Well finally something to write about......

So not much going on since Thanksgiving out here. Nice weather, went home to CT, came back to celebrate Christmas here with a morning waterfall/beach hike and some fresh coconuts on the beach with Jason, Angela and of course Katrina.

We shipped our Christmas booty from home out here, got it lost in shipping and it miraculously arrived 6 weeks later as I was calling to file the claims paperwork. Considering my golf clubs were part of that shipment, I was relieved to get it all safe and sound, albeit late and after much frustration.

Uneventful New Year's Eve included diner with a bunch of friends and some laughs. Got a new President and the same problems. I'm certain they'll soon be either replaced by, or in addition to, new ones.

My parents came out for a quick 8 week visit to do some traveling and remind me that in my Mom's eyes, I'll always be 8 yrs old and unable to do anything for myself. Some things never change.

We took them to Kosrae (ko-SHRY) after spending a week golfing, fishing, pissing off some local people, and touring Guam's beaches and sites. Mom tries to be politically correct, but.....not so much.

Kosrae was great. I've flown through there and it is stunning in it's untouched beauty and natural features. It's a fairly mountainous and under developed island in the Federated States of Micronesia. No ATM machines, so bring your cash money. Part of the island is not accessible unless you've got a boat. No lights, no phones no motorcars......You get the idea. Just a short step away from car-camping. Although, our accommodations in Kosrae were very adequate, a lot of the island in not accessible unless you hike or swim and most of it is not inhabitable. It's straight out of Jurassic period for much of it.

I went scuba diving one day, and fishing that morning brought in a couple barracuda and a 20lb Wahoo that gave me nearly as much fight as the 137lb marlin did this past summer. Another day, Katrina and I caught up with Hemilson Philips, a local guide, for a spectacular hike to the summit of Mt Ohma, through the rain forest (400 inches of rain/year!!) Along the way, we crawled through some Japanese WWII tunnels, learned how to set a wild boar trap, scare the mountain-apple tree to make the fruit sweet instead of bitter (crazy but true), enjoy some orange/banana/coconut straight from the trees, and bask in the reward that was one of the best views in Micronesia at the peak. That day provided for some great pics on our Flickr page. Hopefully we'll make it back for a few more days. Hemilson promised to teach me how to spear fish. He has a very welcoming and beautiful family that made my parents, Katrina and I sweet smelling floral leis to take on our flight back to Guam.

Guam was a short sleep and we were on an early flight to Sapporo, Japan, for the 60th annual snow festival. We were only up there for a few days to check out the festival. My parents seemed to like it, but are genuinely uncomfortable in places where they can't communicate easily with everybody. I love it 'cuz nobody bugs me.

I learned just how adventurous my parents can be when my mom ordered spaghetti for dinner the first night, and was concerned it'd be too spicy. Not exactly sure what Katrina and I had, but they were both really good. The next day we froze for the day at the snow fest. So many people, all considerably shorter than I, made me feel huge. A giant among people with far superior toilet technology (Don't miss that pic either...It's amazing and slightly awkward).

The Snow fest at Oduri park was chock full of snow statues. Some were 5-10 feet tall, and some were pushing 5 or 6 STORIES tall with bands and stages built in. They were surely time consuming to build the larger snow buildings, amazing feats of design and detail, and useful for about a week.

Susukino (night life district) had the ice sculptures. Most 5-15 feet tall, and lit up at night with flashing lights and spotlights. Pretty to look at, funnier to see Katrina mock them and slide down them while screaming "Bonzai!!!".

Back home now in Guam, and leaving here in a couple short months. We're gonna try to get a few more trips in before we leave. Philippines in March, Tokyo in April, and hopefully Kosrae and maybe Palau one more time. Other than that, Katrina and I are golfing, playing tennis and doing some harder training in case I decide to race at all this year at home. And if not, I could stand to lose a few lbs anyway.

Hopefully the updates will come a bit more frequently now that we're getting back to travelling again.

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.