At the end of August, Scott set sail on SEQUOIA from Guam heading to Hawaii for some intensive training with the Navy. SEQUOIA completed the training and after some deliberation over what the ship's next mission was, they ended up on an island called Kwajalein Atoll.
Kwajalein Atoll is located in the western Pacific Ocean, about 2,100 miles southwest of Hawai'i and 1,400 miles east of Guam. The island is home to USAKA (United States Army Kwajalein Atoll), the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, and about 2,000 support personnel and family members.
This is a picture taken along the southern edge of Kwajalein where the Japanese had dug "tank traps" during WWII. (The idea was when the U.S Amphibious Assault ships landed and started off-loading tanks, the tanks would sink straight into the "tank traps".) If you look closely at the picture, you can see the squared-off areas in the water where the Japanese dug the tank traps. Unfortunately for the Japanese, the U.S. assault on Kwajalein Island came from the west and not the south...
Here's another picture of the tank traps...(the light blue sections of the water...)
Here's a picture of the western shore of Kwajalein where the U.S. assault originated from. What you see in the picture is a small portion of the remnants of this assault.
Here's more remnants of the assault...
These are fuel drums left behind from this same assault...
These are actual engines and parts from tanks left behind after the assault.
The big white ball in the background is the telemetry center where they test missiles and rockets and stuff...
This is the airfiled on Kwajalein. This area apparently saw a lot of action during the U.S. assault...that's an old "Huey" off to the right left over from WWII...
Here's a bunker the Japanese fought from during the assault...
The odd-shaped, flat-topped building you see here is the Ballistics Testing center. The rumor is that President Reagan had it built as a "show of force" to the Russians during the Cold War.
Here you see a Japanese Burial Ground...
Scott and one of the Chief's from his ship decided to do a little snorkeling here. Could you imagine a war being fought in a place that's so beautiful? Well, apparently there's no denying what went on here almost 70 years ago...weScott was warned not to touch anything he saw under water that was "perfectly round" or "cylinder shaped" because it may be an unexploded ordnance (bomb)!
After snorkeling, Scott found the turtle pond that Kwajalein is apparently famous for...(come on, don't tell me you've never heard of the Kwajalein Turtle Pond before...)
This turtle pond is close enough for the turtles to climb out (you can see a small ramp at the far end of the pool on the left) and crawl back to the ocean whenever they want.
This is what the other end of the turtle pond looks like...
...and here's one of the turtles...
Turtles dining on lettuce...
Turtles...
Another turtle...
After riding around the island for awhile, Scott started getting hungry. He saw a large group of people headed towards this tent. He asked what was being cooked on the grill but for some reason he never got a straight answer...but it smelled good and he was hungry. So, he bought a couple of the "meat-on-a-stick" pops they were selling and chowed down. He's still not sure what he ate, but it was tasty (and it didn't make him sick).
As luck would have it, the one day SEQUOIA was in Kwajalein, they were having the "Kwajalein Annual Craft Fair and Bazaar". Nearly everything being sold here was hand-made...
Necklaces with shells...
Necklaces with wood carvings...
Hand-woven baskets and ornaments...
This is a picture of the gymnasium where the bazaar was held.
More hand-woven baskets and hand-bags...
Here's Scott at the northern most tip of Kwajalein Island. That small island in the background is too small to be inhabitated but on the other side of it are a string of islands formed from the lip of an underwater volcano.
Here is one example of the living accomodations on Kwajalein Island. There are hard plastic/fiberglas buildings built to stand-up to the often violent weather seen on small islands in the Pacific Ocean.
If you're in the mood for fast-food on Kwajalein, you'd better not be picky. A pizza joint, a burger joint, a sandwich shop and an ice cream store is about all they have to offer. (Actually, Scott was surprised to find this much...)
In addition to all the beautiful sights and history, Kwajalein also has a huge outdoor, salt-water swimming pool...
This picture really has no purpose, it just struck Scott as being an odd sign to see in someplace so remote...
This is a picture of the base laundry mat...kinda cool, huh?
Banyan tree...
Here's a shot of a typical "neighborhood" on Kwajalenin Island...Scott started to notice all the buildings more than one story tall were built out of concrete...kinda like Guam!
I betcha can't guess what this building is....
Here's a picture of one of the many beach parks on Kwajalein...
This is a picutre of the housing that used to be offered to residents back in the 70's. This is all being replaced by the plastic igloo looking buildings and the concrete condo's.
Just a short walk from where Scott's ship tied up, there was a set of stairs leading straight into the water...the perfect place for swimming and snorkeling!
Here's a picture of SEQUOIA with the Reagan Ballistics Center and the Telemetry Center in the background...
...and here's the Kwajalein paking lot...needless to say, bike-riding is the preferred method of transportation here...
OK, after being away from home for almost three months, SEQUOIA finally made it back to Guam! Time for a little R & R...
One of the most popular places to hike/swim/snorkel on Guam is an area called the Spanish Rocks. You have to climb down a pretty steep rock wall to get here, but it's well worth the effort.
Another popular hike is to Tarzan Falls. This is a shot at the very top of the falls...
Here's a shot looking down the falls....pretty slippery...
Once at the bottom, you're rewarded with a wonderful view of the falls and a chance to take a dip in the small wading pool at the bottom...
A little farther downstream from Tarzan Falls is Tarzan Pool. It takes another 45 minutes or so to find this place, but it's well worth the trip.
Here's the creek that leads awy from Tarzan Pool.
Another popular spot is the Salaglula Pool. There's no hiking involved here so it's very popular
with picnicer's and family's with kids...
Here's another view of the Pool....
One of the tougher hikes on the island is Inajaran Falls...this is the top of the falls looking down...
Here, the water slowly cascades down creating a great area for cooling off after the 60-90 minute hike it takes to get to this spot...
Here's a shot looking down the falls on the left....
...and shot of the falls on the right.
Here's a shot of a couple of bad-ass hiking guys!
OK, so one morning Scott and Jenn start to leave the house and they notice something weird across the street. Is that a cow? Is it a bull?
Nope, just a carabou (pronounced "care-uh-bow") clearing out some overgrown grass for our neighbor across the street. Apparently that's how you clear grass that's too overgrown to mow...rent a carabou and let him eat it all!
...and by the way, they'll charge at you if you look at them while you walk toward them. Scott learned this the hard way while walking the "girls" one day. This same carabou was tied to a light pole down the street and was eating grass along the side of the road. Scott was walking that way with the "girls" for their dailyexercise. Once they got closer, Scott saw the carabou staring at him and the carabou charged out of the tall grass straight at Scott! Luckily, the carabou was stopped about five feet short of where Scott was because of the rope tied to his horns. That day's walk got cut short so Scott could go back home and change his pants...!
One day Jenn let the "girls" out into the yard and they both starting barking their heads off. Jenn went out to see what was going on and she saw a little girl across the street with a deer on a leash. Actually, it's called a binadu. But that still doesn't explain why some little girl has one on a leash and was walking around with it....
Here's a better shot of it...
...and here you can see our "girls" going nuts over this thing...
OK, that's about it for now. We'll try to make more timely updates to our blog, but we're not making any promises. There are still a ton of other places to hike, swim and see on Guam. As we find time to get around to them, we'll take pictures and post them here. Everybody take care and have a great New Year!
