So, as the counterpoint to diving underwater to watch the beautiful and unique wildlife, we instead geared up a large boat, stayed on the surface and threw lures in the water to entice the fish to eat them, so we could in turn reel them in and eat them.
Perhaps that’s a little over-simplified, but it was fun, nonetheless. Nothing like being at the top of the food chain. 🙂
Ok, our morning was spent on a large and very comfortable boat. The Captain took us out in search of primarily Mahi Mahi.
First up to catch a fish was Michael. We had 4 lines in the water, so when a fish was on one line the other three were brought in. The crew worked very efficiently to make sure all we had to do was sit in the fighting chair and reel in the fish. That sounds a lot easier that it is though. These are large game fish and don’t come in without a fight. Granted, a Mahi Mahi or Tuna is no Marlin, but it’s still a great fight.
When Michael brought the fish close enough so that we could see it, I was really surprised at how beautiful it was. Such a vibrant blue. I’d never caught a mahi before (or even seen one in person).
When it came next to the boat, the crew again impressed me with their efficiency. One directed it in and got the door open and the other gaffed it and brought it directly into the cooler. If you have a weak stomach, it could be a bit of gruesome site, but the process is still fascinating.
Here’s Michael with his spoils. Unfortunately, the color fades when the fish dies, so it’s not nearly as pretty, but you can see what they look like (if you’ve never seen one before).
Next on the docket was me and a fish. Mine was rather elusive. It took lots of line out and was fighting hard. When we finally got him in, it was a football sized tuna. Perhaps not as impressive as the Mahi Mahi, but a good little fighter.
Dad was the final fisherman to get one. He also brought in a nice sized Mahi Mahi.
Well, after 4 hours, we only brought in 3 fish, but we had a great time doing it.
Here are some other shots as we enjoyed our time on the boat.
As we came back into the harbor, the crew filleted our fish for us. For part of the tuna, we enjoyed a little sushi. It wasn’t yellow fin tuna, but it was quite tasty. There’s nothing better than taking your catch from the sea and in a matter of minutes, fillet it and eat it raw (with a little soy sauce and wasabi of course). Yum. 🙂
Here’s our party and crew back in the harbor.
Next stop was back home to cook up some of that tasty fish. Michael helped make a delicious meal of the fillets.
After we had our fill of the fish, we packed up our gear and went North for a short hike to Hilaan beach (AKA Shark’s Hole and Lost Pond).
On the way there, we stopped by Two Lover’s Point. Here’s a picture of Julie and Michael there.
Here is everyone hiking on the beach.
Julie, Michael and I ventured into the jungle in search of Lost Pond (it’s not very lost if everyone finds it, is it??). Unfortunately, like many trails on Guam, this one had about 10 different branches going off it. So, we took a couple wrong turns and found ourselves in very think growth with the pond nowhere in sight. However, we did come across a number of coconut crabs (a land crab that eats primarily coconuts and is considered a delicacy here). Since none of us were wearing the right gear to be trail blazing, we turned around and headed back to the beach.
Since I couldn’t let the jungle beat me, I decided to go back and make sure I could still find this lost pond. I did, but as usual, the mosquitoes were voracious, so I didn’t savor the discovery for very long!
We stayed out on the beach until the late afternoon, then hiked back to the car.
Here’s another shot of the beach.
After this picture perfect day at the beach (which also happened to be New Year’s Eve), we returned home. That evening Anna and I went to a New Year’s party for work and everyone else stayed home, packed up and got a good night’s rest for the very long journey home the following day.
Early the next morning, we took everyone over to the airport and said good-bye. It was a great visit and we really enjoyed having them come see our home in Guam. Not just anyone would travel halfway around the world just to come say hi!
We can’t wait to see them again soon!
So, until the next adventure.
–Jim
Gingras Family Visit Part 3–Christmas and Diving
Once the whole Gingras family was together, we decided it was time to celebrate Christmas together as a family. It was the first time in three years I had been able to join everyone so it was a treat for me to be there. Last year, Anna and I were here in Guam (and unable to make it home) and the year before, I was deployed to Kyrgyzstan over Christmas.
So, here are a few pictures from that night.
My Mom made herself right at home and treated us to some delicious meals while she was here!
Of course, the big event was opening presents. As you can see, Julie gets rather excited when she opens her presents (this was a new lunch box … she teaches 3rd grade, so now she’ll be the envy of all her students with this spiffy new one!)
Here’s Michael checking out his gift.
Anna trying on her pretty new bracelet.
This is the chaos that ensued after the presents were opened. In fact, since we don’t have a very large condo, it’s pretty much indicative of the state of our place while we have guests! Sorry Mom and Dad. Hope you didn’t mind the clutter too much! 🙂
Well, we also took everyone out on the dive boat while they were here. There is some of the best SCUBA diving in the world on Guam. Ok, so it’s not Palau, but it’s certainly better than most other places we’ve been! They (I don’t really know who “they” is exactly though) say that Guam is better than 80% of the diving in the world. I would have to agree with that assessment (at least from our perspective).
Here we are all geared up. Anna, Michael and I were the only divers. Mom, Dad and Julie all stayed closer to the surface and went snorkeling.
We were fortunate and on the first dive saw 2 sharks. Both small, one white tip and one black tip, but only our 4th sighting in the wild, here on Guam.
Both dives we did were drift dives. So, while we were underwater, we’d just let the current push us along and when we finished, ascend up to 20 feet below the surface and wait three minutes for the safety stop. While doing that, we’d inflate a long orange tube (called a safety sausage) and let it rise to the surface. That way, while were below waiting for our safety stop to finish, the boat captain could see our sausage and motor over to pick us up. If the group stays pretty close, it’s a fast process. If not, it takes a while to pick up spread out groups of divers. Both times were about average for us. 🙂
Here’s what we look like in the water waiting to be picked up.
Well, that about does it for this post. Next one will have the counter point to SCUBA diving. That is deep sea fishing.
–Jim
Gingras Family Visit Part 2–Underwater World
Ok, so this entry has pictures from our visit to Underwater World. Since I don’t have a good underwater camera, these are actually the best shots I’ve gotten of the submarine fauna on Guam.
To give you an idea of how these shots were taken: Underwater World is a relatively large indoor aquarium. There are three main sections and all of these were taken in the second. That is a large walk through tube under a 10 foot deep aquarium. The animal life is exactly what you find out on the reefs here, so it’s very realistic. Considering the size of Guam, it’s a very nice display.
Ok, enough with the background, here are the shots:
This is a view of the tunnel (the plastic is about 2 inches thick to keep the water at bay in the tank).
A blacktip reef shark (looking back on my dive in Hawaii, this looks pretty much what the sharks there looked like too!).
Here is a porcupine fish. If you look closely, you can see the “quills” lying flat. When threatened, it puffs up (like a puffer fish), but has sharp, unappetizing spikes that stick out.
Our venerable friend, the green sea turtle.
A blue starfish. There are many of these around the island. In fact, our bay has the highest concentration that I’ve found. They’re a very unique shade of blue.
A group of whitetip reef sharks showing off their unique ability (among sharks at least). They are one of the only species of shark that doesn’t need to move to breathe. They can stay still at the bottom without moving and be just fine.
Here’s a dusky anemone fish with his host anemone. If you’ve seen “Finding Nemo” you are all too familiar with this little guy.
Another dusky anemone fish in his home.
This is a lionfish. Here he’s swimming quickly through the water.
This is him stopped in full display.
I know it’s a bit like cheating to use pictures from an aquarium to show you all the fish of Guam, but, hey, it’s the best venue to get it all at once! 🙂
Hope you enjoyed. Perhaps now you’d like to come out and see for yourself?? If you already live here, perhaps you’d like to join us on a dive?
Until the next entry…
–Jim
Anna’s Wisconsin Winter Wonderland
This January circumstances have required that Jim and I be apart for most of it, so I (Anna) will fill you all in on what I have been up to while Jim was “watching the earth be born” in Hawaii.
I took a little airplane ride (20 hours) from Guam to Wisconsin, stopping in Seattle to visit my sister, Susan, and her family for the first time. Susan weaves textiles in the traditional Skakomish (Native American tribe in the northwestern U.S.). During my day with Susan and her youngest son Akea she was preparing for an exhibit at the history museum in Tacoma in which her weaving was highlighted. I truly enjoyed getting to know her and spending some time with her family. I am looking forward to spending more time together in the future. Who knows, maybe we will get stationed in Washington one day.
This is Susan and her youngest son Akea getting ready for our day at the museum.
Some of Susan’s textiles
This is Susan and her incredibly active family
After spending the day with Susan in Seattle, while they were enjoying their 26th straight day of rain :-), I flew over to Wisconsin to reunite with the rest of my beloved family. This trip can be summed up in one word … playing. I spent almost the entire time playing with my niece and nephews and loved every bit of it.
After a few more days of playing, my best friend from Texas (Corree) came up to visit me with her son Perrin. We had an outstanding time playing and she and Perrin got a little taste of life with the Miller/Gingras family. They made it through relatively unscathed.
I got to spend some time with my very pregnant sisters…
Here are the moms all worn out from a day of playing.
And here are my two favorite moms in the whole world (yes, this last comment is very biased)
My favorite niece looking adorable as always
There were lots of other people I visited with on my trip and it was great spending time with each of them.
I absolutely loved my trip home to see so many people I love. I wish Jim could have joined me and I can’t wait to see all of them again in September, plus two new additions :).
XOXO Anna
Gingras Family Visit Part 1–Welcome and Waterfall Valley
This Christmas, Anna and I had the pleasure of hosting my family in Guam for almost 2 weeks. (I know it’s now Feb and I am just posting this…)
Mom and Dad arrived into Guam on the usual Flight 1 from Hawaii. Yes, Continental Airlines has a flight one, and it’s direct from Honolulu into Guam! Forunately, they arrived on the Thursday before Christmas and I had the next 4 days off.
So, we got to go on an island tour (it takes about 3 and a half hours to drive all the way around Guam), to the beach (where the waves were about 10 feet high).
Unfortunately, Mom’s camera was a casualty of the ocean water (on their very last day here … after she had taken about 500 pictures). So, we don’t have many pictures from the first weekend. However, here are the pictures from a hike we went on to a place in Southern Guam called Waterfall valley.
This is a neat little valley that is chock-full of waterfalls. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
It was a nice afternoon hike and a good introduction for my parents to the jungles of Guam.
After the long weekend, I went back to work for a few days, then, Julie and her boyfriend, Michael came to join us from their home in Los Angeles.
We celebrated Christmas twice. Once on Christmas morning and once again when Julie was with us. 🙂
The next entry will have shots of the underwater life in Guam…
–Jim
Hawai’i Part 3 — The Land That Is Still Being Born
Wow, this weekend I had the opportunity to witness the earth being formed! I walked on land that was much younger than me (sometimes just a few hours old!).
I was on the island of Hawai’i (also known as the Big Island). Since I had some free time this weekend, I decided to take a short 45 min flight over. Although there were about 100 things I wanted to do with my time there (including diving with Mantas at night and seeing the Ironman Triathlon site), I had to limit myself to basically
only 2 things. Visiting the Kilauea Volcano and a black sand beach were my two top priorities.
For those not familiar with the volcano or the Big Island, let me share a few of the highlights with you.
The Kilauea Volcano is the most active volcano in the world. In fact, it’s been continuously erupting since January 3, 1983. Now, you may not always see the lava on the surface, but it’s been going, nonetheless. It’s also conveniently located right in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. The park itself is perhaps one of the most
fascinating places I have ever visited. It’s characterized by lush tropical forests, vents spewing steam, volcano calderas, huge chasms, lava tubes, lava fields and often, visible surface lava (what I was after).
The military decided back in the early 20th century that the volcano would be a perfect site for a recreation complex. So, there is a nice resort conveniently located right at the volcano. Since it’s uphill from the volcano, it’s perfectly safe from the volcano’s violent eruptions that has claimed a couple nearby towns (182 homes
in the recent eruption) and has already added 600 acres of new land on the coast.
The current eruption is at a newly created vent on the volcano called Pu’u O’o. So, my goal was two fold. One, to watch the volcano come to life at night; two, see flowing lava up close and personal.
To the first goal’s end, I arrived in the late afternoon and immediately headed down to Pu’u O’o after I checked in at the resort. When I got there, I found a huge crowd that had a similar idea. There were a couple hundred cars parked on the side of the road. There is no parking lot and there are old (meaning hard and cold) lava fields that cover the whole area. When I found a parking spot, I set out on a half mile hike, just to get to the start of the trail. Once there, it was a mile and a half over a rough and uneven lava field to reach the viewing site.
Here you can see what happened to the road:
Since there is no sunlight to compete with, the lava in the late afternoon and early evening looks like it is more abundant.
Unfortunately, my camera was not able to get adequate shots of the lava field at night, but here’s what I have.
Imagine a river of fire visible miles away, with the end of the river pouring tons of liquid rock into the ocean.
When the lava hits the ocean it is instantly quenched.
That night, I only hiked in the hour or so to get to the viewing site. Since I was by myself and not familiar with the area, I decided to make the night hike an expeditionary hike. Although I would have loved to hike all the way to the surface lava right away, I decided to make that my goal for the next day. I got back to the resort at about 10PM, after spending quite a while just enjoying the view out on the lava field. The next morning, I was back out there, but this time I could see everything around me and allowed me to go much faster.
Don’t worry, before I set out, I checked in with the ranger station and got the best description of the current flow (it’s obviously always changing and therefore in different locations). Also, the active surface flow was marked by the dozens of helicopter tours that circled overhead.
So, I set out to find fresh lava.
As you can see, the lava makes a surreal landscape.
Here’s what a lava tube looks like. This one looks like there was a clog and the pressure built up so much, it blew up!
Plants are already in the process of taking the land back.
The ground I was walking was formed sometime between 2003 and now (that’s how long the lava has been flowing in the area, at least).
The description I got was that the lava was somewhere between 200 and 400 feet above sea level and past the place where the lava pours into the ocean. You’d think that would be more than enough information to find flowing lava. Well, since the flowing lava can be hard see from a distance, it’s a bit like finding a needle in a haystack.
However, I got to the area I thought the lava should be at and there was nothing but lots of steam coming from the cracks, indicative of lava below, but nothing on the surface. So, I headed up the hill (where I knew I would find lava … I could see the lava rivers a few hundred feet up the hill).
As I came up over a little ridge, suddenly, I was right in the middle of an active lava field! A little surprising, but very exciting!
I spent lots of time exploring and watching the flow. It was fascinating. Kind of hypnotizing like watching a campfire.
Here’s what the earth looks like as it’s being born.
After I was in a spot for a while I moved up the hill for a while. When I came back to my original spot, it was entirely COVERED! Luckily, the lava flows slowly (so I wasn’t in danger of being covered myself), but it was a strange feeling. Also, even though the lava is 2,000 degrees, you can still get pretty close (I was about a foot away getting some of these shots).
So, after I had my fill, I headed back to the ranger station and completed the 10 mile round trip hike in about 5 hours (it was rather slow going through the lava fields…).
After the lava, I wanted to see what a black sand beach was like, so I drove back up and around to the other side of the lava. There was a world famous black sand beach just down the coast. Unfortunately, it is now covered in about 70 feet of lava. There are still a couple other black sand beaches though. While they may not have the same allure as the old one, the one I was on was quite beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with. So, I will leave it to your imagination to see a black sand beach with smooth black stones and a raging sea crashing and palm trees protecting the beach goers from the sun and rain.
Wow, what a weekend! 🙂
–Jim
Hawai’i Part 2 — Wild Oahu
I finished the rest of the weekend with two new experiences (at least sort of). My time here has been characterized by adventurous experiences … by myself. I am not used to doing things like this without my beautiful wife, Anna.
So, it’s a little bitter sweet that I get to have fun and try these new activities.
First up for the day was a stop on the North Shore at Dillingham Airfield. I decided that it had been entirely too long since I last flew. So, since I had never taken an ultralight (this particular one was a two-person powered hang glider also known as a “trike”), I decided that was the way to go. Well, the flight was a blast. We went anywhere from 500 feet to 3,000 feet above the ground. Since the seats were basically just lawn chairs (with a very secure harness, of course), the view was breathtaking. We flew for over an hour and went all across the north shore Oahu.
Here are a few shots from the flight to show you what I am talking about:
Flying over the North Shore:
Second stop was out on the ocean. For those of you who have read the previous post on the dive trip Anna and I took to Palau, you know we’ve dove with sharks. This was a whole different experience though. Previously, if we happened to see a shark, great, but it wasn’t the objective of the dive. Also, the sharks we had seen were reef sharks (black tip, white tip and gray) and not particularly aggressive. This time, we were after more aggressive sharks (Galapagos). So instead of using scuba gear to get close, we used a boat and a very strong cage. Here’s the boat and our protection from the animals we were searching for.
On the ride out to the buoy, we were treated to more north shore visitors.
As you may be able to tell from the last picture, we found a migratory humpback whale with her very new calf (from Alaska).
When we arrived, it didn’t take long for the sharks to hear the sound of the boat’s engine and come say hi. 🙂
The two guides tied us to the buoy and launched the cage. There were eight of us on the boat, so we went into the cage, four at a time.
I chose to go in the second group. So, after the first four got in the cage, the guides took out a large bucket of random fish parts. They tossed in pieces and basically got the sharks a little more excited with the free food passed out. In fact, there were long pieces of skin. You can see here what the guide did…
The sharks almost look tame (like a dog sitting up for a treat). However, that assumption could be very dangerous.
If you lose respect for these predators it could be fatal (or at least painful).
Each group spent 25 minutes in the cage. Since I have gotten used to the warm water in Guam, that was plenty long enough for me to get a little chilly.
Here’s my group in the water:
This shot gives you a better idea of how large the sharks were.
Basically, these sharks were anywhere from 6-12 feet long. That was only slightly larger than the reef sharks we found in Guam and Palau. However, in the water, they looked significantly larger! Of course that may also be because we watched them feeding… 🙂
Also, along with the sharks looking for a free meal, there was a large school of mackerel (probably 400 or so).
It was a great way to get up close and personal in complete safety to these spectacular predators. Next time though, I would love to find some great whites. we’ll leave that one for another time though.
So, after that thrilling morning, I headed back to Honolulu for a quick hop over to the Big Island of Hawai’i. I planned to spend the rest of the weekend chasing another long time desire.
So, until then…
–Jim
Hawai’i Part 1
Hi everyone, ok, so I have now spent almost a week here in Hawaii. I am here to help with a quasi-promotion board. My job is to help prepare about 350 records to meet a board of senior officers who will decide who gets a promotion recommendation. The actual promotion selection will come later at another board in Texas where they look at all the records from the Air Force. This board is just for the Pacific Theater bases (Guam, Alaska, Hawaii, Japan, & Korea).
That said, we have had a fairly light schedule this week. There are 5 people here to help out with the board. Since it’s normally a 3 person job (they brought more of us to give us better exposure), we’ve gotten things done quickly. In fact, today I had off! What a treat! 🙂
Since I often have to work at least part of the time on the weekends, this is some compensation at least.
Let me backtrack for a minute. Since Anna and I have lived on Guam we’ve talked numerous times about learning to surf, however, for one reason or another, we never did. I found myself in the surfing capital of the world last weekend with an entire day to myself. So, I decided it was high time to remedy my surfing desire.
I took a group lesson and after about 30 minutes of land instruction (in both English and Japanese, of course), the 6 students and 4 instructors headed out to catch the waves of Waikiki.
Now, for those of you who aren’t familiar with learning to surf, let me clarify a couple things.
1. The surfboards one starts out on are HUGE. I mean they are aptly called floating sidewalks (12 feet of foam and so buoyant that you can almost stand up on them without a wave to push you).
2. The waves we caught were not the 20′ curling waves of the North Shore. These were more the 2-3′ variety. I thought they were just right. Not too big and not too small. 🙂
Now, hopefully, that will put things in perspective a little more.
Here we are on the way out.
Our guides were happy to bring us out to the best location and paddle next to us and when the right wave was coming, say “Go … start paddling! Paddle faster! Harder!” Sometimes they even added a little push to get things going.
After one minor miscommunication with my guide, I was able get up on a wave and ride it in the 100 yards to shore. It was quite a thrill! Then the hard part began. I was eager to get back out and try it again, so I paddled hard. After the third wave, my arms began to get very heavy. By the end of the hour out there, my arms were like lead. As we paddled back in to shore, I could barely raise my arms to complete a stroke. Wow, I was not expecting that to be the hardest part of the experience!
By the end of the hour in the water, I could (relatively) get up easily and ride in a straight line. I still have much to learn in the wave of turning and using a smaller board, but it’s a start at least!
Here are a few pictures of me and the group that went with me:
As you can tell, I was a little excited just to be up riding a wave!
Here are the others in the group:
This kid was a natural!
A Japanese couple’s first attempt at holding hands while surfing…
Now the last, and SUCCESS!
The rest of the week has been filled with work and when not working, it’s been rather rainy. So, my outdoor activities (including the golf I planned to do) have been curtailed. That changed today though.
I started the morning off with a refreshing run and countered that with a divine (albeit unhealthy) pancake breakfast. It’s purported to be one of the best places around. I agree it was good. It’s a place called Eggs and Things if you stop by Honolulu.
Then off to the second biggest tourist attraction (after Pearl Harbor), snorkeling in Hanauma Bay. It was nice, but very similar to Guam. The visibility was much less (although the rough surf may have had something to do with that.
After, I continued around the windward side of the island. Since Oahu is about 3 times the size of Guam, it took a little while. The windward side was beautiful though. Much less crowded and the mountains and sea are very majestic.
I made it up to the North Shore in the late afternoon and spent a while just sitting on the beach in awe of the surfers who rode the very large waves.
It’s hard to describe, but these guys are all decked out in protective gear (the waves are big, the water is shallow, and the rocks/coral is hard … dangerous combination) and the drop into some very serious waves. The waves look very innocuous, until you see a person that is only a third or half the size of the wave (sometimes less).
After I had my fill of those two world famous surfing spots, I stopped at another unique location. It’s a place where they have VERY gregarious and friendly sea turtles. When I got there (right around sunset), there were three turtles lying on the beach supposedly drying themselves out. There were many more in the water, but the rip tide was too strong to don a mask and snorkel and jump in with them. Hopefully, I will be able to go back tomorrow morning.
I will leave tomorrow’s activities to the next post.
I finished off the evening watching a fireworks show from my room…
Until the next post…
–Jim
Happy Holidays!!
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
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