Guam in a Nutshell

I did a lot of this in Guam. Reading by the pool/beach. I'm currently reading a book called What's Mine in Yours about the theories of collabortive consumption. It's an interesting look at society and a nice change from US Weekly and the like that I usually read by the pool. Don't get me wrong though, I read that too.

We ate some delicious American  style food. Another nice change from the usual. This particular dinner was at a restaurant called House of Brutus. If you make it to Guam, I definitely recommend the restaurant. Don't let it's location disuade you althought it is tucked behind and under an abandoned parking garage.

We also did our fair share of drinking. :) That's what vacation is, right?

On Saturday, Glenn's squadron had the change of command (CoC) ceremony. The current Commanding Officer (CO) decided he wanted to have an airborne CoC so the current CO flew lead with the new CO following behind. After reading their orders on the broadcasted radio (so those of us watching the ceremony knew what was going on) the new CO "took the lead" by flying ahead of the former CO symbolizing that he is taking the lead of the squadron. It was neat to watch and since the new CO is an NFO and not a pilot, Glenn got to fly his plane during the ceremony.

The new CO, Glenn and John. Since this was also CDR Martin's last flight he got "hosed down" with the fire hose following the flight. That is another Navy tradition.

Glenn and his old boss (hence the wet flight suit and no patches).

In the eveing following the CoC, several of the JOs (Junior officers, O1-O3) had their Wet Down. Free drinks for everyone! Sounds good to me!

On Sunday, Glenn and headed to the beach with our rental gear and tanks to do some scuba diving. This was the first time we had gone on our own and not with a tour, but it was really nice. We went for one dive looking for an old WWII Japanese plane, but turns out we entered at the wrong spot (ok, so maybe a tour would have helped with that), but we still enjoyed the fish and coral reef. Then we got some lunch, went shopping at the Navy Exchange and then headed to a second locations for our second dive. It was nice and relaxing to be on our own schedule.

Immediately following diving, we drove to Two Lovers Point to check out the view and sunset (hence the wet swim suit, not sweaty pits).

I know some people say Guam is not a very nice place, but I have a great time every time we go. I told Glenn I wouldn't mind be stationed there for a little while (a year max) just to enjoy the nice weather and the great diving! I have a feeling that if we end up in Guam, that means Glenn did something wrong in his career though. I wouldn't mind another trip back someday!

I wish I could go back...

I spent a long 5 day weekend in Guam visiting Glenn while he is there for an exercise. I'm not ready to be back in Japan! I want to go back!

Guam: Day 5

My last full day in Guam was full of laying by the pool and snorkeling again. Since Glenn had to work in the morning and took the rental car so he could come back fast, I didn't go far. I read a bunch of my book and worked on my tan for Badman Ball next month.

We also went snorkeling with Jared in front of the hotel. It was great at first because the water is only about 18 inches deep and you could see everything pretty well, but by the time we got about 200 yards out near the breaker, the waves were picking us up and pushing us into the coral and a little too close to the sea urchin for my liking. Jared made it out past the breaking point, but I turned around when about a dozen of these were inches from my face and body. No thanks!

It was extreme snorkeling if that is possible. :) Good thing we have booties under our flippers because at some point we had to stop swimming and walk because the water was too shallow.

My last day in Guam was short because I was leaving for the airport around 10 am. We woke up to rainy skies and it seemed fitting that I should be leaving that day.

These pictures were the view from our hotel room. Time to leave, I think. It's definitely been hard to get back to my normal schedule and routine after lounging for 5 days!

Guam: Day 4

Glenn had all of Sunday off so we decided to explore more of the island. Guam is only 35 miles long and 4-9 miles across so you can drive around the entire island in several hours. We decided to check out the south part of the island and then do some shopping at Big Navy.

We started our day by the pool (of course) and then for lunch we headed to Jeff's Pirate Cove. It is a famous restaurant in Guam that served delicious American and Greek food. It's hard to find Greek food in Japan so Glenn and I both ordered it. Here is our view from our table at lunch. Beautiful!

We walked around Jeff's Pirate Cove grounds and checked out the WWII bunker. Before going to Guam, I didn't even know that part of WWII was fought here. I guess that's why it is part of America now though.

Jeff even had a "museum" of all the stuff he has found on the beach at the restaurant. Kinda random.

After lunch we headed south to Talofofo Falls which some friends had been to in the past. The falls were pretty, but the part itself was kinda sad. We skipped the haunted house and Lover's Land and headed straight down the cable car to the falls.

Also at the Talofofo Falls part was Yokoi's Cave. Yokoi was a Japanese soldier who fought on Guam and lived in the jungle for 28 years after the war ended because he thought the war was still going on! They finally captured him in 1972 and sent him back to Japan. Here is the cave where he lived for almost 30 years. We couldn't go inside, but it is only about a meter tall and about 10 meters long.

The park map also had an area labeled as "Field of Barbeque". Glenn was quite excited about this, but sadly, no barbeque. Just some picnic tables and grills. Disappointment.

We took the cable car back to the top after one last photo-op. The park was fun as long as you had a sense of humor about it, which we did so we enjoyed ourselves.

Who doesn't love baby pigs?

We continued our drive around the southern end of Guam, enjoying the lookouts and "pets" along the side of the road (cows, goats, chickens) tied to broken cars. Interesting. We stopped at Big Navy and did some shopping- they had shoes my size and clothes and so much to choose from. Yay! Glenn of course was drawn to the LED tv's that he thinks he is buying this winter. Still TBD. :)

We went to a nice steak house for dinner and walked through the aquarium next to our hotel on the way home.

It felt nice to be in America for a day! Only one more full day in Guam.

Guam: Day 3

Glenn had to work on Saturday morning so a few of us organized a scuba trip with a local dive shop. My dive buddy was Tom, our squadron's intel officer, and Chris and Nicole, the FNG and his wife came too!

We were suppose to go to The Crevice, but it was off limits on Saturday so we went to the Blue Hole and the American Tanker wreck instead. As a new-bee diver that I am, each dive lasted about 30 minutes. More experienced divers are better with their air and buoyancy and can last about 45-60 minutes. I'll get there though!

I don't have a waterproof camera so here are some google images of the Blue Hole. It is a underwater cave that starts on the bottom of the ocean and then comes out on rock cliff about 150 feet down. We only went in to the cave but didn't go deep enough to come out the other side. This was my deepest dive to date to about 82 feet.

Our second dive was to the American Tanker that I posted a picture of earlier in the week.

After we got back, I met up with Glenn who was drinking beers by the pool and we went to dinner and then to Mac and Marti's to enjoy the band and some drinks!

I wish I had gotten a picture of the awesome 80's hairband that was playing. I'm not sure they've gotten haircuts since the 80's!

Guam: Day 2

Glenn had Friday off so we got to sleep in, get some coffee and head to the pool! That is vacation! We didn't have a whole lot of plans for the day, which was wonderful. We did a lot of this-

Reading the newspaper, some magazines and enjoying the sun. Can you tell I was happy? In the afternoon, we headed to the Navy base to go snorkeling at Gab Gab Beach. It would not be a bad gig to be stationed in Guam. All the diving and beach time I could ask for.

Here are the guys at the base after snorkeling. The day before a few guys saw a giant sea turtle. No giant marine life for us, but tons of neat fish to see.

After snorkeling for a few hours, we stopped by the Navy Exchange (NEX) in Guam which was HUGE! So jealous. We grabbed a few things and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We had Thai food, the most amazing Mexican food and some great steak while we were in Guam. With the exception of Thai food, all things that are hard to get at a restaurant in Japan. Glenn had to work the next morning at 4:30 am so we didn't stay out late. Sleeping in and going to bed early, vacation is rough! :)

Guam: Day 1

I left my house at 6 am on Thursday and arrived in sunny Guam around 3 pm the same day. Getting to Narita airport takes about 2 1/2 hours by car, train and then bus. And that was all before I even got on a airplane. I did end up leaving a littler earlier than I had to so I wandered around the mall at the airport. I found wasabi, cantaloupe, cherry blossom and buttered corn kit kats! Success! The corn ones were disgusting, but the cantaloupe might just be my new favorite. I also saw several other new flavors, but didn't feel like spending $10 on the big souvenir size boxes they had.

During my descent into the Guam airport, I noticed the cars and houses below and suddenly got very nervous that I was going to have to drive on the RIGHT side of the road again. I just kept thinking, "right side, right side, right side" when I picked up my rental car.

I met Glenn in the room and we headed straight to the pool to enjoy the last few hours of sunshine...it felt GOOD!

We met up with a new couple in the squadron, Chris and Nicole, and went for dinner at a great Thai restaurant. Glenn had gotten up at 4 am that morning so we didn't make it a late night, but I did enjoy being able to read the restaurants and store signs as well as the 'Welcome to the United States of America' sign when I got off the airplane (as well as the shorter U.S. Resident line at customs/immigration!) during my first day in Guam.

Guam is a huge Japanese tourist destination so it didn't feel entirely like we had left Japan. Everything was just written in English first, then Japanese instead of vice versa around here. There are of course signs like these even though it is America. Overy berry? Ovary berry? Or is that a berry next to Very Berry. Someone should have thought more about this.