Saipan, Northern Mariana Isl. Travel Blogs

Warm Tropics and Hot Topics
Jul 5, 2007 (6 photos)

... the official language of Saipan is English, its currency the US Dollar and, while domestically independent as part of the Northern Mariana Islands, it devolves foreign and defence policy to Washington. Yet everywhere you care to look, and even many places ...

Flying to the Hard Rock Café
May 23, 2008 (12 photos)

... cafe.aspx?LocationID=77&MIBEnumID=3   Saipan is the largest island of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean with a ...

Sapian
Mar 25, 1975

In the morning we went and had breakfast. When we finished eating Ardie and I got out suits on and went swimming in the pool. We met a girl whose name is Amy. She was about five years old. Mom and Dad had gone out and when they came back Mom taught me how ...

Guam to Saipan
Mar 24, 1975

... hour before we left. Ardie had some medicine then we went to the airport and Ardie and I were the first on the plane. We grabbed the first two rows. In Saipan we caught the bus to the Royal Taga and then we went swimming. We ate dinner then we went to bed.

Saipan
Mar 26, 1975

... We stopped for breakfast at the Hotel Hafa Adia. After breakfast we looked into the shop there and Ardie and I got our dresses and Saipan t-shirts. When we got to the Saipan Continental Hotel, we didn't have reservations but got a room anyway. Ardie and I ...

Scuba Diving
Mar 1, 2009 (7 photos)

... were out of the apartment, we went to the post office on the regular check for communication from Immigration. Next stop was Dive Saipan to get scuba gear. Suka needs the whole get up. I needed weights and tanks. I actually remembered to bring my regulator ...

Sunday's Recreation
Oct 13, 2008 (7 photos)

This morning we went to Coffee Care for breakfast and had a wonderful Wahoo Hash on our way to go hiking. We decided to go explore the area around where I came out of the boonies previously. We drove out to the end of Wireless Ridge and walked out to ...

Saipan Again!
Sep 29, 2008

... and customs were a breeze. Suka was waiting for me. We're back in the usual apartment from previous trips. The power in Saipan is reliable these days. CUC rented some new generators from a foreign supplier, so their capacity is back up and outages are rare ...

Full and Sleepy
Mar 6, 2009 (3 photos)

... then or had called in advance, but the whole staff sung happy birthday to me and I got a small cake with a candle. In typical Saipan fashion, my name was misspelled, but it's part of the charm. Now I'm in the coffee shop writing this and trying not to ...

Dinner Party Day
Oct 6, 2008

So today was all about relaxing and preparing for the dinner party at Alan's and Stephanie's. I started off making Suka "queen for the morning" (her words) by making breakfast and cleaning up while she sat around reading. I cooked pancakes, sausage and ...

Back in My Wife's Arms!
Feb 21, 2009

... feel settled in and familiar with Boston in the last couple months. And staying in the same apartment building in one of two rooms with Suka has made Saipan very familiar. Anyway, I'll take a bit of latitude on the definition of "home" for the time being.

Fighting Jet Lag with Hashing
Feb 21, 2009

What better to fight jet lag than outdoor exercise, right? That was my thinking when I arranged for Wolf to pick me up for the Hash. I saw a bunch of old friends at the Bank of Guam. We started the run up on Tapochau in Chuck Jordan's coffee farm. It ...

Birthday Evening
Mar 7, 2009

... harsh tequila shots you might have envisioned earlier. I had great conversation and a fun time. It's the most I've dove into Saipan night life since the bachelor party. We closed down Bill's around 2:00. I decided to cancel my morning meeting and was ...

Making Korean Dumplings
Oct 4, 2008 (3 photos)

... was out in their house, apartment or office. Now people can just stay put. There's a new flight directly from Shanghai to Saipan that just started this week. There's some hope that this will help. The contrasts in the news are pretty striking. The ...

Dinner and a Movie
Mar 2, 2009

Once we left Rose's, we stopped by Suka's friend Lin's house. Lin is Suka's replacement at Global. They have known each other for a long time. He has been part of her computer support assistance, as well. Lin and his wife just recently had a baby. The ...

Day Off for Discovery
Oct 9, 2008 (3 photos)

... to talk to an actual person at USCIS to clarify problems with instructions or how to deal with things given the strange situation that is Saipan. I'll ask some legal people some questions when I get home. In the afternoon, I decided to go for a hike. I ...

Weekend Entertainment
Oct 12, 2008

... videos of the fun in the sun and then had the pageant. The local promotion was done with the World Resort Saipan, the Marianas Visitors' Authority and several other travel and tourism related businesses. They had three events. The first was "simulation ...

Getting Into the Routine
Feb 27, 2009

I haven't written much because there hasn't been much noteworthy. It has been nice that Suka has mornings off. Sometimes we hike. Sometimes we just watch DVDs and have a leisurely breakfast. She needs to be at work by 1:00. Sometimes she gets there by 12: ...

Flying to Narita
Mar 9, 2009

... . The internet had been out for the previous day and a half for the entire island. Yes, I really mean that all of Saipan was without internet that long. On a whim I sat down at their internet terminal (a five year old laptop on a formica counter) and ...

Days in the Life
Oct 8, 2008

Monday we got off to a slow start. At 11:30 we went to the wedding luncheon at the Aqua Resort, where we had our reception, for Merycris, a staff member at Java Joe's, and Gerone. In the evening we went for a nice walk most of the way up to Garapan and ...

A Break in the Weekday Routine
Feb 28, 2009

... of doctors, a couple of lawyers including one who works as a contractor in Afghanistan and the Middle East but is based out of Saipan. We had good conversation and some great Poke. The group ebbed and flowed a bit. We eventually took over all of the tables ...

Where We're At
Feb 21, 2009

... ) to allow her to work when she gets to Boston. There were other documents, but these were the important ones. I got back from Saipan to find an invitation for her to appear in Boston on January 6 for fingerprinting for the EAD. Apparently, they don't ...

Sunday Brunch
Feb 22, 2009

We lounged around in the morning watching Sex and the City. Later in the morning, Suka's friend Judy called to invite us to lunch with her church group. Before lunch we went to a well-reputed coffee shop (as opposed to a coffee shop of ill repute?). I ...

The Hash, Of Course!
Mar 1, 2009

Suka was going to try to arrange to work in the morning so she could Hash in the afternoon. Unfortunately, once she realized it was the end of the month, she had to be there to do the end of month change over of inventory, pricing, etc. I suggested, and ...

Caving
Mar 4, 2009 (9 photos)

... our destination anyway. We went past the Hawaiian Rock Quarry down the Naftan road. Naftan is the point on the southeast corner of Saipan. There is very little there. It rivals the north end of the island for the title of least inhabited. In my opinion, ...

New Food
Oct 1, 2008

I'm getting adjusted to the time. Yesterday I felt pretty good. Today I feel totally on. Last night we went to see "Eagle Eye" after a dinner of Costco hot dogs. Costco also sells hard boiled eggs, so Suka had one of those, too. The movie was very ...

Heading Out
Oct 14, 2008

Well, I wasn't really ready to leave, but the time had come. Monday night we had an option of going to a birthday party, but packing and our last evening together this trip took precedence. Suka made a sam-style pork belly. Sam is a style of eating BBQ ...

Saipan
Mar 14, 2005

Saipan...

Happy Birthday to Suka!
Oct 9, 2008

Today is Suka's Western birthday. The way we count it, this is the day she was born. She turns 28 today, also by the way we count it. I gave her a digital camera. She tried to take a picture of a sunset and fried the sensor in her old one. She had ...

Hashing
Oct 5, 2008

So I dropped the car off at Global at 3. Kramden (Wolf) picked me up there so that Suka could have the car. The trail was pretty lame in and of itself. It was mostly roads. It only had one boonie section. It was a little surprising where it ended up ...