Sarah & Lisa's Visit

I have to confess, I am a little burnt out on the blogging (my job probably doesn't help) so I'm going to cheat a little on this one and, rather than upload an obnoxious amount of pictures to the blog, I'm just going to give you this link to our Picasa Album. By the way, I should give credit to Sarah for all of the pictures...I had to steal them from her after our beloved camera suffered an unfortunate death shortly after their arrival.

I will say, however, that it was fun to have Sarah & Lisa here. We did all of the typical touristy stuff - Banzai, Suicide, Bird Island, Forbidden, Grotto, Hidden Beach, King Fisher, American Memorial, etc. We did do a couple of things that we didn't do with previous guests though. We got to climb into a scary, dark cave with human skeleton remains. Sarah and Lisa camped out on Managaha one night. And, they were fortunate enough to help me chaperone the Youth/Single Adult "Prance" which, by the way, the youth absolutely love those girls and are trying desperately to get them to move out here.

Thanks for coming Sarah & Lisa. I hope you enjoyed it!

Day 3

FORBIDDEN ISLAND

Starting our hike down...

Blue Steel?

Patrick's Climb

Eric's Climb (not to be outdone by his younger brother)

Forbidden Island & Christmas Parties

We've been on Saipan for about 5 months now, and we're still finding great new places to explore. Saturday morning it was Forbidden Island. I was a little bit nervous about this one because, although it's one of the most highly recommended spots on the island, it's also one of the most dangerous - hence, the name "Forbidden". Several people have drowned there, mostly from being swept away by the large waves and strong currents. This warning sign at the trailhead was posted as a result of 4 college students who lost their lives back in March.

The hike took about 30-45 minutes. As always, it's much easier going down than up, but well worth it. We were walking along a cliff for a lot of the trek, and the wind was pretty intense so that added to the thrill of it all.

Eric, trying to figure out how to get from Rock A to Rock B.

King of the mountain.

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Homemade Lemonade


After our hike to Forbidden, we decided to stop by our neighbor's house for a bit, and I'm so glad we did! I got to help Katrina make freshly squeezed lemonade from the lemons right here at Facey Farms. It wasn't quite as lemony yellow as the picture above because we used brown sugar as the sweetener, but it was still delicious. We also ate some mandarin oranges right from the front yard.

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Cookie Party!
Eric replaced a woman named Deb at the court, and she's been so kind to us. She's treated Eric and I to lunch, she's given me several food and travel tips, and yesterday she invited us to a quaint little cookie party. This is her gorgeous patio (she and her husband are both lawyers). I tried to take pictures of the ocean view, but the sun was too bright.

I only have 2 regrets - not taking a cookie plate home and not taking a picture of the impressive spread. Just ask Eric, I love cookies! In fact, I'm a little bit of a cookie monster.

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Work Party

Getting our grub on...

Katrina (neighbor and GF to the clerk of the court), John, Eric

I love Doll for getting Eric to dance! And to Blue Suede Shoes no less! He was not only dancing, he was doing the twist and the shimmy! I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.

Katrina & Jonathan (clerk of the court)

Eric competing in a tongue twister contest. You can't see the audience, but there were about 70 people there spectating. By the end of the night we won 2 gift certificates for 60 min spa treatments! Woohoo! Maybe that's what we'll do for Christmas since we're not getting each other gifts (aside from a small vacation). :)