Fresh Factor: Everyday Island Bouquet

The Fresh Factor: Everyday Island Bouquets

And just as I once missed bringing home beautiful flowers from the grocery store, I know I am going to miss walking around my yard, clipping tropical flowers, and arranging them into beautiful displays on our kitchen table.

The Fresh Factor: How To Start an Herb Jungle

Check out my latest Fresh Factor post on The Guam Guide

Peyt Sis Land!

Years from now when I look back over our time on Guam, there will be many weeks that stand out in my mind. Of all of them, few will compare to this one in which Peyt's Island transformed into a magical place called Peyt Sis Land. This past week my slightly older sister Courtney managed to finagle a week off work to visit us all the way out here from California. We had blocked off a set of dates for her to come, but as of our trip to Palau, there was no news of a plane ticket, so I came back expecting to hunt down another set of dates since these were fast approaching. Oh no... Court had booked her flight and would be on her way out the very next week!!

 Nick and I love having visitors because it's the perfect excuse to take them all over Guam and show off how awesome this place is. We hit the ground running on Court's first day with the southern island tour.

 Goofing off at Magellan's Landing

Carabao ride - One of 5 things you can only do on Guam

We wasted zero time showing off our favorites... like Inarajan Pools

Spanish Fort... ahoy

Jeff's for gifts and yummies

Caves at Dadi Beach

Surprise sand critters

Guam's ridiculous sunsets

Someone is happy to be on vacation! 

And then dinner... steaks that Courtney insisted be served branded.

So, yeah, that was the first day.

The next few days we spent exploring...

snorkeling at Fish Eye

 And Gab Gab

(thanks Mr. Baracuda for blocking my face)

 And gorgeous Gun Beach

We took Court boonie stomping to some of the Island's best hideaways...

 Inside Pagat Caves

The other side of the Pacific Ocean

And introducing her to the Philippine Sea

Hiking through Waterfall Valley

Making time for nature

 

Hunting down rainbows

Searching for Starfish (and avoiding spiders!)

Sampling local flavors

Climbing mountains

Summitting Lam Lam

And singing at the tops of our lungs.

Creating these carefree new memories and showing Court our slice of paradise unquestionably made for an unforgettable week. But technically, any one of you can come to Guam and have any or all of these awesome experiences (I am thrilled that a few of you yet are going to do just that!). But few of you... dare I say none of you... can come to Guam, do everything in these fabulous photographs, and in a week's time turn this boring, ugly, giant wall:

 

into a masterpiece:

Yes... my amazing sister led the painting of this entire mural, which we started on Monday and finished on Friday of the week she was here. This incredible piece of art on the wall facing our church sanctuary is a story of its own. But now, perhaps, you can see why this particular visit was so extraordinary... because this particular visitor is so extraordinary. Yes, this is my sister, who travels across the world armed with with a doodle pad and Dr. Seuss sticky notes, who always has a song to sing, who creates paintings and parties and possibilities that make our world a more fun, colorful, and beautiful place.

So grateful to spend this week with my sister, merging the one thing I love to do most -- exploring -- with the one thing she loves to do most -- creating! Together, we managed to conquer the entire world... in just one week. One seriously amazing week :)

Final sunset over Peyt Sis Land... love ya Court and miss you already.

Tarzan and Jane

My mom (Jane) and dad at Tarzan Falls 

For our last day of adventures together in Guam, I took my parents on a classic boonie stomp to Tarzan Falls. It was a beautiful sunny day, and this is a great hike, downhill the way there, uphill the way back, and mostly in the shade of the jungle's tall trees. The gorgeous waterfall makes the muddy, buggy and at-times steep trek well worth it.

Top of the first of four cascading falls

 Trail was so muddy we had to hike in the river!

Almost there, guys! I promise!

We made it! My mom's signature Rocky pose :)

Nice waterfall you got there

Hey Mom, when was the last time we hiked to a waterfall together?

 Back at the top of the falls

 Lush jungle

We rounded off the afternoon with cold drinks and yummy snacks at Jeff's Pirate Cove.  Great last day in Guam together! So thankful for the chance to show my parents this awesome place. Also so impressed with how adventurous they were, jumping right in to diving, snorkeling, hiking, and everything else that is our life here. Usually the worst part of a trip like this is the ride to drop visitors off at the airport. But luckily I will see them again in Texas in just a few days, so our memory making continues. And, signing off from Orlando, FL with Starbucks in hand, my USA trip has already begun! Looking forward to seeing many of you throughout the holidays!

Double the fun at Double Reef

Last Sunday Nick and I hiked to a secluded beach called Double Reef. By secluded, I mean it takes an hour of traipsing through the jungle, navigating a dizzying maze of spiderwebs and trudging across a sharp, wobbly limestone forest before you get to said beach. The plus side is when you get there, you have the whole reef to yourself.... two of them, in fact! (Double the reef, double the fun...).

One of the fun things about this hike is that we got a new fancy camera! It's a Canon digital SLR with a zoom lens, and wow, I am so impressed what a difference it makes in photo quality. I saw this shot and thought, hey, I look like a professional hiker! Now I just need to figure out how I can get paid to boonie stomp...

While we usually only boast and brag about the underwater nature shots Nick captures, we can now show off some of the wildlife on land we were able to capture on our journey to the reef.

Not a bad view from the trail  

There were a whole lotta spiders with some pretty impressive web networks. 

They are like spider condominiums and that drywall they spin is unbelievably strong.

 This one is a good five inches across... creepy, yes, but there's very little risk of getting bitten considering how many of them there are. 

The mosquitos are waaaay more of a nuisance.

In addition to the bugs, we also saw a couple of wild boar, and we heard one of the notorious barking deer not too far from us (it sounded like a dog with labor pains)! Halfway to Double Reef, we took a detour to scale a big wall and climb up into Tweed's Cave. George Tweed was a navy guy who escaped the Japanese during WWII (all the American military on Guam were taken prisoner to Japan). He hung out in this obscure cave and the locals brought him food for three years to keep him alive. His knowledge of the area ended up being very instrumental once the U.S. Marines came to shore to free the Guammies on what is now Guam's Liberation Day.

 

On our way up the wall, we ran into this guy... we saw quite a few of them, actually!

The only other place I've seen these monitor lizards is out on secluded Cocos Island. This one must have been honoring the Sabbath day because he didn't want to leave the middle of the trail despite us sneaking up on him. Just chillin.... 

He made quite the little model for us!

 

A little perspective so you can see how big he is

And a close-up so you can see that pretty face

 

A refreshing break from spiders and lizards

 

Once we got to our private, beautiful crystal-water, secluded beach, we made the transformation from hiker to snorkeler and hit the reef. Because the reefs here are so secluded and don't get near the amount of traffic of the more accessible shore dives, the reefs are much more vibrant with sea life. So while we didn't see a ton of new stuff, we saw a flourishing amount of the regular stuff. Where a school of fish we are used to seeing may have 15-20 fish, out here it seemed like it was in the 100s. Pretty impressive.

Still haven't figured out how I can be a professional snorkeler either...

Nick found the biggest snail we've ever seen on Guam... maybe anywhere for that matter

Dogface Pufferfish... arf!

  

Seahorse + snake = pipefish... 

that's not evolutionary math, just my description of this weird looking thing

After an hour of snorkeling, we hiked back out the way we came. Another fantastic afternoon in the jungle and the ocean and that ever glorious sunshine. I love it when Guam decides to show off!