Ski Japan!

A few weeks ago we took a trip to Japan to go skiing. The scenery was beautiful, the snow was fantastic, the mountain was not crowded, and the runs were long and fun. We had a great time Our hotel was right next to one of the gondola lifts. All we had to do was wake up, eat a huge buffet breakfast and stroll out the door and onto the gondola. As far as easy goes, it really does not get any better.





As you can tell, we had a great time. I have come to really like Japan. I recommend visiting there if you ever have the chance.

Washington D.C. Here We Come!

Tom and I both have our orders for our transfer this season. We are officially moving to Washington DC. Tom will be working at the Coast Guard Headquarters Command Center, and I will be working with the Department of Homeland Security. We are excited about moving closer to family and friends, and also a little apprehensive about trading the laid back island life for hectic DC. I am not sure if you can get any bigger of a change.

We will most likely be leaving Guam sometime in June and hopefully having the time to head to Australia and New Zealand on our way east.

I have a lot of pictures to update with from our adventures in the past couple of months. We spent a few days in Japan skiing, and the snow was fantastic. I never thought of Japan as a ski destination, but we had some of the best snow, shortest lines and most fun runs of anyplace we have skied before. We really enjoyed it. Actually, I just really like Japan. Even though a few months ago I would not have had Japan on my travel list, we have had such a nice time each time we have been there, that I would encourage anyone to go to Japan if you have the chance.

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know the news, and let you know I am still here, just been dormant for a while.

Home Again

A gorgeous waterfall from our many hour journey deep into the jungle of Pohnpei:

This was the third of six waterfalls on the hike.

Tom and I have been home for a few days now, most of which have been spent doing a lot of nothing.  I suppose that is what happens when you spend every day of vacation diving, hiking and kayaking all day.  We did host a New Year's Eve party for about 20 people or so and we hiked to a place called Lost Pond yesterday.  

I put pictures from the trip on Flickr.  We really did have a wonderful time.  It was relaxing even though we did not take any days off from activities.  Here are a few highlights from the trip:

A much easier to access waterall - it entailed only about a five minute walk on a manicured path.


This rainbow greeted us when we walked to breakfast on Christmas morning.


A view of the Temple at Nan Madol from the canal.

Enjoy the pictures!

We Love Pohnpei

Well, I love it here.  We are having a fabulous vacation.  After two days of diving, yesterday we took a "break" and went on a five hour hike to see six waterfalls.  We learned that they really mean it when they say "it's a strenuous hike" here.  

It was an absolutely amazing hike.  There were a lot of climbs and descents down a very steep trail, a lot of walking across, up and down the river, swimming in the river, bouldering and generally slippery walking.  Of course, I loved it.  Our guides all did the trek bare foot, and had better footing and better traction than any of us hikers.  

We saw six waterfalls in all.  I have pictures of four of them, which I will post soon.  I did not get any picture of the sixth, and most secluded of the pristine, secluded waterfalls because we had to swim upstream for probably about 50 yards or so to get to it, and I would not risk the camera, even in it's dry bag.

So after that light activity, it was back in the water today.  We did three dives again today, and now we are finished with diving here.  It was incredible.  We dove with 10 manta rays surrounding us, swimming and doing acrobatic feeding loops.  They came within inches.  The mantas a beautiful, graceful creatures.  I, for one, was stunned by them, I believe we all were. 

Tomorrow we have a tour of Nan Madol, the ruins of ancient civilization in Pohnpei.  

The connection is not so fast, so picture posting is slow.  I will load them all up back in Guam.

Merry Christmas from Pohnpei

We arrived safely in Pohnpei yesterday afternoon.  Immediately after checking in at The Village, we headed out on the boat for a dive.  It was pretty amazing, we saw three big manta rays at a cleaning station, where they circle in the current to have small wrasses eat the algae out of their gills.  

Today we did two pretty spectacular dives.  We saw a school of over 20 sharks (just little white tip reef sharks), a school of big barracuda, some very large Napoleon wrasses,and a plethora of small creatures.  On the way back we came through a channel in the mangrove forest (I guess you would call it a forest).  It was pretty cool, and probably one of the few remaining intact mangrove habitats in the world.  

I did not take my camera out today to take pictures of the island, but here a is a picture of our room - it is a thatched hut with screen windows.  More photos to come soon...

Christmas Party

I suppose it is a sign of how fast time flies between Thanksgiving and Christmas that I have not blogged since Thanksgiving.  Admittedly, that was not much of a post either.  Anyway, I am back now.  We have been busy lately, but without much photo-documentation.  

We are gearing up for our Christmas trip to Pohnpei, I am trying to motivate myself to put up my Christmas tree (85 degrees just does not feel like Christmas to me), and we had our first real Tropical Storm scare since moving here.  This past week, Tropical Depression 27W threatened us briefly, but thankfully formed up to close to Guam to do any damage here other than blow some things around.  I, for one, am very happy that there was no real storm.  

Yesterday Tom and I ran in a 5K race in the morning.  As much as I actually enjoy doing the races (not so much racing for me, just running with a big group of people), I also hate the fact that they all start at 6:00 a.m. to beat the heat.  That was an early start to the day.  We also had the Coast Guard Christmas party last night. 

Can you guess who played Santa for the party?

That's right!  Tom graciously played Santa for about an hour and half at the beginning of the party, giving out the door prizes and sweating to death in the poorly air-conditioned lobby where we had the party.  Here is Santa giving presents to our friend Elizabeth and me...

We had a nice time at the party.  There was plenty of socializing and good food.

Here is a shot of two Amys in front of the very large Christmas tree...

After the official activities a group of people went out for live music at two different places in Tumon.  It was a big night.  We got home at 2:30 in the morning.  I have not stayed out that late in quite a long time.  Getting up for the race in the morning and staying out dancing until 2 in the morning made for a very long day.   It was a fine time, though, and good to get out and have a nice evening.  

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving. Tom and I had a nice Thanskgiving dinner at a coworker's house yesterday. We are headed out for a day of jet skiing and swimming at the beach with friends today. I hope you are all having a nice holiday, and hopefully enjoying a four day weekend.

Rota and Coconuts

Our trip to Rota was a big success. We had two full days of relaxation (there is not much to do in Rota but relax). Here is the Coconut Village Resort.

Our cute cabins...

We rode bikes to the simming hole. Here is Marcy and I on the beach cruisers, followed by a shot of the swimming hole...

We also had a sunset picnic of Champagne and cheese at the Bird Sanctuary.

This is the fishing cliff.

We also drove around a mostly abandoned part of the island, visited the Taga Cave and spent an entire day lazing on the beach and playing Scrabble. Yup, we are crazy vacationers!