Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Touring Saipan


This view from our balcony sums up exactly why I wanted to go back to Saipan with Nick. It is beautiful, pristine, peaceful... the perfect place to unwind after weeks of job turnover stress and moving logistics. We took advantage of our time at the Hyatt. We did a lot of laying around... in the sand at the beach... by the pool... in our room napping and watching football. It was a very restful trip, and all things considered, exactly what we needed.

One thing I did not need was a migraine, which I got from a long day of running, flying, then two long dives. Bummer dudes. So I sat out the next two days of diving after the Grotto and let Nick have all the fun. He continued on to Wing Beach, where he hit one of his dive highlights of our time in the western Pacific... playing with two octopus at once...

 They are so awesome looking... and super smart!
 Hard to tell where one ends and the next one begins!

  I'm sad to say that this is the last underwater picture from our time out here. Nick has put the underwater camera case away ahead of the packers coming, so our underwater photography portfolio stands complete right now. Le sigh...
In addition to diving, I was really looking forward to showing Nick all the historical sites from WWII. We started by going to the War in the Pacific Memorial Park Visitors Center to watch the 20-minute film about the crazy war history on the island (since I've done five other posts about Saipan, I will spare repeating myself). Then we drove to some of the pretty viewpoints (like Bird Island, above) and corresponding war sites in the area.

Breathtaking view from the top of the suicide cliffs

Crazy to think that this pristine field of trees below was once built up to look like this:

 ... during and following WWII. There was a huge air field and lots of buildings that are no longer there. It's much prettier now. War has no business interrupting the peaceful life of a tropical island. What a terrifying time that must have been. We checked out the Last Command Post... site of where the Japanese fought their last island battle in the Pacific.
We snorkeled out to one of the war's remaining relics, a tank rusting away just off shore.

We ate our last meal on Saipan at the beautiful Bonzaii Cliffs. It's hard to think of what bloodshed and chaos happened here where now waves gently crash into the striking green cliffside overlooking lazy sea turtles lounging in the waters below. What was once a gruesome battle site now sits peacefully waiting as a hard-to-reach dive site, a haven for sea life traversing the currents beneath.

After the short hop back to Guam, we landed to the flight attendant's familiar salutation, "Hafa Adai, and welcome to Guam!" We looked at each other knowing it would be the last time to hear those words. We drove home knowing our next trip to the airport on Guam would be in just eight short days on an itinerary with no return. Resigned but ready, we moved ahead into the week we've been preparing for and dreading and anticipating for some time... our last week on Guam.

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