Posted in Flashback Fridays, Travel on Friday, 30 May, 2008| 1 Comment »
This morning I woke to 44 degrees outside. The two previous mornings were in the mid-30s. I survived the harsh winter just fine but now I’m getting a little cranky with the chilly spring. It’s definitely solidifying the fact that we will move somewhere warm near the water in our post army years.
I was thinking about what I was doing last year at this time. Turns out I was walking the dogs along Tarague Beach in Guam and enjoying the lovely WARM weather:
Posted in Travel, Travel: Guam, Travels, tagged Beach, Travel, Travels on Tuesday, 19 June, 2007| 7 Comments »
Sadly, we’re down to our last night in Guam. FG and I shed a few tears yesterday as we drove off Andersen. We’re really going to miss the friends we made in our short year here. And FG is worried there won’t be anyone her age in our NY neighborhood. Little does she know how much bigger the new post with be.
I thought a lot about Bennett, our lab who died here last October. Wish he were able to still be with us. I felt like we were leaving abandoning him. Makes me doubly sad about our departure.
We’re staying at the WONDERFUL Pacific Islands Club in Tumon. We’ve stayed at a few hotels here on Guam, including the Hilton, Outrigger and Days Inn but this is the best so far. The room is large, service great and we’re within walking distance of the Jamaican Grill and Proa restaurants. FG is in her glory ~ they have a huge waterpark here where she and FM are currently getting their fill of the slides, kayaks and snorkeling in the salt water fish-filled pool. I, on the otherhand, would love to be sitting on the balcony looking out on Ypao Beach and the ocean but the only location in our room where the wi-fi is “excellent” strength is in the middle of the, thankfully, large bathroom. I’m perched on a rather uncomfortable chair. Ah, the things I do to keep this blog updated 😉
I’m using my clunky old laptop which I think is about 4-5 years old so I don’t know how successful I’m going to be with photos of our island-hopping. I can’t imagine the island of Majuro has any better internet connections than this hotel BUT you never know.
Posted in Favorite Girl, Travel on Friday, 15 June, 2007| 1 Comment »
School’s out and FG ready for her leisure time. My question is when is it not leisure time here? FG did well in school and received the “Academic Achievement” award. Her teacher selected one boy and one girl for the award.
FG’s been lucky as far as teachers ~ last year she had a super 2nd grade teacher and this year her teacher was just as enthusiastic about the kids learning. When I hear other people complain about their child’s teacher, I’m thankful for her teachers.
Hopefully I can say the same thing next year for 4th grade.
Posted in Travel on Wednesday, 13 June, 2007| 2 Comments »
We’re down to the wire now and doing our “lasts” before we leave Guam. I decided to spend an afternoon with my friend, Yukari at Tarague. It was nice to just sit, watch the waves and listen to the ocean sounds. I’m really going to miss the beach!
While I enjoyed the beach, FM took FG and her friend to Tarza waterpark for the afternoon:
When FM & FG would go to the indoor pools in Germany, they always stopped for gelato (Italian ice cream). It became a tradition for them and he continues to stop for ice cream after their swim at the waterpark. Unfortunately, Haagan Dazs in Tumon is the closest ice cream place and it’s SEVEN dollars for one cone. I still can’t believe he bought it. Imagine how many gallons of ice-cream you could buy for $21.00! Crazy!
Posted in Boonie Stomping, Guam, Travel, Travel: Guam, tagged "Double Reef Beach", Beach, Boonie Stomp, Guam, hiking, Island, Photography, Travel on Sunday, 10 June, 2007| 2 Comments »
We opted for a private boonie stomp for our finalé since the organized stomp yesterday was rated VERY difficult and didn’t end at a beach. My daughter stayed with her favorite sitter rather than head out to the boonies with us. It was probably just as well since it was a hot, long, and definitely “in the boonies” kind of hike and she had more fun playing with her friends. John and I were rewarded with this:
My favorite thing after a long hike was jumping into the cool, refreshing ocean waters and that’s the first thing I did:
Double Reef is one of the more remote beaches and, by far, the best snorkeling we’ve encountered on Guam. The ocean was very calm and we were able to swim quite a distance out to a “drop off” ~ there were so many fish and a variety of coral. I was mesmerized by all the vibrant colors of coral.
The beach itself is surrounded by a rugged, limestone forest (think “Predator” the movie) and there are giant binalo trees whose branches extend completely over the beach thus shading almost the entire length of the 150 feet long white, soft-sand beach. Absolutely gorgeous!
Much to our dismay, and I’m sure the other couple’s dismay as well, we weren’t the only ones there. We caught up with them on the hike and arrived at the beach at the same time. They went out for an even longer snorkel then we did, so we enjoyed a little time alone on the beach.
Along the trail, we came across wild pigs. I decided to carry a stick to ward off any attacks. Now that I look at it in the photo, my best hope would have been to poke it in the eyes with that lame stick:
I had heard many people tried to make it to Double Reef but couldn’t find it. I can see how that could happen. I highly recommend any one living on Guam, who plans on Boonie Stomping, buy the book “The Best Tracks on Guam” by Dave Lotz. It is very detailed and gives step by step guidelines to all the best hikes. And thankfully, there were markers along the way so we knew we were heading in the right direction. We did get off track a couple times but thankfully I was with John who has a great sense of direction. Not to mention he’s spent a lot more time in the woods. This is John standing next to a major marker ~ if you don’t turn right here, you’re way off course:
For anyone interested in hiking to Double Reef, be sure to park at this sign and start down the dirt road:
As the sign says, be sure to check in with the security desk. They will let you know if the beach is closed due to training ~ heed the warnings, you don’t want to get ‘shot’ accidentally. UPDATE: I’ve been advised, in the comments below, that hikers must sign a “release” prior to hiking to Double Reef beach.
It’s a rough hike but worth the reward at the end! Take lots of water, sunscreen, bug spray and snorkeling gear. I’m trying to figure out how we can fit one more hike there before we leave.
Posted in Travel on Wednesday, 6 June, 2007| 3 Comments »
The Pika Monthly Magazine is part of the Pacific Daily News and is the section which includes all the clubbing, after clubbing, bikini clad girls, etc. We finally made the Pika (click here) section this month but, sadly it wasn’t for a very exciting reason.
I must be hanging out with the wrong crowd…
Posted in Beach, Guam, Islands, Travel, tagged Beach, Guam, Photography, Tarague Beach, Travel on Monday, 4 June, 2007| 46 Comments »
We continued our tradition of visiting Tarague Beach on Sunday afternoon. It’s so nice to be able to hop in the car and be at a beautiful beach within 10 minutes. This time we decided to explore the Tarague Trail and ended up hiking 3 miles along the water.
We found these guys along the way:
One crab was in desperate need of a new shell ~ I’m always fascinated as to how they find their new homes.
We could not have asked for a more beautiful view along the route:
Posted in Travel on Saturday, 2 June, 2007| 2 Comments »
There are black birds, commonly known here on Guam as the Marianas Crows, which are a menace to all runners on both the Navy and Air Force bases. They will dive-bomb runners as they go by. Not walkers, just runners and little animals like cats and small dogs.You can always tell someone new to the base because they are so startled by the attacks it looks like a scene out of the movie “Birds” ~ the old timers don’t even flinch.
As for me, it’s just another good reason to walk and not run 😉
Posted in Guam, Travel, Travel: Guam, tagged Food, Guam, Island, Restaurants, Travel on Tuesday, 29 May, 2007| 16 Comments »
UPDATE: It’s been awhile since I’ve been to Guam. Feel free to leave your top 5 Favorite restaurants in Guam in the comments!
Itzy Bitzy tagged me to “Pick 5 of your favorite places to eat in your current location.” There are so many yummy restaurants here on Guam and, unfortunately, our short year here didn’t really allow us to get to all that many but I did find some gems. Here’s my current favorites:
To be honest, one of my favorite places to eat, is right here at home. I’ve been a lot more adventurous with my recipes and some have turned out pretty darn good 🙂
Posted in Animals, Travel on Friday, 25 May, 2007| 2 Comments »
Hit Radio 100’s First Ever Dog Show will be this Saturday (26 May) at JFK’s High School (Ramsey Field) from 4 pm to 8 pm. There will be “Purebred”, “Boonie” and “Fun” categories including Best Pooch Smooch, Longest Tail, Best Trick, Cutest Puppy, etc.
There will also be hundreds of raffle ticket prizes (tickets are $1.00 each). All proceeds will go to G.A.I.N (Guam Animals in Need).
Since I’m volunteering, I won’t be able to “show” my dogs and I’m trying to talk FM into being either Sport or Maya’s handler. Maya may have aged out of the Cutest Boonie Puppy category but she might be able to take Best Pooch Smooch.
I hope to see my Guam friends at the show with their furry friends.
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Displaced Beachbums 