Tourist Day!

Generally, I would be having a youth retreat in Saipan.  However,  a group of the teens are off-island while I'm here and arrive the day I leave.  So I decided to kidnap the two girls left behind for some quality adventures. (And to build relationships.) We decided to pose as tourists and do all the touristy sites of Saipan.  

We kicked off with a circle of the CNMI Veterans Cemetery.  This was built after I lived on the islands, and I don't recall visiting it until Tourist Day.  It's a beautiful cemetery. 

After the cemetery, we went to Banzai Cliff.  The girls told me that last time they were at Banzai I had taken them there at night when they were little girls and they were very scared.  (I don't remember this.  But I felt better when they told me Laura [not me] and Josiah were there too, so maybe it wasn't totally my crazy idea???)  The views are spectacular from here.  It has been so windy this week (thank you, Jesus for the breeze!!!) that the waters were very rough. But rough waters also mean no sea turtle sightings. 

From Banzai we headed over to the Grotto.   They have really expanded the grotto lookouts, improved the stairs going down to the bottom, and added picnic tables.  Very nice.  (Going down to the actual Grotto is amazing. The girls didn't want to do the stairs and we were trying to beat the rain and the clock, so we didn't go down.  You will have to check out a previous year's post for those views.)

From the grotto we catch Bird Island.  Today may have been the prettiest I have ever seen Bird Island--it was as if it was glowing.

We had two more stops we had planned to make: Suicide Cliff and Last Command Post.  However, the rain was starting.  We were able to catch a quick photo at the Saipan sign before the skies completely unloaded on us.  

Even thought we didn't make it to the top of Suicide Cliff, we did get some really nice pictures from afar looking up.  

Pacific Island Club (PIC) Saipan

Today Perry and I kidnapped a couple of high school girls from the church to pose as tourists with us.  (There will be a post later about our many, many adventures today. We had a lot of fun. However, I'm too tired to share them all tonight.)  I shall share the end of our adventures first. PIC.

One of my favorite places in the world is PIC Saipan.  There's one in Guam, but Saipan is definitely superior as it has my favorite lazy river in the world. (Guam doesn't even have a lazy river. Boooooo.) I always get so excited at the prospect of a lazy river when I go someplace and am always disappointed as it never lives up to PIC Saipan.   Not only does PIC have an amazing lazy river, it has happy hour  with half price smoothies and appetizers...on the beach...where you can watch the sunset. 

Here we are getting our drinks and some of our food. 

Then bam...it's all gone! 

Perry also enjoyed his...

Pacific Games 2022

It's a super exciting time across the Northern Mariana Islands as they are host to the Pacific Games! (I blogged about these a few years back when the games were held in Guam.) Think summer Olympics with island nations across the Pacific.  Like the Olympics, the event is held every four years.  Twenty countries are participating: Guam, CNMI, FSM, Solomon Islands, Australia, Fiji, Samoa, Palau, Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Tonga, American Samoa, and others. 

Like the Olympics, the games kicked off with the opening ceremonies and events have been taking place across Saipan (with a little also on Tinian and Rota).  I have caught some tennis, track, and baseball driving around island.  Today, we made a trip down to the beach to actually sit down and watch some beach volleyball.

It was super exciting with multiple games going, both men and women's teams.  Unfortunately, we were only there a short time before the skies opened to torrential rain.  But the games must go on!  (I learned this evening that golf kept playing too in all the rain.)  

The kids thought it was THE BEST DAY EVER! We started having flooding under our tent and they were able to build motes and castles without even walking down to the water or getting sunburned.  

Of course all became beautiful again as we were leaving. 

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering...Papua New Guinea is currently ahead in the medal count.  2nd place with the most gold medals is Australia, but second play with the most medals is a tie between New Caledonia and Tahiti. 

Incredible Me!

Saipan is having $2 kids movies on Tues/Wed this summer.  Some people look at that as a cheap chance to see I movie.  I look at it as cheap air con!  

We decided to take the children and teens from the church to see the Tuesday movie, Despicable Me.  As I had a van load of kids, I learned that only two of them had ever been to the theater before.  Statements like those are so humbling.  

After the movie we came back to the church for a lesson called Incredible Me!  (And we learned the definition of "despicable" which I think they found the most interesting. 😂)  

Whenever we have kids, we make sure they are always fed.  And since it was Tuesday....TACO TUESDAY!  

For our craft/dessert, we decorated minion cupcakes.  They could have been cooler, but I couldn't find everything I had desired for decorating. But they were all pleased with their Minion. They got to eat one for dessert and take one home for later.

So any event that involves taking home a cupcake is a win! 

Goats Need Jesus Too

One of my jobs while in Saipan is to cover Sunday services for the pastor who is off island (in Oklahoma, actually). I looked up while setting up chairs, and the goats were heading up the road for church.  People I'm not sure we will have, but the goats are ready for the Gospel! 

Saipan!

My Guam stay was short. After a planning meeting to reschedule all that I messed up, I hopped over to Saipan--where America's Day also begins.  Nothing like landing in Saipan where this feeling of "home" sweeps over you. Saipan was my first island (way back in 2003!). Saipan gave me friends for a lifetime.

The view to Saipan was full of rainbows, as you can see. I kept singing, "God put a Rainbow in the Clouds."  (These were all different rainbows, and I probably saw another five or six.  A few years ago flying from Guam to Japan, I think I saw over 20!)

I also had great views of Guam, Rota, Aguijan, Tinian, and Saipan! 

Rota

Aguijan (Goat Island)

Tinian

Tinian

Saipan

If you are a WWII buff, I had great views of Tinian.  These are the runways the Enola Gay took off from with the atomic bombs. I have driven on these runways many times.  But we could never get our car quite fast enough to fly.  

You know you're home when you are immediately recognized at the airport and hear, "Hey Laura, welcome back!" by a friend of many years. Saipan is a little like Pontotoc County --always seeing people you know.  I'm glad she called me out because I was being picked up by strangers. Had she not said my name, I don't know if we would have connected as they were wearing masks.....and people look nothing like their pictures in a mask. 

When I arrived to the house, I had a welcome fruit "basket"!

 

Perry's New Friend

Perry has made some new friends in Guam: Shan, Huckleberry, and Tater Tot.  (I think I have everyone's names are correct.) Perry may really have one unforgettable summer!