking away to get it. In many ways it is sad because people are almost begging, but they are also asking for multiple times what they are selling is worth. So is the begging an act? They will also use the "for good luck" phrase to make a price sound good, and Stephen will still walk away to get his price.

Stephen writes:
Dinner was fantastic, as this would be a recurring theme throughout our stay. Great local foods, and a whole lotta local beverages of many sorts. I actually nearly had the entire beverage menu by the time we left. I fell a couple short, but was happy to have passed on them the next morning. I didn't go jogging the next day. Everything is so affordable there, despite steaks and appetizers and drinks, the dinner bills averaged $15 per person, most of that tab being liquid. The steak dinners themselves were only $5 or so. After dinner, it was back to the familiar watering hole from the previous night before hitting the bed.

Earthquake Feb 7 1:12 am

Awoken in the night from a pretty sound sleep, I couldn't figure out why the bed was moving slightly. My thoughts: weird dream? A few seconds later the bed giggled, and I looked at the clock, almost 1:15am, I know Stephen's still at work. Then it happened a third time.

I was super confused and in disbelief that an earthquake had awoken me. It was like someone had shook the bed, but for an extended period. My state of sleep didn't help either - it was solid sleep mode for me and you know that when you awake from that nothing makes sense.

So in the morning I checked it out - thank you USGS for the reality check. (yeah, click on reality check and it'll show you the USGS page - I just learned how to link).

A 4.8! Just 14.9 miles down, about 120 miles away! How cool! If you look at the local map of the quake, we live one village north of Hagatna.

Okay, so nothing broke, which is good, just the shaking. Of the people we know here (that I've had a chance to check with), the only other one on island at the time slept right through it!

31

It was a fun filled birthday weekend - even though Stephen's had to work a lot (but only at night).

In between Stephen's naps on Saturday, I went to see "27 Dresses" with new friends Meghan and Catherine. I could not have laughed harder while it still being a girlie movie. When I got home Stephen suggested a swim in the pool and was a bit pushy about inviting the others to join us. I'm thinking - we just got back from the movie, maybe they'd like to do something with out me. Then he drops a "well, it'll be an awful lot of ice cream cake for the two of us to eat." So Catherine, Meghan and Ben joined us for cake at the pool, then Catherine and I swam for a bit and chatted in the setting sun.

Saturday was also the day I got my birthday present from Stephen - the best ever Ukulele! Yup, I think I'm officially an island girl now. We had visited JB's Ukulele Hut a few days prior to check them out - looking for a possible hobby for me to fill some time here. The one Stephen got me had totally caught my eye that day - being reasonably priced (yeah, it's not the one that costs $3300!) and beautiful. Just look at that striping. That night when he went to work, you know I was on line trying to figure out how to play it. I have to schedule the lesson it comes with this week and see what the lesson package covers. I'm hoping that when we return home to CT, I'll have mad Ukulele skills to show off by the patio fireplace. And just so we all sound super traveled and smart - it's not uke-a-lay-lee, it's oo-koo-lay-lee.

Sunday (the actual Guam time birthday) was begun with quiet time (Stephen had gotten home at something like 4am) during which I did my nails and watered the plants. Once up, fed and going, we decided to swim over to the island that's off our condo's beach. The current was heading out at the time and I'm not the strongest swimmer, but I made it there and back okay. There is the ability to touch the bottom almost the whole way for Stephen - if you can find a clear patch with out coral or vegitation (people here aren't like at home about not touching coral but we're definately trying to not harm it), and about half the time for me - with the rest of the time being that depth where the waves go right up my nose. We saw the prettiest blue starfish (an intense electric blue, with skinny arms), some of the black and white striped fish, the little blue ones and the long skinny ones that are blue/clearish and have the needle nose - yes, I will learn their names at some point, just haven't found a book called "what's in the waters of guam yet". The island itself still needs to be explored. The tourists have left some trash on it, and it was spider filled so we'd want some t shirts for protection, but it's on the list to be done.

Upon return to land, we joined ben, meghan, jake, and his daughter at the pool for a few hours of sit and relax in the pool. A quick pasta dinner and Stephen went back to work. I hit Jimmy Dee's with Catherine, and a few other people for the fire show - the youngest is a nine year old who rocks out with these crazy fire stick moves, the oldest might have been seventeen. They even set the beach on fire...note to self, that beach there is full of gasoline or lighter fluid and should not be played in.

So far so good at 31.

Talofofo Falls

We spent a day this week hanging out at Talofofo falls. It cost $10 with a local id, $20 for anyone else (ie Asian Tourists), and we thought it was over priced at the 10.

So you enter and see lots of pigs, just wandering around, eating piles of feed the tourist paid a buck for and then just threw on the ground. There is the cheesiest Ghost House ever. Scariest thing in there was Stephen spooking me in the first minute as we walked in, then it was just funny. The Ghost House is in the basement of the cable car building from which you take a cable car down the hill, and see all the falls as you go - and this is making you see the beauty of the area. The bottom of the falls is where you can swim, but it was full of tourists, so we decided to hike around and see what else was there first.

The big attraction other than water that runs down rocks, is Yokoi's cave. Back when the US took Guam in WWII, a bunch of Japanese soldiers ran for the hills and hid. Some were caught, some died from food poisoning, but not Yokoi. He dug himself a "cave" and lived there for 28 years not knowing the war had ended. Then one day he was discovered by some Chamorros in the forest and the US military quickly deported him back to Japan where he is considered the ultimate hero.

While checking out this hole Yokoi lived in, a Guamanian came a long leading a tour. He was explaining the Yokoi story to his troupe in Japanese (i think) and then pulled us aside. He thought we were University of Guam students for one (he's a UOG student), and secondly he said his professor said this Yokoi cave is a fake and the real one is much deeper in the woods. We're okay with that though, because the funniest things were in the "museum of guam" on location. The museum is this maze of encased carved sculptures that has one scene of the native Chamorros and how they believe the island was formed and then the rest are about the different occupations of Guam. On each display the explanation is obviously in Japanese and English (if we can call it that). Some of the English versions, actually did not make sense the wording was so poor. And it also stated that WWII began in 1941...now I'm pretty sure I learned in history class that WWII began in 1939, but the Japanese joined in 1941. SO, we deducted this was a Japanese owned property there to celebrate Yokoi, and it's just sad that they didn't spend the money to get a translator that would write up the English versions correctly (at least grammar wise, I don't much care if they go with their version of history).

Now laughing quite a bit, we went back to the lower part of the falls, where the tourists were packing up to leave for the day. Once gone, we had the whole falls to ourselves. A few people walked by, but no swimmers. The river there has dug out a hole big enough to swim in but I wouldn't go in because the fish kept coming up to me and then Stephen said he thought he saw a snake - yeah, no way I'm getting in a confined swimming hole with a snake. It was cooling and quiet and peaceful (once the tourist headed out) and that is what we enjoyed the most.

Then it was cable car back up the hill and go home time. Not a half bad day here on Guam.

Places you've never heard of and can't find on a map.

This weekend, I had the good fortune of going to work. Seriously, it was absolutely stunning. I did a trip known as "The island hopper". It starts in Guam and goes to several islands before finishing in Honolulu for a couple days and then making our way back to Guam afterward. Hawaii was good and all, but the islands that we stop at were the most amazing places I've ever seen. Prisitne, jungle-like untouched except for a few small villages of people. Mostly fishing communities, I guess. We bring supplies and some tourists between these islands. Just for the record....We start in Guam. Next is Chuuk (pronounced Chooook) and formerly known as Truk (like a vehicle). Next was Pohnpei, Kosrae, Kwajalein ("Kwaj"), Majuro, the Hawaii. The ones you've never heard of are part of the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. Basically, they are volcanic islands with crazy lush tropical forestry and jagged rock mountain or they are almost totally flat atolls that were once volcanoes and have since imploded and collapsed leaving a ring of land extending 1-10 feet above the ocean. These places are literally in the middle of nowhere. Isolated in the Enormous Pacific ocean halfway between Hawaii and Asia, nearer the equator. I've never felt more isolated and awe-struck as I was in Majuro. The Atoll is long and thin and averages maybe 100 feet across, but is many miles round. You'll see it in the pics on flickr. When you're standing on the ramp at the airport and can feel the waves' mist on your skin from crashing on the barrier 20 feet away and a few feet below you. You get the feeling that this place is temporary. The Pacific is going to take it back and you just hope you aren't there to see it when it happens. ( I later found out that Wake island north of there had just that happen in a storm. The entire island was under the sea and is finally reemerging and rebuilding. WTF?) I'll blog more about these crazy places separately later. But there is such contrast in the pics from Kosrae and Chuuk to Kwaj and Majuro. Words and pics won't do any of these places justice. But, hopefully you'll get an idea of them. Make sure to read the tags on the pics too.

Odds and Ends

Stephen's random blog stuff...

We bought a used TV from the sketchiest dude I've ever met. Some crazy looking (maybe white supremecist?) guy who is moving to the philippines (pedophile?) and who is still pissed that somebody stole his rotweiler. Just happy to get a cheap TV and not get too close to him.

Finished my Scuba license. Certified to 60 feet deep. I might try another level in the near future to dive some different kind of specialty dives like wrecks, or night or 100' deep.
The currents are vicious out here. Riptides and longshores that you can see clearly. Ever see a wave going out to sea? Freaky stuff.

Going for our first bike ride today!!!!! I wonder if there is a road rash equivalent out here....Coral Contusion, perhaps. I think coral will hurt more, and I hope to not find out.

That stupid Honda civic that we got such a great deal on is really making me angry. Serves me right for buying from some Chamorro punk. We got the brakes fixed (which we knew about), when the radiator blew, and that's when we found out the left front axle is on it's way out very quickly. Pretty sweet ride. Well, at least it's nearly impossible to get parts out here. That's nice.
Never got charged for the rental car "incidents". I guess Karma does come back around again.

Welcome to planet earth, Kelcie. Make sure you give your new parents a fun ride. Looking forward to meeting you around your first birthday. Hopefully you'll be over the screaming stage that lots of you newcomers enjoy by then :).....Maybe you can team up with the other newcomer for a duet every now and again!

Going to Honolulu in a few days. Should have some pictures (and maybe a Civic front left axle) to bring back.

Off for the bike ride along the coast. I've been looking forward to this ride since we got here.

We got a phone number for the US that can call anybody for FREE. If anybody wants to call and chat, drop me an email at my aol.com account and i'll send you the phone number. You can call and say hi and tell us to call you back. Oh, but make sure we know who you are. No caller ID out here.
Stay Classy, Connecticut (and other select New England states)

Settling in

So on Saturday we got the keys to the new place - a 900 square foot condo on the 7th floor of Alupang Cove (a-loop-ang). It's got tile through out - some places with carpet get a musty odor due to the high humidity and the expense of keeping the AC on all the time. It's just a simple one bed one bath place that comes with utilities included - that's big here on Guam where (due to running the AC all the time) most electric bills are $300-350.

Stephen wasn't happy to spend so much time over the weekend shopping for things for the place (everyone knows how hard it is for me to make a decision) but it's paying off. I also have a new concept for shopping here -"if I don't plan to take it home, just choose the cheapest one that will last a year." So far we've done that for everything, except the bed (found one place that sold Sealeys and decided that was better than the random Asian brands we'd seen. At least we knew it had to have some sort of quality we were used to) and the rug but that's blue and brown and my mom will attest that I dream of either a blue and brown living room at home or bedroom. Stephen found the deal of 64 piece storage container set for something like $12! I already melted one top in the dishwasher (oh, we're also very lucky to have one of those too).

Still more things are needed - like drawers for the clothing that can't be hung - really what about my socks and bike shorts?! But hopefully we'll get that done tomorrow after we pick up the bikes and the "box of random" that we had shipped out. I can't remember what's in the box other than Scrabble and some DVDs (24 season one :)), maybe our snow pants and jackets too -not for use on Guam, for skiing in Japan or New Zealand. It's going to be like a second Christmas!

Hope all is well with everyone on the mainland!

Beach Day!

We are two lazy people for a Wednesday. After a few calls to the mainland we left the hotel at 11am, went to Kmart to get a cooler, waters, ice and some towels. Hit the best breakfast joint we've tried so far (Hafa Adai Cafe). Then headed to the northern most point of Guam, Ritidian Point. It's home of the Guam National Wildlife Refuge, and has one of the best beaches we've found yet. You have to drive a long boring road - boring due to the military base on both sides, which is why they have such lush tall plants here. It also contains the messiest batch of pot holes I've ever seen. I could probably lay down in a few and never be seen again.

We played/swam/tried to stand in the current for a few hours and then Stephen buried me in the sand from the waist down - sorry no photos were taken. The sand is this soft but course coral sand that's mushy when you step on it, but feels like a good exfoliant, so I tried rubbing my feet in it a bunch.

It's so strange to be on a beach like that where we only see maybe 5 other groups and think "we live here." Definitely a place we'll be spending free time at.

We left around 330pm, thank god, the gate is closed at 4pm. Headed home to the Hilton (Hilton Home Count Down : 3 days). Tried the Jamaican Grill for dinner and Stephen had some great ribs and 1/4 jerk BBQ chicken, I had the chicken too. Also on the list of places we'll go again.

stuff

ok, so I am finally getting up to speed with the youngsters about flickr and blogging.
The correct flickr address is http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenandkatrinaweaver/sets/
this one will let you not see all the non-guam photos that are in our album.

Moving on......
Why does it cost 4 cents/minute to call The US, but 27 cents/minute to call next door on Guam? It's a crazy mixed up world.

That sweet 95 civic we bought.....not so sweet. The master cylinder blew on it. Can't wait to get that fixed. Stopping is now an extreme-sport. Maybe it'll stop, maybe it won't. How fast can you grab the ebrake. Hopefully before you kiss the car in front of you. At least the E-brake works. Don't ask about the power windows, though. Or the rental car that was in front of me when I found out that the master cylinder was gone. (it was katrina's). Good times. Nothing major at all, just a little touch up paint job. I really should start getting rental coverage.

I should get my scuba license on sunday!!!! Just another way for me to hurt myself and others.

We were hoping to get some traveling in this month. Doesn't look like it's gonna happen because of the time it takes to do all this other stuff. I should get my schedule for february in a few days. I am hoping to make up for the slow start to our traveling. Although Guam is nicer than I thought it was gonna be, i still wanna check so many other places out. Looks like we'll probably be here closer to a year or so. 6 months just wouldn't cut it for all the places we want to go.

We should be in our new condo saturday. More flickr pics coming up on monday, unless that car kills me first.

Home of the U-turn

So, in nine days I've done more U-turns than in fifteen years of driving in the mainland. When something is across the street from me, I feel like some old Maine-er is laughing while saying "you can't get there from here." Most major roads are separated by a concrete 6" high divider, some have the death lane - or as they say the "left turn lane." it's a chicken lane to use for turning or U-turning. Once you pass something you have to figure out how to get back.

Plus without street signs to tell you where you are (the last typhoon, seven years ago, got rid of them, and Guam decided to not replace them), directions are all about the Kmart, the gas stations and banks. With only three types of gas and three types of banks on Guam directions are confusing because which Circle K and which Bank of Guam are you talking about???

And for those of you who LOVE our hometown rotary....yes, there is one on Guam. It's maybe a quarter mile from our hotel. But as we're used to rotaries come in two varieties depending on the state you live in....1: if you're in the rotary, you have the right of way, or 2: if you're entering the rotary you have the right of way. Well, that was too simple of a system for Guam. If you're coming from our hotel, you have to give the right of way to the in rotary traffic, but if you're coming back to the hotel, you have right of way. I just don't get it.

As confusing as that is, we're sure to be safe drivers since everyone drives under the Guam speed limit of 45mph.

Brand Spanking New

Well, we're here. Still a bit jet lagged and finally getting settled. This will be the place for any of our South Pacific updates instead of the mass-emails we've sent. We'll still email with people, but the Blog will make it so you can check to see what we're up to, where we've gone and are going a bit easier.
So far......to recap.
We got here Friday Jan 4th really late at night. First Class to Tokyo, then down to Guam. Lots of great food internationally on the Boeing 777. Watched some movies and the 14hr flight to tokyo flew by. The 4hr flight reminded me how much traveling stinks. Middle seat, way back in the plane with nobody who speaks our language. A stupid kid actually pulled my hair. I can't even pull my hair. Too short and not enough to grab onto.

Anyways, Hilton Resort and Spa in Guam is where my company puts us up. Sweet digs. Nice balcony, great beaches and pools. Maybe the nicest hotel I ever stayed in. We actually thought about living here for the year. But more on that later....
I worked the first couple days. Work is fun. Not really like work. I went to Manilla, Chuuk, Saipan. Then I have 18 days off before I go to Honolulu for a day of relaxation. Not so tough.

We've spent the first 8 days looking at condos, cars, and scuba classes. I start scuba Monday. We sign for our Condo today and we bought a car yesterday. Oh yeah, I got a Guam driver's license. Not a bad picture considering what they had to work with. The condo is SWEET. One bedroom condo right on the beach, just outside downtown Tumon (where all the night life is), new appliances and has just been totally remodeled. The car is a mint Honda Civic with 56K miles on it. We got it dirt cheap. It's probably stolen and shipped here from somewhere else. Just kidding. But at the same time not so sure......

Car insurance....$165. For the Year. With upgraded liability limits. I laughed when the agent told me. I thought she quoted us per month.

The snorkeling and beaches around Guam are pristine. The surfing is alright if you don't mind paddling out past the coral reef around the island. It's about 200 feet or more out there. I get tired just thinking about it.

We've already met the Guam version of our friends out here. (There's even the guam version of our Vinny....except not quite as cool). Lots of great people. I dropped the first few real estate agents we worked with because they were too nice. It irritated me. Seriously. That part wasn't a joke. I just couldn't handle it. The people out here are so nice that it takes some getting used to. I think they like being nice and actually don't want anything from you, nor are they trying to sell you something. It's like the 1950s.

If you haven't checked out our first batch of photos, here's the link. We'll update the blog as more pictures go up. www.flickr.com/photos/stephenandkatrinaweaver

That's all from 15 hours in the future for now. PS-the sun rises today. We just saw it a couple hours ago...