Project Pacific Islander

7/29/2022 - Crazy enough, I have just two weekends left on Guam. I haven't provided a plan back via the blog as things have been up in the air. My plane is booked for return on Tuesday Aug. 9th to head back to the mainland. This will give me a couple weeks to get situated as well as go home and see my family. Sadly Joan and I will be separated for a month, she will continue to wrap up things on the island and be home mid September. Where the time goes, I don't know, very thankful for the blog and capturing all these memories.  Since this is the second to last weekend we are going out with a bang, lots of celebrating. We have our last night in the Tsubaki hotel with Joan's pass, so one more great overlook at tumon bay, and a nice getaway from the tiny house. One detail I really like about this place is these gorgeous glass doors that open up, even better the Tsubaki logo sits right at eye level so you don't forget there is glass there and run into it by accident. Between

  7/28/2022 - I met this guy on the drive out to Asan beach, turns out he is Chamorro and has family roots that go way back on Guam. He had retired, and his morning gig was to go out and catch some fish. I related to him a lot, here is a guy that has all the free time in the world, and what do you do with it. He enjoyed his time doing hobbies, teaching people about the local fishing traditions, and spending time with family. Not a bad gig.  My favorite story he told was being a young child participating in the large village catch. To get a share of the fish you had to have someone you knew participate in the net operation. A large group of people would carry the gill net out into the ocean and wait for the school of fish to come. In one large pull, the group of people would bring in the needed fish for the village. This man as a kid talked about pulling a fish out and hiding it in his pocket to save for later as he helped pull in the catch. Little did he know, the main reason the adult

 7/27/2022 - Bath day for the home pups. Joan got this picture of me, long hair, glasses falling off my face, and every part of me trying to keep Digo in the sink. One of the pups that has made home here came in with a bunch of flees, she was loosing her fur due to the little mites. So the flees traveled from Lucy to Digo to Otter in only a few short days. Time to clean them up, even if they don't like it. 

7/26/2022 - We have noticed a lot of corrosion on the island since our first day on Guam. It begged me to ask the question, why do things next to the ocean, that are never exposed to sea water, still seem to rust so quickly?  A little research and we found the answer. Sea water as it evaporates does not leave behind the salt in solution, in other words in the sea water. Some salt is evaporated into the air creating a briny air. When this air is blown onto metals close to the ocean, the metal is coated which speeds up the oxidation process. Some research has found that these salty air particles can travel upto 15 miles inland. Crazy, because Guam is only 15 miles wide, so everything here sees the salt and thus more rust.  Two images for today, the first is an aluminum handle that has completely sheared off, im assuming due to oxidation. This door was at the latte stone multicultural center right next to the ocean, so high corrosion opportunity. The second is the door of our Mazda 3, Ive

 7/25/2022 - We knew the rainy season would come, and it has. I was expecting rain every day, all day, here, but it's more isolated than that. There is Guam sunshine for a few hours, and then pouring deluge just a few hours later. It pours cats and dogs though when it does come down, so much so the wipers on the car can't keep up. Just like winter to summer and back again in the Midwest, Guam has the same sort of pattern, temp lows here though amount to 75 degrees F. Coming back this fall is going to be rough, 75 feels cold. 

 7/24/2022 - One more stop along our Japanese food exploration. This place is in our home town of Dededo. The japanese curry can't be beat, add int that Karrage chicken, and bon a petit. Dessert was one more Korean exploration, Joan had the sweet corn, and the other one was a chocolate milkshake like thing, surrounded in plastic post wrapper I found out.