Well, it’s a three day weekend and Anna and I love it. Not only does it mean having time to spend together (which we don’t get nearly enough of), it also means we can hang out at the house (what we’re doing right now) and go out and find new adventures.
What have we been doing? Today was a 20 mile bike ride, church cleaning and hanging out. Yesterday we went to a couple get-togethers with friends, watched a movie with our good friends Mark and Samantha…the big adventure of the weekend was a boat trip out to Double Reef.
Lorena’s brother, Dennis, has a small boat here and he invited us to join him. We’ve been trying to do this for months now, so the fact that it actually worked out was impressive.
We left out of the harbor just south of our place (Hagatna Boat Basin). We made our way North to a place called Double Reef (you can also read about our hike there on June 25, 2005).
Here’s Anna and Lorena on the ride up.
We eventually arrived and anchored over a small sand flat and jumped right in.
Anna and I snorkeled around for about an hour. The highlight was a green sea turtle who we startled as he was trying to get a meal.
The coral was very pretty and undisturbed (especially by Guam standards). Mark was kind enough to let us use his camera while we played in the water.
As you can see, the water was perfect (albeit a little wavy). I know you can’t tell, but that is me, from Anna’s perspective.
As I looked over, Anna would disappear under the waves. 🙂
Dennis and another friend, Mary, went off spear fishing while we snorkeled. They were looking for parrot fish and other tasty delicacies. While Anna and I have fished before, this was the first time we’d gone spear fishing…quite an experience. I liken it to hunting…the larger fish are very wary (especially when you carry a long metal pole!) Also, we were free diving to get down…so, our time underwater and close to the quarry was limited by how long you could hold your breath. Both Dennis and Mary were successful and brought in a nice catch. Once food was assured, Mary let me borrow her spear gun for an attempt to follow suit. However, the fish managed to elude my spear. 🙂 It was fun nonetheless. Perhaps next time…
We eventually tired ourselves out, climbed back on the boat and headed in the direction of home.
As you can see from that picture, we also planned on fishing with more than a spear gun. We took a slow cruise the 10ish miles home, trolling for larger fish (tuna, mahi mahi, wahoo, etc).
Unfortunately, as with my spear fishing, the fish avoided us. So, we enjoyed the sun and conversation instead.
We had a blast with everyone and look forward to going out again (hopefully!).
With all that said, I think it’s about time to take a quick nap…so, until the next adventure…
–Jim
Month: October 2005
Mountain bike races and Ritidian Beach
These past few weekends there has been a mountain bike series race. Unfortunately, I don’t own a mountain bike, so I had to borrow from a friend and missed the first 2 races. Fortunately, I was able to make the last few.
I know it’s not too exciting hearing about my bike racing, so I will keep that part short. 🙂
However, it’s interesting to note, the first race was solely on the road…
After I finished the race, I was able to relax a little. 🙂
Our friends chillin’ after the race…
Auri and Lorena
Jude and Donna
Then we decided that we really wanted to relax, so we went down to Ritidian Beach with Mark and Lorena to cool off in the water. These pictures are a combination of ours and Mark’s (thank you, Mark!).
Here we are down at the beach…
Enjoying the water…
Lorena really wanted to cool off… 🙂
Here’s a good shot of Mark and Lorena.
Walking back to the car…it was a good day.
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Last weekend was the final race in the series and it was an actual off road race. In fact, it was my first “official” off road race. The set up was 6 laps around a short course…over muddy, slippery rocks and hills. I had fun, but partly because I fell twice, I wasn’t in contention for placing. Oh well. At least I only fell in the mud, not the rocks!
Ok, well that about does it for this race series….tomorrow, we’re going out on a friend’s boat. It’s only the second time we’ve taken a small boat out. Should be fun…so, we will hopefully get lots of good pictures to share.
Until then…
–Jim