Guam Day 7 - Ritidian Beach + Japanese food with friends

 

2/19/2021 - Its been a week since we arrived on this tiny island in the Pacific, I am amazed at how fast one week can go. So to celebrate, Joan said she wanted to take me to one of the most beautiful places on the island, Ritidian point/beach. Ritidian is on the northern most point of the island, a single road between Anderson Air force Base and additional Air Force owned land takes you down to the national wildlife refuge. Approaching the entrance you go down a hill to lose about 500ft in altitude and at the top is the most luscious, scenic, beachfront view that I have ever seen. 

Once we arrived at the entrance there was a secondary road that took us down to the beach. About every 1/4 mile was a set of entrances through the tropical forest to the beachfront, these were really neat as it almost created your own little beach campsite. The drive through this tropical forrest is like something you would see out of a movie, a green canopy of trees, coconuts abound, with the sunlight peaking through every so often. At the beach we found a place to put our chairs in the shade, popped open a drink, and sat for watching the waves, feeling the breeze and sitting in the ocean. About 30 mins in Joan's friends joined us, Winifred and Wilbur, we talked the afternoon away as we sat in paradise. 

Post being on the beach for the afternoon, each of us were sunburnt, tired, and really hungry. As a group we decided dinner was in order after we got changed and took a bit of a break in the air conditioning. Joan found a Japanese place that we were all game to try, Sakura Kitchen. Joan is always great at pushing me to try new things so as a starter we had dumplings, fried garlic, and fishcake cheese rolls. I know the fishcake cheese rolls sound weird, like a mash of two elementary school lunch dishes that shouldn't be combined, surprisingly if you fry anything it turns out pretty good. As the waitress brought our food I looked around at the wonderful set of dishes in front of us, a bento box, sushi, udon noodles, and chicken cutlets and rice. What a meal the four of us had. We are excited to have many more days like this hanging with Winifred and Wilbur, friends, great food, and time on the beach.