14 January 2008

Day 6

14 January 2008

Did we seriously swim with dolphins?? This was such a cool day for me.


We drive up north to Lovina just so we can hang out with the dolphins, and we stay at the strangest hotel I've ever stayed in - it's a dolphin and wildlife resort. It's already dark when we arrive so we don't get a chance to look around, but I have to say, it's almost better to experience it in the darkness. As we're walking to the hotel restaurant for a late dinner, the sidewalk in front of us is all we can see and suddenly we HEAR the dolphins. We can maybe see a faint outline of them diving gracefully in and out of the water, but mostly we can just hear the splashing and the exchange of squeaks and whistles. I think I could have listened to that all night.




The next morning we woke up to a little morning show, followed by our swim. It's just as cool as you expect it to be! At first I was worried that I wouldn't get any contact with them (it's a big pool), but they're actually really friendly. At some points, TOO friendly. There were a couple of times when I had them both wrapped around me in a big pretzel. They seemed to prefer me to Eric; In fact, they didn't pay much attention to him unless I was out of the water.






In addition to the dolphins, we got to see deer, otters, turtles, sharks, snakes, alligators, crocodiles, monkeys, cockatoos, and bear cats - all at our hotel.

After Lovina, we drove back down south to Ubud, the cultural center of Bali, where we checked into our last (and favorite) hotel - The Tegal Sari. Here's the view of the lush rice fields from our patio.



And, of course, the lovely pool.


Day 7



Or day 8, depending on how you look at it. We flew out of Bali on Sunday night, and arrived back in Saipan early Monday morning - hence this INCREDIBLE sunrise that we got to see from the plane (while flying over the Pacific). Quite possibly the prettiest sunrise I've even seen. Although, I guess it doesn't hurt that we were at 30,000 feet.

05 January 2008

Baptism

05 January 2008

Wing Beach

It was a touching experience last Sunday when Rima asked Eric to perform her baptism. He's been joining the missionary discussions with Rima's family for the past few weeks now, and we were ecstatic when she decided she was ready. Today was a beautiful day for an ocean baptism.

Eric Nelson & Rima Hallaby

Hallaby family

Cutie Patootie Mateo

Rima & Melissa Hallaby
Saipan missionaries

30 December 2007

Bomb Threat

30 December 2007
Eric's work - Supreme Court

We thought it was strange, when I drove Eric to work this morning (New Year's Eve), and noticed a lot of the staff standing across the street from the court. Then we were directed away from the parking lot by several police officers, later learning that there had been a bomb threat. We don't know any of the details, but, fortunately, nothing came of it.

Wing Beach

I hope you're not getting sick of all of the beach pictures. This is a beach we hadn't tried yet for snorkeling, and it was gorgeous - white sand, bright blue sea, and lots of green vegetation. Probably not the best for snorkeling, though. The waves are a lot bigger than what we're used to, so they were tossing us about, but it was fun regardless.


You can't really see the waves because the reef is just outside of the frame.

Eric swimming around a coral garden. The coral is nice to look at, but it hurts.

This reminds me of a dream I had once...

After the beach, we decided to stop by the zoo. We didn't actually go in (admission is $15), but Eric wanted to show me this tiger who you can see from outside of the zoo. After the tragic incident in San Francisco we were curious as to how fit the enclosure was here. I think the height was fine, but it was still a sad little habitat. I was wondering how they actually got their zoo animals here on the island so after a bit of browsing I found an article stating that the latest group of 21 animals all came over on the same cargo plane from Guam. (including a tiger, a lion, a black bear, monkeys, foxes, bobcats, etc.).


25 December 2007

Filis Pasgua & Filis Anu Nuebo!

25 December 2007
It's been a busy week! Despite being over 7000 miles away from family, it's been an awesome Christmas. Everyone was so sweet to invite us into their homes to join their Christmas celebrations.

We got to spend Christmas Eve at the Cabaels where we experienced our first Filipino feast. Half the branch was there so that was nice, especially since we had to miss the branch party.


These close-ups are always so flattering!

Leona, Maryana, Emelaine, Vanessa
Traditional island dancing. These girls are awesome!

Maryana, Emelaine, Tori, Elisa
They've got skillz!

Christina & Leila
We're tempted to kidnap Leila every time we see her. I wish she was smiling in this shot; she has the cutest smile/dimples! (You do too Christina.)

Isn't she adorable? You can't tell in this picture, but she has a "grill", well, 2 silver teeth in front. I love it.
Jenny, Jen Jen, Melissa, John
And we topped the night off with a little Christmas Karaoke. Good times.
I don't have any pictures from Christmas day, but that was fun too. I woke up around 8:00am, and stayed in the kitchen until 3:30pm, when we had to leave for a small get-together, with the Rider family and another couple.
As usually, I made way too much food....banana bread, mint chocolate fudge, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate cream pie, raspberry cream cake, onion dip, and a cheese ball. And I would have made pink salad if it weren't for every store on the island being out of cottage cheese.
I better hurry up and eat all of those leftovers so I can start my New Year's resolutions...

22 December 2007

Forbidden Island & Christmas Parties

22 December 2007

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.




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.



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.




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). :)