Thursday, June 05, 2008
We're in Saipan!
We arrived in Saipan last Friday morning, May 30th, at 1:20 a.m. and Angelo was there to greet us with his dog Oreo and his friend Laurie. You can check out the pictures of our arrival on Angelo's blog at www.jetapplicant.blogspot.com . I was feeling a little too disorganized after a 24 hour flight to take pictures or a video! We had a very good uneventful flight; Orlando to Detroit, Detroit to Nagoya, Japan and Nagoya to Saipan. The flight to Japan was booked solid, and the only two empty seats on the plane were where we were sitting, so Catie and Kevin got to stretch out and sleep. I managed to sleep most of the way, and arrived feeling quite rested.
We spent our first three nights at the P.I.C., a beautiful resort in San Antonio with a water park. Angelo and Oreo spent the first night with us, and in the morning we did a little tour of Garapan, and went to the American Memorial Park and Museum. Angelo took me and Kevin and Catie to visit his friends Cinta and Gus Kaipat, and later that night we went to dinner with them in Garapan. Cinta's family made all of us traditional mwars, which all of us except Kevin really liked.
We really enjoyed the pools and beach at the P.I.C., and logged a lot of miles in the lazy river there. We also used the kayaks and paddle boats in the lagoon.
On Saturday morning after a breakfast at Wild Bill's with Angelo we went to Suicide Cliff and the Last Command Post and explored the northern end of the island, which hasn't changed much. We then drove to the Saipan airport soccer field to watch Angelo referree a soccer match. That night we went to Taste of the Marianas, an event featuring lots of food booths, traditional dancing and music and a bartending competition.
On Sunday June 1 we moved into a three bedroom two bath penthouse apartment in the Aquarius Beach Tower, a high rise hotel in Chalan Kanoa across the street from Carmen's Safeway. It's very comfortable and a very conviently located. The kids and I went out swimming in the lagoon in front of the hotel once we got settled and I was amazed to see so many people surfing there. The lagoon has been dredged and there are waves now in the area near Sugar Dock.
On Monday we went to lunch at Len's, a Japanese restaurant, where Kevin and Catie had sushi. Kev's goal is to eat sushi every day we are here. After lunch we met Angelo at Wave Jungle, a water park at the World Resort with a lazy river, four water slides and a swimming pool.
On Thursday we went hiking at Laderan Tangke Trail on the northern end of the island with Angelo and his friend Ken. It took us about 2 hours, and Kevin was really thrilled to find a WWII canteen in the woods. Angelo had wanted to make the hike in advance of a hike he's planning to make on Saturday in honor of National Trails Day.
Labels: Angelo Saipan Aquarius PIC
