Snapshots of Island Life

Looking snazzy at Guam's annual "Salute to the Military"


Choppy waters (and gray skies) at Mandi's second team triathlon...feeling seasick during a race is no fun at all!


Boxed in at the end of the first of three laps...I need to work on being more aggressive, which translates into swimming over people who are in my way!!


Much better!


The swimming course after the race. Naturally, the waters settled down and the sun came out as soon as we finished!


This is the life...kicking back after a hard day's work (ok, swim)!


Feeling patriotic on the Fourth of July


If this was the weather on your way to go snorkeling at the beach, you might consider turning around...


...but not in Guam! (This was the scene at Family Beach, a few miles further and less than 30 minutes later!)


A spectacular sunset at Gun Beach


Josh preparing to snorkel at Glass Breakwater...watch out for all that coral when you jump in!


A look out to sea at Glass Breakwater


Kicking back by the pool and lake at...Home Sweet Home! (aka Leopalace Resort)


Simply beautiful flowers by the lake


A cat, 3 toads, and oodles of fish at the Leopalace lake. (If you look at the picture very closely, you'll see that the cat has a bit of an attitude...I do believe it's sticking it's tongue out at me! Of course, it may also be licking its lips in anticipation of catching one of the oodles of fish for lunch...)


I said oodles of fish...did you believe me??


Now you can see the reason why the fish were going crazy...Josh! I mean, Josh with fish food!


And last, but not least, this is me escorting one of my swimming pupils into the sea pool at GabGab beach. I'm proud of him, it was quite the leap! (Photo courtesy of his brave mama and my good friend, Jeni!)

Liberation Day Photos

"Carpooling" to the parade... (Photo and ride courtesy of the Winegearts!)


Killing time in the extreme heat before the parade started. Josh bought poppers to throw on the ground and make noise (no surprise there!), and it seems he gathered a small following who wanted to share in the fun!


Flag procession at the beginning of the parade


A little snippet of "Semper Fidelis" by the Marine Corps Band (Oops, I stopped recording a little too soon!)


Sailors-in-training...so cute!


Guam's unique boat-float


A not-so-subtle plea to the islanders to recycle. Notice the washing machines and car on the float...you routinely find abandoned washing machines in the jungle when you're hiking and you routinely drive by abandoned cars on the side of the road. With time, everything decays and is consumed by the jungle. I don't think that's considered recycling, though...


A parade performer showing off


The barbeque float


Even caribous join in the festivities...


Beautiful fireworks over the ocean


Happy Liberation Day!

Liberation Day

Liberation Day is Guam’s very own holiday. It recognizes the day Guam was liberated from Japanese control. It’s a pretty big deal...like a Fourth of July take two, but 100 times bigger. The whole island shuts down for the day. The streets close. Everyone gathers on the main drag and barbeques while they wait for……The Liberation Day Parade! Josh and I have been hearing about Liberation Day and The Parade (July 21st…yes, I’m a bit late in posting!) since we arrived here in April. Neither of us are big parade goers, especially Josh. I like parades, but I could do without the heat and the crowds that generally go with them. Nevertheless, we had to check it out this year…had to see what all the fuss was about! So, we got up bright and early on Josh’s day off and made our way down to the festivities. The heat was killer, seriously. We even sweated bullets in the car with the air-conditioning going! But, we were committed (and more importantly, we had carpooled!). We chatted and sweated, and waited and sweated, and finally, the parade began with the passing-by of about 100 very noisy motorcycles. After the motorcycles came…nothing. Apparently, the cyclists like to make their own statement every year, and they do a drive-by before the parade begins. So, we waited a little longer, got a little more sun burnt, and then, finally, the parade began for real. It started off with a Marine Corps Band playing Sousa’s “Semper Fidelis,” which was awesome. I could have listened to them play all day long! But, they soon moved on, and we spectators turned our attention to various interesting floats and performers. There were no balloons a la Macy’s Day Parade or completely flower floats a la Rose Parade, but Guam’s floats had their own unique charm. For instance, there was the float for the village of Yigo, which consisted of a mobile barbeque. The people on the float cooked their food, ate it, and waved at their very hungry audience. Only on Guam! We coveted the fresh barbeque for a while, but we were continually distracted by lots of free handouts (T-shirts, decks of cards, candy galore, water, ice cream, soda, origami, folders, notebooks, hats, etc…). It was actually quite fun…for about the first hour! The parade started around 9:30am, and when we finally left around 1:30pm, it was still going strong. Wow, Guam doesn’t kid around when it comes to the Liberation Day Parade! And they don’t kid around when it comes to Liberation Day Fireworks, either! The show that night was at least 25 minutes long and probably the best fireworks show I have ever seen. Josh and I watched the fireworks on the beach with the sand in our toes and the waves lapping at our ankles, thinking, “Wow, we are so amazingly lucky to be here!” I doubt we’ll attend the parade festivities again (I believe those 4 hours gave us our parade fix for the next several years!), but it was quite the cultural experience and well worth the heat. Next year, we’ll escape the crowd by snorkeling all day on some deserted beach, and then we’ll take our kayak out to sea to watch the fireworks. Gee whiz, I think I caught the Liberation Day bug…I already can’t wait!!

Jungle Cruise Photos

Lots of lovely foliage on the riverbanks


Cool tree!


The foliage is getting a bit thicker...


Mandi observing a canopy of bamboo


A little sunlight peeking through the bamboo


The End...time to turn around!


I love the reflection in the water!


An interesting fruit tree, now dripping sticky white juice thanks to an encounter with Josh's kayak paddle...


Simply breathtaking!


Looking from the mouth of the river out to sea...we kayaked out there, but it just didn't compare to the peacefulness of our very own jungle cruise!


A boonie dog on the side of the road home, seemingly perplexed by the bright yellow kayak on the roof of our car...

Jungle Cruise

Josh and I are water people…we always have been, and we always will be. And after living by the ocean for 3 years of law school, I honestly can’t fathom us living in a place without easy access to the water. Guam, being a rather petite island, certainly has easy access to the water! The only decision to be made on any given day is what kind of water activity is appealing. Up to this point, Josh and I have done our fair share of snorkeling. We’ve hiked to a variety of beaches, and we’ve been rewarded by seeing some pretty awesome forms of life. However, we have had a hankering to explore the island in a different way for quite some time. So, in honor of our summer birthdays, we bit the bullet and bought a kayak. Wow…a whole new section of the island is open to us! We can now explore rivers that aren’t meant to be snorkeled, coves that are too far to swim to or hike to and too expensive to access by rental boats, etc. We definitely deserve a pat on the back for this decision!

Our first outing in our kayak was a quick trip out to sea one day after work. We raced the sunset to see how far we could paddle before it became completely dark, and we saw some pretty neat things along the way. First, we saw about a million flying fish…literally, they flew right at us! We also saw a barracuda leap out of the water as it raced alongside us, and shortly thereafter, a frenzied tuna boil. (For those unenlightened folks, as was I, a tuna boil is a feeding frenzy of tuna on a school of little fish. The fish are going so crazy that it actually looks like the water is boiling!) So, we were pleasantly satisfied with the adventure our kayak could bring.

Our first big outing in our kayak came in the form of our very own jungle cruise. We drove to a nearby river, deposited the kayak in the water, and took off. The river was not what I would call clear, so we couldn’t see many water critters, though we did see hundreds of jumping fish. I guess we scared them as we paddled past…scared them so badly that they leaped into the air, occasionally skipping a few times on the surface of the river just like a rock! We also saw a giant swimming crab…I’ve never seen a crab racing a kayak before, I’ve only seen crabs playing in waves breaking on the beach! (I tried to give this guy a lift with my paddle so he could take a breather, but I guess he wasn’t tired…he was a quick little feller!) Aside from these few swimming critters, we saw several beached crabs and plenty of butterflies. The real beauty of the cruise, however, lay in the scenery on the sides of the river. We were surrounded by palm trees, river grass, and bamboo. Sometimes, the vegetation came together to create a lush canopy over our heads. At this point, factor in a bright blue sky with fluffy white clouds, and you’ll see that we found absolute perfection. What a serene experience! Since Guam is practically devoid of all predators (aside from sneaky brown tree snakes that eat all the birds), we had no worries of running into feisty hippos, grumpy crocodiles, or hungry piranhas (like at Disneyland!). We simply sat back, relaxed, and enjoyed the ride. Well, I did anyway…poor Josh did the bulk of the paddling! This was my kind of adventure!