Out and About

 Hafa Adai!


I've been wandering all over the island since I now have full use of Audra's car.  She claims I always had full use but I was just too lazy to get up at 6:30AM and take her to work every day:)  She's right!

I visited Mt. Tapachao, which is the highest point on the island, which is 1,554 feet.  You can see the whole island up there plus Tinen, where the atomic bombs took off from and Rota, another island in the Mariana Island chain.  I hit it just right and had the whole place to myself.  After I was up there for a while and took my leave the parking lot immediately filled up with several vans full of Japanese tourist.  I was happy I got to be up top with just the wind and birds flying by.  Very peaceful.  I posted all the pictures from there on my Facebook photo album so go take a look at them.  This first picture is looking towards the north end of the island and you can see both the west and east sides of the island, The Phillipine Sea is on the west side and The Pacific ocean is on the east side.  Pretty cool!

Yes, my friends, that is Mr. Lizard enjoying his coconut drink.  They sell these down at the parking lot (without the lizard and ants of course).  Looks like someone left it behind for the creatures (ants included) to enjoy!  There are even two straws.

Here is a picture of the east side of the island and the view Audra will get to enjoy from her new apartment she's moving into in August when she gets back.  She'll also get to see a little of The Pacific Ocean from her balcony.  The jungle is so lush and green!


For $30 you can go on an ATV trek up to Mt. Tapachoa which I'm thinking about doing.  I'd fit right in with all the Japanese tourists:)

I finally stopped to take a picture of one of the many Saipan car washes which are all done with rain water.  Even the schools have huge storage tanks that catch the rain and use it for various things.  As you can see, the car wash is a lean-to with hand wash workers washing your car.  It was at this car wash I had my flat tire and the nice workers changed my tire for me:)  

I also saw lots of really nice homes on the road up to Mt. Tapachoa.  I didn't know the island had such lovely dwellings.  Guess the lower part of the hill is more or less the "boonies".  I wanted to knock on all the doors up there and ask them what they did for a living but most of them had guard dogs so I didn't!  Here are some pics of the houses.

And then I came across this pretty little house in a neighborhood in the "boonies" that I drove through on one of my street wandering days (this is where I pick an area out and just drive around all the little streets and alley ways gawking at everything.  I always get looks.  One of these days I'll stop and have a chat with the lookers.

I loved this garden and just had to have a picture of it.  So pretty!!!!  Almost every house has water bottles with water in them sitting along the edge of their property.  I haven't figured that one out yet?  Can you see them?

I met a man who was net fishing along the beach while I was taking a sunset walk the other day and we started chatting (of course).  He works for The Historic Society and invited me to come there the next day to get all kinds of info on Saipan.  They treated me like a queen and gave me all kinds of books and stuff about the history and the natives.  They said they normally ask for a donation but wanted to GIVE me the books.  I insisted on making a donation any way.  The office is set up in an old WWII Japanese bunker that was used to store fuel.  I'll have to go back and take a picture of it when I visit all the sites at the airport (where it is).  On the way back from there I took a road I hadn't been on before and came across these kids at the kid crossing.........I tried to catch one of them to get some goat throwing practice in (my Aravaipa Retreat buddies know what I'm talking about) but the darn kids ran off before I could get to them.  Another prime opportunity spoiled!!!

Time for me to end this post.  Keep moving forward and you might be surprised at what comes up next!


Good night from paradise:)