The first half of the really, really long walk

The beginning of the walk

Guam at night in the town part.  I never come up this far north.

An interesting tree.

Sunrise, beautiful clouds

Pottery in a wall

Plumeria

Interesting coloration

Guam has many beautiful flowers

A three pointed cactus plant

More interesting plants

A Guam license plate with the red flowers

Coconuts

This cow.  Always this cow.

Cars on top of a building.  I hope the tropical storms don't blow them off.

On Saturday I woke up really early and went on a really, really long walk.  21 miles.  These are the pictures I took during the first half.  The walk was the "base to base" walk.  I thought this was an actual thing.  It's not.  It's typical of Guam, kinda haphazard, not really thought out.  Apparently every six months, this person organized via facebook a walk from Anderson AFB to Naval Base Guam.  It's 21 miles between the two.  I was invited the Friday before and thinking it was an actual thing, I went.  Well, it was not very exciting.  It was just a lot of walking.  And it was hot.  We started at 0330, but I would suggest starting at 0000, if you do it at all.

The Short Run

I'm a fan of the short run.  I wish I were a fan of the long run.... but I'm not.  Not yet, anyway.  Guam is really hard to run in.  The air is super thick, super heavy, and it's just hot.  I wish I could go in the morning, but I do crossfit in the morning.  So instead I try to muster the courage to go at night when I'm tired and it's hotter than hot.  This is a park not too far from my house that has a loop just less than a mile.  You go around a couple times and bam... instant short run completed.  These are two sunsets I happened to capture while there.  Not the greatest spot for taking pictures of the sunset, but they are still pretty.

Ice cream and Mexican Trains

Guam is often sited as the place for the most beautiful sunsets.  This picture doesn't really capture it.  Driving along the coast it was much more vibrant, but I couldn't stop to take a picture.  This is outside the house of a family in the ward that invited me over for some ice cream and a game of Mexican train.  It was a lot of fun.  The last ward I was in, I never really meshed with the people there.  There was one family I really liked, but they had 5 little kids.  I'm hoping things will be a little different here, for starters because there are a lot more military families in this ward than from my last one.  I should add that I attended this social after being at a Labor Day BBQ at a work friends house.  There was good food there, but a lot of people I didn't know.  So we shall see what the future holds for me here in Guam.  I do want to go around each night and start taking pictures of the sunset.  Because there are many that are beautiful.

Testing Video

If this works, this is a video of my friends.  The one barking at the dogs is our doc.

Socializing

Perfectly shaped ice cream cone container.

Fish Ice Cream!

The praying mantis in the car.

Food at a birthday party.

I can honestly say that I have not been more social in my life than when I arrived in Guam.  The birthday part was for a co-worker and they are very serious about food.  It was an interesting night.  I didn't really know anyone, but I hung out for a bit and then went home.  It was surprising, however, how much alcohol there was.  In almost all the social activities I've been to, there has been alcohol.  People brought this guy alcohol for his birthday and then drank it before the night was out.  I don't get it.  I really don't get it.  Even if I drank, I don't think I would get it.  What is the huge appeal in getting drunk?  Why would someone surrender their ability to make decisions and be in control of their behavior?  Whatever.

The other pictures are from a night when I was going to go stargazing with some co-workers.  The doc we have here just bought a new telescope and my other friends had one, so we were going to make a night of it.  Well, doc was on call and unfortunately his phone rang.  He had to leave to go save a life and apparently it was a really interesting case, so good for him.  Instead of going out, I went with my other two friends to a local grocery store (the only time I've been, I usually shop in the commissary because it's much cheaper) and I took pictures of their fun ice cream.  When we got back to the car, the praying mantis was inside.  We weren't in the store that long.

So the mantis crawled around a bit while we tried to shush him out.  Then he crawled on my friend and she stepped out and tried to get him off her arm.  Well, he decided he didn't want to be on her arm, so instead tried to crawl up her face.  She didn't like that and started dancing around.  Her husband got out and was like "make sure you get a picture before he leaves."  He then got out and got the mantis on a stick or something so she could take a picture with her phone.  The mantis didn't like having his picture taken, so he jumped at the phone.  My friend screamed and threw her phone.  We all laughed really hard.  Then we let the mantis go on his way and we went back to my friend's and played mariocart until midnight.

Unfortunately I haven't been social in the past couple weeks, so my blog posts are getting a little thin.  I will need to correct that so I have more stories to tell.

The Guam license plate

So this is what a Guam license plate looks like.  I post this per request of my nieces.  It is not very exciting.  But sometimes they put a red flower or a yellow outline of Guam on there.  I think the yellow outline on this one is dirt.  I don't know, maybe it's Guam.  The cars out here are called "Guam bombs" because there is something wrong with all of them.  Sometimes they leak oil, sometimes the windows don't work, whatever.  People don't care because they drive them for a few years and then sell them.

B-52 Tour

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Engines

Tail

I have a special regard for landing gear.

Standing inside the beast. 

Riveting.

Where they hold the bombs.

More engines.

Guess they don't need a water hose.

Big wheels.  Foot is in there for size reference.

Wheels for the wings.

This is the guy who took my picture.  He also took six pictures of himself.  I only included one for reference.

I'm guessing the numbers are the order you are supposed to screw them in?

We took a tour of a B-52 at Anderson AFB.  The plane was skinnier than I thought.  It is all mechanical on the inside, not empty.  All the crew sit near the front.  They were all built in the 50's and 60's.  But they still fly it about twice a week.  They can fly for many, many hours with enough fuel.  I don't remember much more.  They didn't really give too much information.  But it was a nice morning.