We have never been to Guam so we went over Easter. I wanted some place warm with guaranteed no rain. We were pretty tired of the Okinawa rain by March. So I booked some place warm and relaxing. No tours, just the beach.
We got a great rate at the Marriott. Ocean View with huge balcony for $160 a night.
Right away I was relaxed because everything was in English and took the US dollar. So that made it even more easy.
It was as beautiful as Hawaii.
This is the view from the hotel porch. You can see that the water is crystal clear.
I had mixed reactions when I told people that we were going to Guam. Some thought it was great, others thought is was seedy. I saw the "red light" shops but nothing too bad. I wish that I would have taken pictures of the streets etc because it reminded us of California. It was clean, the roads were in great shape and the people seemed to be economically in good shape. The houses tended to be well maintained and nice.
We went to the steak restaurant at the hotel the first night. We were excited to have American food. The rest of the trip we ate at California Pizza Kitchen.
We did a bit of touring, not much though. We were just relaxing.
Patrick was still sleeping (noon).
Caroline was not feeling great so we picked up Patrick and drove around the island. Literally. It is 25 miles long.
We would stop at various beaches along the way. Some were beautiful and looked like Hawaii.
Sunset on day two.
Our flight back to Okinawa was at 7 pm so we spent some time at the beach one last time.
Patrick was up in the room.
Bill took some pictures of the flowers for his mom.
A great vacation, too short. We will come back.
Out of the blue my brother Ed calls from Mainland Japan telling me that he will be here in two days. Yes! I was so excited.
All four if us spent the entire dinner arguing over where we would take him.
The weather was perfect for the three days that he was here. It had rained for 2 weeks on and off just prior. It just stopped the day he arrived and it was beautiful.
It poured the day he left.
We grabbed him from the hotel which is right across the street from Bill's building and took him around American Village right across the street from our house.
Here are some sights.
Bill and Ed doing the Sear's catalogue poses. Ed had an excuse, he was jet lagged. Bill...
We walked around American Village. It really is neat.
Time for me to give Ed his official Welcome Gift.
Everyone who lives here has one.
I think he liked it...
American Village sits on Sunset Beach. Perfect timing, we took Ed down to the beach.
Everyone starts gathering at the wall at sunset.
Ed was pretty tired so after sunset, we took him back to the hotel for the night. Great day!
The next day we picked him up for dinner. As you can see, he had already "gone native." It was so amazing to see him. I really have no homesickness here, but I have to admit, it was hard to see home go. It did make me miss my family.
Next time he promises to bring Jane and Jennifer. I'm ready!
