Saipan

photo credit: John

We had a lovely time in Saipan. The days were warm and sunny and the nights warm and breezy. What a nice change from Misawa! I saw on a friend's Facebook page while we were away that they had enough snow there to merit plowing, which means that diggers with caterpillar treads drive over the city streets to give them greater friction. Bumpy!

None of that in Saipan. We swam in the pools or the Philippine Sea every day


and into the evenings

photo credit: John

The older kids enjoyed snorkeling and windsurfing.

photo credit: John

photo credit: John

Joseph liked the snorkeling so much, he went again with me the next day. We are really hoping that Patrick's underwater photos turn out so we can see all those amazing fish again.

The little ones loved the splash pool


and the smooth sandy beach (so clean! not at all like Japanese beaches), where they found shells, stones and pieces of coral from the reef that makes the lagoon along this side of the island.

photo credit: John

Matthew built a large sand castle, which he told me was at the top of Mt. Crumpet. Clearly, we watched a few of the Christmas videos way too many times this year. ;)

photo credit: John

We think the hotel's complimentary pool towels made Meghan's eyes look even more blue.

But thanks to her long-sleeved rash guard shirt and sun-blocking hat, she didn't spend much time wrapped up in a towel.

One afternoon, we took a break from swimming, and all the kids tried drinking coconut milk directly from coconuts. Afterwards, the bartender scraped out the fresh coconut and the we tasted that, too. Yummy, but not the sweet, shredded version we are used to.

photo credit: the bartender

John and I were even able to have a dinner date Wednesday night

while Tommy and Patrick took the other kids to the hotel's buffet dinner. We arrived back at the room to the calls of a lively game of Pit. Matthew was taking great pride in announcing, "The market is open!" with each new round.

Our family has reconnected during this vacation. The younger children basked in Tommy's attention,


and Patrick was able to relax and put aside the college/scholarship application stress for a little while.


When she was dry enough to read, Katie had a hard time putting down her book (which is what happens when your aunt and uncle give you The Mysterious Benedict Society for Christmas!).


Joseph enjoyed each new experience from snorkeling

photo credit: John

to chasing lizards,

photo credit: John

and even the Lazy River, which he was certain he would find painfully boring when we talked about it before we left home.

Meghan learned many new words and phrases including "flower hair",

"flower shoe"

"swim", "pool", "swim pool fun", "drums loud", "Birds fly", "cave", "bumpy road", and "game room".

I have to applaud this hotel, by the way, because the game room contains pool tables,




table tennis, foosball,



giant chess,

photo credit: John

and tables with Jenga blocks and backgammon on them, but not one video game. Halleluia!

There was so much to do at the Pacific Islands Club that we didn't leave the resort until Thursday morning. We took a half-day tour of the island by van, experienced Saipan's highly structured highway system

Believe it or not, there were highway signs for this road. It even has a highway number. I wish I had caught that in a photo!

saw beautiful scenery

Banzai cliff

Bird Island

along with some WW II sites,


and learned a bit of Saipan's tragic history from our guide. Mt. Topatcho, the highest point on the island was a point of great struggle during the World War II battle for Saipan.

At the top of the mountain now, there is a statue of Jesus. There is also a wooden cross nearby. Our guide told us that Saipan is more than 90% Catholic and that on Easter Sunday morning, they gather there for a sunrise Mass, then take branches from the area in procession into town. No cars are allowed on the roads until after 9 a.m that day. After living for the past three years in a non-Christian country, finding a reminder of the risen Christ on a mountaintop instead of a Buddhist or Shinto shrine gave me an unexpectedly comforting feeling.

The view was misty at first, but cleared as the day went on.

photo credit: John

peace park monument at the site of an old gun emplacement

at the peace park

downtown Garapan

Among the more interesting things we saw were the caves and grottos. Saipan is a coral reef island, and over the years, rainwater has eroded many caves into the limestone.

Skull Cave

wild chickens in the jungle near Skull Cave (I am not joking.)

The Grotto (popular scuba diving ocean cave)

The thing that kept surprising us, besides the incongruity of the hotel's Christmas decorations with the warm weather and the fact that we constantly forgot that it was January, was that we never minded a little rain. It was so warm there and the rain so light that we just kept on with our activities. The sun usually broke through again after only a short while.

Sunsets were beautiful, even on cloudy evenings.



On our last night, we dined at the hotel's Seaside Grill, which offers sunset views.

photo credit: our waiter

We enjoyed one last round of umbrella drinks.



And then, one last day in this beautiful spot before we returned to Tokyo, sent Tommy back to Dallas, and rode the Shinkansen back to snowy Misawa.

18 inches of snow!!

In our memories, though, there is a warm breeze, music in the courtyard below us, and another peaceful day ahead. All a blessing.

photo credit: John