What does Guam look like?

About a week ago, I drove around Guam to see some of the island. Its a bigger island than I thought and there is no convient way to get from point A to point B. The first two pictures are of the southern tip of the island. Not sure of the names of the bays or that I would even attempt to spell them. The picture taken from the higher vantage point was taken near a river outlet. You may have heard about the Imperial Japanese Soldier that was captured in 1972, still fighting WWII. That event took place near the this river. They have a tour of the cave he lived in for 27 years. He was the last one captured. That is the meaning of dedication to a cause.















This picture of the bay is actually a natural swimming pool outlet (below), which is behind where I took this picture. They have a diving platform that you can climb up and jump into the water and swim around. It was very protected from the ocean. What you see here is the outlet back to the ocean, it constantly has a fresh flow of water into the pool

This is Cetti Bay (below). Guam has some serious hills/mountains. Its hard to see from the picture but it is pretty rugged once you leave the beaten path. There is supposed to be a falls and hike down to the bay, we didn't have time to do the hike, they suggest three hours one way.We never found the trail head, but then again we didn't look very hard for it either.

In case you were wondering what the weather is like here, for those in Shreveport/Bossier, you'd be right at home. Torrential down pours occur quite often. I woke up the other morning to the sound of rain flying horizontially hitting my storm shutters and the howling wind. Needless to say, the drainage problem here needs to be addressed.

I did IT!!

So, my goal this winter was to get back into running after taking a break to focus on my biking. Let me just say that I use to enjoy running by myself. Now I have found that not having my honey to run with is sucking all motivation. I finished my 1st 5K. I ran it in 26:58.2 Not bad considering I've only run 2x in a 4 week time frame. That's about 8:39 min/mile. It's not the time that was annoying it my heartrate. One time I'm running up this hill (I'll get back to those hills) and I look down at my GPS watch and my HR is 192. Holy Crap. Am I going to kill over and die right now? This was a new course for me. So many of the "fun" runs are done in the same general location. This one was really hilly. I haven't run any hills in a year. Lets just say it wasn't pretty. I honestly thought I might hurl at the end. Oh well for my "lets just take it easy" thinking. Now I have a 5 miler in 3 weeks. I guess I better get back outside and start pounding some pavement. I think the spouses should get "hardship" pay for not having the running partner.

Rain, rain go away!!!

So, It seems to me that it has been raining FOREVER. Actually, it's only been about a week. How did I ever grow up in the pacific NW? I am pretty sure that this makes it official. I'm now a southern girl who just can't take it anymore. I find that oddly disturbing though.
If you go to http://www.shreveporttimes.com/ and click on photos/videos, then go to Red River Rising. It's totally crazy. I go over the bridge all the time and I can assure that the water is indeed in the trees. I'm just glad my house sits up and the backyard slopes away from the house.

I need to get back outside for the important things like riding my bike, soccer practice, and just plan messin' around.

Saturday morning soccer

Nate's shorts are on inside-out. Didn't catch that one until it was too late.

Number 6 is Nate. I think you can see Otis on his shirt.

Coach instructing the boys

Nate and the team waiting for the game to start. This game was cold and wet. The boys were covered in mud at the end of game. Nate even had it in his ears. They played much better this game (#2 game). Still have things to work on but I was proud of Nate's effort. His ball handling skills are improving a lot.

What the??

I know these pictures are a bit hard to see but the humidity this morning kept fogging up my camera lens. When I looked out my front door this morning I found this HUGE spider had made it's web in my outdoor entrance way. Literally at head height. I knew I couldn't leave it there but I also wasn't sure how to kill it. I don't like killing things that go squish.

It was a team Otis effort. I got the shovel and broke the web bringing the spider down to the ground. The stupid thing wouldn't get off the shovel though. Picture this if you will. Me in my PJs hitting a shovel against my walkway. I had 1 neighbor out with her dog and another one driving off to work. Yep, I'm pretty sure they thought I had lost my mind.

Once I got it off the shovel Nate had to squish it. Took 3 times of stepping on it for it to die. Now my million dollar question is...What type of spider is it? It was brown, furry, with light gray or white stripes. Can you imagine walking through its web and getting that thing on you. Gives me the shivers. What am I grateful for though? At least it was outside and not on my 15 feet ceiling.

Honolulu, Pearl Harbor and the Might Mo

Seems anything we do, doesn't matter what it is, takes a looooong time to get done. Getting out of Hawai'i was no exception. Show was early, time to get to the runway, equally as long as the flight back. You can see the mountains under the wing.

Located just to the west of the USS Arizona Memorial is the USS Missouri. You have two battleships right next to one another, one a grave site, the other the place of surrender in 1945. The white tarps/coverings are there as the ship is undergoing some renovations. We didn't do the tour of the Mighty Mo but I plan on it when we go back in March.

If you have ever seen the movie "Pearl Harbor" then you may recognize the picture with the tower in it. This is the tower that Ben and his gang climbed to shoot down the Japanese Zeros as they shot, bombed, destroyed Pearl Harbor and the airfields around the island.

By the way, if you ever want to hear me talk during a movie, and if you know me I hate it when people talk during movies, then sit down and plug "Pearl Harbor" in and then let the good times roll! From start to finish you will hear nothing but "That is so fake, they'd never really do that!" or "What idiot came up with that idea! Obviously they never consulted a pilot when they dreamed up that bit of genius." The tower incidentally was constructed in 1942 sometime after the attack so really Ben and his gang would have had nothing to stand on.

Island Adventures Continued

If you have ever been to Hawai'i then you have probably been to the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. This was my first trip ever to Hawai'i where I stayed longer than a lay over at the passenger terminal at Hickam AFB. The Friday before we left we were able to get a VIP tour of Pearl Harbor that the Navy runs. What was really neat/cool about the tour was that you visit two other memorials the regular Pearl Harbor tour doesn't see. The USS Utah and the USS Nevada.

The Arizona Memorial was very sobering to visit as you realize you are standing on top of the final resting place of 1177 members of her crew. The wall of names has several people with the last names, brothers and in one case, father and son.

We were the only ones out there, no other visitors, just my group of 30ish people. You can see from the flag that the wind was rather strong, so the water was a little choppy and you really couldn't see much under the water.

The white mooring quays in the picutre are where battleships were moored during the attack. Some of the quays bear names of ships representing where different battleships were moored on 7 Dec 1941. This is the base of the number 3 gun turret looking north into the harbor. What you don't see is that battleship row is closer to Ford Island, the island in the middle of the harbor, than I had ever thought.

While in Hawai'i the one thing everyone seems to want to do is go to a Luau, which we did. It was a lot of fun and the kalua pig they served was delicious. The two guys in the picture are about to dig the pig out of the pit.

The reseverations I made for the family are at a hotel right on the beach. The picture of me with Diamond Head in the background are taken from the beach in front of the hotel. Actually that's not entirely true, I had to walk 300 yards from the hotel where the Luau was to the jetty to take this picture.

Hawai'i on the Gov't Dime

Yes, I went to Hawai'i without my wife. Yes, my name is mud, and yes, I made a reservation for spring break to bring them here. Actually I was more disappointed to land here than our original destination of Spokane, but I might as well make the most of the experience.

We went hiking in the mountains just outside of Honolulu to Moana Falls. I short 0.8 mile hike. They film part of the TV show "LOST" in the jungle here. We ate at this dumpy little treetop resturant that the owner was more than excited to tell us his building had been in the TV show. Yep, the place looked like a dump, food was ok and the price....no wonder I get as much per diem as I do, it was outrageous.

We also hiked Diamond Head, a must do while you are here. A word of warning, make sure you save your cardio workout for the day you climb to the top of Diamond Head, if you've been there you understand, if you haven't, there's no shortcut to the top, if you know what I mean.

The most surprising part of the trip has been our hotel. They actually put us up downtown! Ha, I love it when that happens. Below is the view from my Lanai in my room. I will post more pictures of my island adventures as they happen, until then Aloha!