Here is the JimAnna.com Holiday Card of 2005.
Guam: travel, triathlons, hiking, and SCUBA. Those four activities sum up our time this year. 🙂
What else have we been doing? Anna has continued her work at the SandCastle, an entertainment corporation here on Guam. She works as the executive assistant there. Part of her job was to coordinate the annual Jingle Bell run that happened over Thanksgiving. She took care of ALL the arrangements for the 1,700 runners that participated in this 5 kilometer run/walk. Not surprisingly, it turned out well, but it was quite an undertaking. She also handles all the correspondence for the company and keeps information flowing. She enjoys being part of the best entertainment on Guam!
Jim spent the first three quarters of the year as an environmental program manager in the Civil Engineer Squadron at Andersen AFB. Andersen is the one premier strategic platforms in the Pacific and as such, the base is going through a massive change. Suffice it to say, that keeps the engineers on base very busy. His two programs (Solid Waste and Recycling) became passions for him. In fact, he started the very first plastic recycling on Guam. So, now the house has a pile of newspaper, magazines, office paper, aluminum cans, glass, and cardboard cluttering up the spare room, all to help do our part. In September, however, he was selected to serve as the Wing Commander’s Executive Officer. This is an honor, but one that comes with a high price. The job is very challenging, and demands his complete focus (as to be expected, I suppose). Fortunately, he has learned to effectively deal with the mass volumes of data which must be screened/processed to help the wing and the base function properly. In fact, he actually enjoys doing what he does. It has given him a much better perspective of what the base, as a whole, does. Ok, enough about work…
Both of us have really enjoyed the outdoors here on Guam. If you ever get a chance to visit, take it! We’ve enjoyed things like hiking and camping for a long time (especially when we lived in Colorado). Here, it’s a different kind of hiking (locally called Boonie Stomping), but very enjoyable. If you’ve read our website (which you are reading right now), you know all too well how exciting the outdoors in Guam can be.
We also have taken advantage of our proximity to other Asia-Pacific countries … we started the year in Saipan, part of the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI), where we went SCUBA diving and enjoyed the beaches. Our next trip was to Australia in April. We got to spend two whole weeks in Cairns, Townsville (the city where Anna was a foreign exchange student) and Sydney. We loved the whole country and will go back, just as soon as we can! The next adventures for Jim were trips with work to Hawaii and Okinawa, Japan. In July, we used the free ticket to Japan that we won at Anna’s 2004 Christmas party. We spent a week in Tokyo seeing the sights and climbing Mt. Fuji. In September, we flew to our neighboring island nation of Palau. It is one of the smallest countries in the world with only about 20,000 inhabitants. There’s good reason the SCUBA diving in Palau is rated the #1 underwater natural wonder of the world. We saw everything from sharks to manta rays to sea turtles (and that was just on 1 dive!). The last trip of the year was to our small island neighbor to the north, Rota, also part of the CNMI. We went the 40 miles to participate in an Olympic distance triathlon. It was Jim’s first of that length (although he’s done a number of shorter races). Anna also raced and was part of an all-girl team in which she rode 24.4 miles on her bike.
The year is finishing out with Jim’s family visiting from Wisconsin. We’re having fun showing them our special place in the sun for the nine short days they are here.
Well, that about sums up our year. If you would like to know more about any of these snippets, please send us an email, or better yet, give us a call! I know it’s tough to get the time zones right, but if it’s after 5 PM (CST), it’s the next morning here.
Hope you’ve enjoyed the holiday season and talk to you all soon!
–Jim and Anna
Month: December 2005
Holiday Party Number 2–Base party
Well, the first party was a blast, and the second party was just as much fun. For this one, I was one of the people who helped plan it, so I had a vested interest in it.
We had it on base and it was more of a “tropical Christmas” theme.
However, with all the decorations, it still felt very much like Christmas.
There was a competition to decorate trees…here are a few, can you guess which one won??
Tree #1:
Tree #2:
Tree #3:
So, was it #1, #2, or #3?
If you said, #3, you are correct. It certainly fit the theme of tropical Christmas the best.
Each table was also decorated….some tables were very elaborate…others were….less.
Here’s a sampling…
The security forces table:
The Civil Engineer table:
Our table:
After dinner, we had a cultural dance show. For those who haven’t seen a Micronesian dance show, here are a couple pictures. It’s quite enjoyable…not like the fire show, but fun nonetheless.
We also of course had Santa pay us a visit to help pass out presents. So, here’s a picture with Santa and the Commander.
After all that, the dance floor was opened and we let loose a little more.
Another good party.
Until the next one…
–Jim
Piti Triathlon
To continue my triathlon passion that’s developed here on Guam, here are pictures from yet another triathlon. This one is different for a couple reasons though. 1, this is an Olympic distance and 2, I did it as a team with Mark (who was kind enough to do the run).
So, here are a few pictures from last weekend’s race.
It was a longer race, so as you can see there weren’t as many people. I think we had 20.
Even though the water is over 80 degrees, it still feels chilly when you get in at 6AM.
I am the one on the left with the yellow swim cap on.
Off we go…the swim course was a L shape. The first buoy was straight out between the two kayaks. The swim was very pretty, and this time, I even saw an eagle ray. So, it made for an enjoyable half an hour. 🙂
Here I am coming back in…again, you can tell it’s me from the yellow swim cap.
Oops, watch your step….
Leaving T1 (I know, the picture’s a little blurry)
After the bike, Mark and I tagged off and he ran off to do the 10K.
Here he is at the half way point…
Mark was the race director for this race…he looks so official in the orange reflective vest…
His wife Lorena was hiding from the sun…
The Seay’s stopped for a quick chat as they were biking through (although not with the race).
No real surprise as Jude comes across the finish line in first place. Yes, he is holding his shoes over his head. He said they were giving him blisters, so he ran without any shoes the last little bit. He’s tough.
Mark pushed it hard at the end and got us to a 4th place finish. Way to go, Mark! 🙂
So, yet another fun race…next triathlon will be on Jan 22, 2006. It’s a shorter-than-sprint distance though, so it will be really fast.
Ok, until then, no more triathlon stories!
–Jim
Holiday Party Number 1–Squadron party
OK, so our first holiday party of the year was on Dec 2 (I know I am late in posting this one too…)
Well, despite the fact that the weather is virtually the same here, year round (read: summer all year), it’s been a very festive month. We’ve been in Christmas mode since Thanksgiving.
This year’s Civil Engineer Squadron party was down at the Leo Palace resort. Despite poor customer service we received, we had a great time. The night was a dinner and dance that we thoroughly enjoyed. Since there were plenty of rooms available, we decided to stay the night. Unfortunately, since the resort caters to the Japanese tourists, there were only double beds in every room. Apparently that is what they prefer (or so the front desk attendants told us at least).
The next morning, we slept in, walked downstairs to breakfast, then out to the golf course.
Anna came along, but decided she’d rather drive the cart than be frustrated by trying to hit a little white ball. 🙂
Here we are in front of the pro shop. As you can see, the course is very nice and a stark contrast to the surrounding landscape.
Some of the people golfing with us…of course we only had a 4 people golfing in our group me, Charles, Stephanie, and Gary (plus 2 spectators…Anna and Gary’s wife).
Stephanie unleashing her fury on the ball…
Our foursome on the green…unfortunately, I don’t think any of us made these putts… 🙁
Here I am just finishing my swing…this shot actually turned out ok.
Here we are watching the group ahead of us finish up.
Well, it was a good day of golfing. Even though I don’t get to play as much as I would like, it’s still fun every time I get out.
So, until the next time…
–Jim
Talafofo Caves
One of my other extracurricular activities if you will is that I am a member of the company grade officer’s council on Andersen. Also, I am the VP who is responsible for setting up social events for all the junior officers (aka company grade).
So, over the Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to use the day after the holiday to burn off a little of the turkey and pumpkin pie…our destination was the series of caves in the village of Talafofo on the southern end of Guam, aptly named, the Talafofo Caves.
The most distinct landmark around the caves is Window Rock. In fact, here’s what it looks like from the road down below:
There were six caves that we explored. However, two were so steep that a rope was required. There was conveniently a rope in both already, but it wasn’t safe enough to descend with out harnesses and belay devices…so, our exploration was limited to what we dared to explore with only our flashlights.
In fact, I didn’t bring my camera in most of the caves. So, here’s the only photo I have from the inside of the caves…and it’s not a very good picture even.
After we’d explored about half the caves, we went up to window rock. Here are the photos from the group up there…
Here is Kevin climbing a tree…can you pick him out??
Keith Q decided he wanted to be ON TOP of window rock…so, he jumped up that tree you saw Kevin climbing, used his machete and hacked his way up. Way to go, Q!
Here is the reverse view of window rock. This is looking through, back down to the water and road.
Next, we decided to hike over to the edge of the ridge where there was an old US Geological Survey marker. We found the marker and a nice view to go along with it.
We also found a cave that went straight through the ridge and came out the other side, to yet another pretty view:
Well, that about does it for my pictures of the caves…it’s a very fun place to explore. I would like to go back with more gear and actually rappel down the 100 feet or so into the most technical cave…anyone care to join me?
–Jim