Josh and I arrived in Guam, and checked into our room at the Hilton Guam Resort. It is awesome. For the first time in our whole trip we had a soft bed. It was heavenly.

Guam is an American territory. I was expecting it to be similar to Hawaii, but it is very small. The total population on the island was less than 200,000. The driver who picked us up in the airport shuttle was giving us the down-low. They just got a Home Depot, which is the big thing on the island right now. He was in awe at how enormous it was. The other big thing on Guam is K-Mart. Now, in the States I hate going to K-Mart because they never have what you want and it’s always a mess inside. But Guam’s K-Mart, being the only large everything you need in life store, looks as classy as the best Walmart you have seen.

We were also expecting more of our food chains to make an appearance on the island, but there were not many. We ate at Chili’s and Lone Star Steakhouse and California Pizza Kitchen for the chains. Boy it tasted good after eating very different cuisine for a long time. I liked the Chinese food… but there’s nothing like what you’re used to.

The thing to do in Guam is go snorkeling or diving. Outside of our hotel, we could walk down to the beach and swim in an inlet. The whole area was a coral reef. It was incredible. I have never seen so many fish in my life. It was like swimming through a tropical fish tank. The water was crystal clear. I would do it all day long if my back didn’t become sunburnt or my snorkel keep leaking.

We did go exploring around the island a little bit. We saw some Japanese caves and bunkers that they used in WWII when they took Guam and were defending it against us retaking it.

We also went to a couple of movies… we saw UP, which was a great movie. I love good movies that haven’t been done before. We also went to see Star Trek again, and The Proposal, which I really liked and Josh even liked it!

On Sunday we visited a local church. It was a very nice service, and everyone was so friendly. It’s funny, in Guam when people met us and we told them that we weren’t military, they were so amazed that we came to Guam. I guess Americans never come to Guam for vacation… probably because it is just so far away from us.

In the case that you are visiting Guam on vacation though, I recommend that you not visit the Talofofo Falls. It is very overrated. They charged us $20 each to go in… and the waterfall was lame. We got to ride in their airlift, down to it. After trying to swim in the waterfall pool and getting grossed out, we went around to their Guam History Museum and the location of where the Japanese soldier Yokoi hid for 25 years, thinking that WWII was still going on.

That’s not the best part though. This amusement park had a haunted house too! We went through it, and it was very funny. There were lots of shrieking sounds and dummies that were doing gruesome things… all the regular skeletons and mad scientists and zombies. Good times.

There was also another interesting side area, right beside the children’s rides, called “Love Land”. We went into it and discovered that it was a garden full of erotic statues. Who makes a place like this?!? We left after that and wrote off that park forever.

Our hotel was located inside of a bay, and on the far side of the bay from us was a large cliff. The top of that cliff was called Two Lovers Point. As legend would have it, one of the girls of Guam was going to be forced to marry a Spanish sailor by her family, but she was in love with another buy in the community. They met on the cliff, and when her father and some sailors came to find them, they both jumped off the cliff together. Romeo and Juliet in Guam. There is a very nice lookout point there now, and Josh and I went up and watched the sun set. It was beautiful. There were a lot of absolutely gorgeous sunsets while we were there. Ahh paradise!

We weren’t the only Americans in Guam (other than locals), but most were military and their families. It has been fascinating to me that as we have traveled, we have come across other Americans. And they are all upset about our country’s direction. On our cruise we met some disgruntled people, traveling in Europe on trains I’ve heard some conversations between people, even in the jungle of Brazil, and in our hotel in Guam. It is amazing to me that before this past season very few people cared about politics and government, but now, it’s on everyone’s mind. I’m curious about how serious Americans might become about restoring our country to rights in one way or another. I pray that God will give President Obama great wisdom in leading our country, and that we will continue to be a peaceful country of justice and freedom.

Josh and I spent a lot of time snorkeling in Guam. We found another place, away from our hotel to try as well. It was much deeper, but still had a lot of fish to see. We even saw an octopus. I found him, and showed him to Josh. Josh was trying to get him to come out of his hole, so he dropped some rocks on him. In the end the octopus pulled out a big rock and blocked the doorway to his cave. No visitors allowed.

I loved my time in Guam and I would love to go back. It was so nice. The weather was gorgeous, and swimming was fabulous, and the food was delicious (we ate at some of the local places too… Italian and Indian… yummy). Ahh!

SEE PHOTOS

As I have been asked by several people to post pictures of our upcoming Round the World trip as we travel, I will try to start now by uploading the pictures from my last trip. I may even get around to loading some photos from my trip to Seattle, too.

Shopping

Most days Josh went to a baseball or basketball game, and I worked in the dining room on various graphic design projects. Josh’s mom and I would go different places some days. I must say that I have finally been to the Prime Outlet Mall, which I had never been to at all when I lived in Florida. It was a very cool mall, with lots of stores, and some good deals too. I only bought some gifts for my sisters in the Disney store (which had all of the 2008 Disney World left-overs at good prices).

For shopping, I prefer some of the second hand stores that Donna has found. I bought some shorts, a shirt, and a pair of pants at great prices at a couple of good thrift stores. One I highly recommend is Dechoes, where I bought some shorts and pants. They have more trendy clothes, and everything I wanted was $6.99 or less.

Activities

One of the few days when both Josh and his dad were not working (these days were rare, as they were both freelancing different sports events) we went to The Holy Land Experience. The Holy Land Experience has a number of different areas, there are several stages where reenactments of different Bible stories take place. We missed some of them, but we caught the Messiah one, and the Passion and Resurrection. The reenactments were very well done, and I was impressed. In fact, they even made me cry. It is so easy to picture how it took place, when you can see the Jesus and the Pharisees and the Roman soldiers just inches away from you.

They had a large recreation of Herod’s Temple, the temple that was in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus. They also had a miniature model of Jerusalem. We heard most of an explanation about the model from one of the staff members, who was very knowledgeable and interesting to listen to.

One of the very best parts is the Scriptorium. Inside, there are a number of very rare manuscripts and copies of the Bible. They do a walking tour through the building, showing the faith and dedication throughout the centuries that has brought us the Bible today. It is a very informative and powerful presentation. I felt very thankful for the sacrifices that Martin Luther and Gutenberg and Tyndale and all the rest. It was well worth the time to go through, and only took about 45 minutes, I believe.

Another day, we went Miniature Golfing. Josh beat us all, but it was a very fun golf course, and they had baby alligators out front because no trip to Florida is complete without seeing a gator, and it’s a lot easier to take care of baby gators than fully grown gaters.

Most of the time though, our daily outing was walking Timbit and Holly through the golf course after hours. They both enjoyed chasing after the golf balls. It was very peaceful to go out there at the end of every day, walking through the beautifully manicured lawn, and the tall Florida grasses. There are a lot of birds that have moved into the Sorrento Springs neighborhood, now that the trees are taller. In fact, one day I was walking and a golden eagle flew over my head, not very high at all! It was beautiful, but smaller than I expected.

I wanted to go to the beach, but several days when we planned to go, something else came up. Josh’s mom and I finally went one day to Ormond Beach. We took our dogs with us, which turned out to be a bad idea. They probably weren’t really allowed to be there, but beyond that, neither of them liked the ocean at all. I took Timbit out to it and made sure he got wet, but he gave me some good scratches and a couple of bruises to show for it.

We did have fun, nonetheless, we just would have enjoyed it more if our dogs weren’t tangling us up and getting upset about being there.

Other notable activities were going to Pig on the Pond in Clermont, which is a fair/BBQ competition on the lake of Clermont. We had friends who were running a stand, which we visited, and we ate some BBQ, and watches some people from the Lord’s Gym break phone books in half and bench 650 lbs. Impressive and fun.

We also visited the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival. We went to see Cherish perform with the Pop Shop, which is a group of teenagers who sing and dance to popular songs at various venues and learn how to perform better through lessons. She did several shows during our time in Florida, and they were all enjoyable to watch. The Art Festival was also very fun. It was real art: paintings and photography and sculptures. It was a lot of fun to walk through, with some very impressive pieces. I was surprised because usually the art festivals consist of handicrafts and bags, not acrylic and watercolor paintings. It was a great show.

Eating

I have several favorite restaurants to eat at while in Florida. Josh and I usually can hit most of them during our trips, and this one especially since we were there for so long.

Gater Joe’s

This is off the beaten track. I usually go here with Leslie, my old roommate. We love getting out of the cites and eating right on the water. Gater Joe’s is built on the shore of a lake, and has dining areas on a dock that is built out into the water. As you eat you can watch the flocks of birds swimming and flying around you, and you may see people boating right up to the restaurant. One day we even saw a pontoon plane land and the pilot get a bite to eat at Joe’s.

Leslie loves the fried fish and chips, and I have tried a lot of the menu. Gater Joe’s features such Floridian dishes as gater tail and frog legs (I’ve tried both). This trip I tried their Cajun Blackened Chicken, with rice and black eyed peas. It was very good.

Crispers

This is a perennial favorite of mine. Their specialty is salads just like I like them – with lots of different flavors! My absolute favorite is the Summer Salad: with turkey, gorgonzola cheese, mandarin oranges, strawberries, and suger crusted walnuts, there’s a lot of fun and flavor. I was also pleased to see that Crispers had stopped serving the horrible stuff they called tea, and started brewing it fresh. Now I’m even happier with them. One thing did change though, I loved their parmesian flatbread, but it’s gone from the menu now.

Sweet Tomatoes

This is a buffet salad bar restaurant. They are in other states than Florida, but I haven’t been to them anywhere else. In California, they are called Souplantation. You walk in and are able to go through a salad bar that includes several specialty salads, as well as any other salad bar topping you would think of. Then, once you pay and are inside, there is a soup bar, and bread bar, and a dessert and fruit bar. There are so many choices, everyone can find something that is perfect for them.

Mount Dora Pizza

This is one of Josh’s favorites. We usually go here with Papa. They have pizza, but also many other italian dishes. Josh always gets the baked spaghetti. Don’t forget to try the garlic rolls! Yum.

Vincent’s Italian Restaurant

This restaurant is owned by the same people who own Mount Dora Pizza. A lot of the same menu items, but this is a nicer sit-down restaurant. They have some different higher-end menu items, and I had a very delicious Italian Wedding Soup and a Tiramisu this last time.

The Garden Gate Tea Room

This is a new one on the list. I went here, finally, with Donna one day. It is a converted house, packed with tables covered in lace, and decorated with antiques and tea cups and flowers and more lace. The atmosphere is very feminine, as were most of their clientelle. There were several gentlemen there when we went though, and I wouldn’t let a little lace stand in the way of trying their food.

I had the chicken salad, and it was delicious. It was served with a variety of fruit (including blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries), mini muffins, and a dollop of real whipped cream, topped with an eatable flower. Really, it was so delicious I left nothing on my plate. I can’t wait to go back.

We flew up Monday night. On Tuesday we checked out some of the sites. We started our day out at The Dish Cafe. Josh had an omlet with green onion, tomato, bacon, cream cheese, and curry. It was served with red potatoes, some slices of pineapple, and a scone. I had a small fruit plate with honey yogurt, and a scone. We enjoyed both of them thoroughly. The cafe is a very friendly atmosphere, all the servers were very friendly and talkative, and it seems like there are a lot of regulars. It was a lot like walking into a Cheers type diner – where everybody knows your name.

After breakfast we headed out to the Boeing factory in Everett, WA. We visited the gallery, and took the factory tour. It was a very interesting tour. The factory is enormous, and the tour go up to an observation area in several different areas of the factory, to look down and watch the workers building the airplanes. At the Everett factory they have 30,000 employees, and build the 747, 767, 777, and the new 787. The factory is also the largest volume building in the world (you can fit Disneyland inside the building, and still have 16 acres left over). It was quite the sight.

When we finished the tour, we headed to Pike Place Market. It was cold and raining, but there were awnings and indoor areas, so we still got to look around at everything without much problem. The market is great! There was everything you could want there, groceries, meats and fish, clothes, toys, etc. We stopped in at Pike Place Bar & Grill for dinner. Josh had the seafood combo plate, which had smoked salmon, crab cake, and battered cod, with french fries and coleslaw. I had a smoked salmon club sandwich, with a pasta salad. It was good. The server here was also a very friendly helpful server. I think that Seattle has some of the most friendly people I’ve ever met. I like how familiar and friendly this city is.