Guam

Our month of May has been very exciting so far.  We started off celebrating Cinco de Mayo; except, in Japan, it isn't Cinco de Mayo.  It's Boys Day!  A day devoted just to boy children.  Households with boy children hang these swimming carp flags outside there homes.  Legend has it that the carp will swim upstream and prosper into beautiful, strong dragons.  Girls have there own day later in the year, although, from what I can understand it isn't as big of a celebration.  

Two days after Boys Day, we took a NALO (Navy Air Logistics Office) flight to Guam.  These are free flights for military personnel and their families.  Basically, a crew will be going somewhere and have space available for people to hitch a ride.  The catch is that you are on a military aircraft, i.e. no cushy seat, beverage or bathroom.  But free is free.

Michael had to do some training for his new job with a crew in Guam.  He was only going to have to work a few hours for a couple of days and had 3 days off so we thought this would be a good opportunity to see more of the Pacific since the Navy was going to pay for our hotel and rental car.

We ended up taking this Marine C-130 plane on the way there.   It looks a lot like Michael's P-3, but without the dipstick (MAD boom if you want to be technical) on the back.

My mother is going to freak when she sees this picture.  This is us sitting with the cargo.  We actually had seats, those cargo net looking things on the walls, but during the 4 hour flight, we wanted to stretch our legs.  You might also notice that we all have ear plugs in.  The plane was considerably louder than a commercial flight.  Imagine sitting next to a vacuum cleaner.  But, like I said, free.  And it's kinda cool to say that I've flown in a military plane.

So we arrive in Guam.  I don't know what I was expecting.  I never thought much about Guam before.  It was beautiful!!  It sounds silly, since we are living on a tropical island, but I swear the sky was bluer and the grass was greener.  Plus, it was nice to have a taste of The States.  Although, we must have looked funny bowing to people in the Japanese fashion.

This is a picture looking out of our hotel. 

 Warm, aqua water and powdery sand.  I was in heaven.

Grayson had seen the beach before, but never played on it.  So first thing we did was check it out.  He did a great job walking around.  Most of the time he had his head down concentrating though, making it just a bit tricky to take photos.

Our first day there, Michael headed to work, and we headed to the pool.  Fair, don't you think?  

Grayson liked the pool better than the ocean. The ocean was extremely warm and had just a hint of waves to rock you.  The pool was like bath water, and I think he liked that temperature better.

I had a fabulous Mother's Day.  We started with a pastry breakfast overlooking the ocean.  I  was pampered with a facial and massage at the hotel spa, and finished the day relaxing with a bottle of red.

  The P-3 that Michael was working with got recalled early, giving us the last 3 days of the week to ourselves.  So we took a trip to the local mall where we found Michael's random picture of the week.  The costume jewelry store had the monster from the movie ALIEN in their front window.  It was made entirely out of random hunks of metal... everything from bicycle chains to old tape decks.  Interesting to look at.  Not sure how that relates to jewelry.

We kept our Tuesday date night tradition and went to a place called Reds where we both enjoyed the lobster salad with fried mangos and a steak and mashed potato dinner complete with a dessert sampler.  Why not go all out when you are on vacation?

We made our last day another beach day and had a photo session.  It was hard to get Grayson's attention.  When he wasn't making sand castles with Daddy, he was mobbed by Japanese girls trying to take his picture.  There are quite a lot of Japanese tourists in Guam. 

Hmm..... what should I create?

A true visionary....

This is my favorite picture from the whole trip!

A future sailor?

Finally one good family shot with everyone smiling!

Our trip ended with one last jump session in the pool.

We headed back on an Air Force KC-135.  This plane is used to refuel other planes in the air.  It was less noisy and only took 3 hours to get back to Okinawa.

It actually felt good to walk in the front door of our house.  I guess that means it is finally starting to feel like home.  And what better way to be welcomed home than with 4 care packages waiting for you!  Grayson got some cute new clothes, a lamp for his reading corner, and a M&M fan to help keep him cool in the summer months ahead, and I got a new cookbook full of old childhood recipes for Mothers Day from Grandma and Grandpa.  Michael got some much needed closet organizers from Aunt Tiffany so we can finally finish putting all our stuff away.

Hope everyone else is able to soak up a little sun!