US Minor Outlying Islands Travel Blogs

Maui
Jul 10, 2006 (13 photos)

Aloha Not a lot to say this time, we've just hung out and enjoyed the weather - although only a bit hotter than we've heard it is in the UK. We're getting too lazy to do tourist trips so didn't bother to see turtles, snorkelling, rainforest or volcanos ...

Good bye to New Zealand - hope to return again!
Feb 23, 2006 (15 photos)

... Glaciers The trip to Doubtful Sound The Lakes - Manapouri - Wanaka - Taupo Huka Falls Akaroa - Queenstown - Wellington The Bay of Islands Piha and surrounding area These are just a few - there are many more..... Good bye from NZ and Aloha....

The Hawaiian Islands of Oahu and Maui
Mar 9, 2006 (10 photos)

... beach was packed like sardines in a tin - you could not find a spot to sit down so we went exploring instead - I preferred the outlying beaches - less crowded. While I was there, the Queen Mary II was in port - it is huge. On my final night, we all ...

luka taka backa lacka HAWAI-hmmm hula!
Apr 25, 2006 (5 photos)

... finish a keg needless to say i was fuked after we headed in tpspam yam again for the plast bamd then sat aroudn drinking a copper saw us with beer n coffee cups but was sweet we were just told to pour it away! treid to get in to the disco at a posh hotel ...

Birthday in the Sky
May 1, 2006 (3 photos)

Free champagne, great presents from Claire and comfortable seats at 10,000 metres. What better way to celebrate your birthday !!!

a day at USVI
Feb 21, 2008

Blogging heroes entry 4 that's right 4, not 1 not 3, 4!!!! Who would have guessed that after 30 years of cruising history, carnival would not have figured out how to efficiently get people off their ship and onto the shore of St. Thomas. After sitting ...

Crossing the Intl Dateline
Mar 16, 1975

It was a real warm night and at 6:15 we got our wake-up call so we got up and dressed. Then we went to the airport. We had to wait about 45 minutes before boarding. When we were airborne we had breakfast of egg omelet, orange juice, sausage, and roll. We ...

Mission Implausible
Feb 20, 2008

... a valiant effort she still succumbed to the overwhelming and scorching power of the sun.   Tune in next time to hear about the adventures of your bloggin heroes in St. Thomas, USV (no that not USB typoed it stands for United States Virgin Islands)

Wrapping Up
May 1, 2007 (1 photos)

I'll finish this entry, put in entries for the trip home, then go to the hotel to start packing. Suka is treating me to a special dinner, a crab dish at one of the local Chinese restaurants that she tried to arrange when I was here at New Year's. We'll ...

Fish Love Hot Dogs!
Apr 22, 2007 (3 photos)

... opens up to some nice reef. It's not very deep, but there are some nice corals that act as fish feeding stations. Mr. Shin gave us hot dogs under water near one of the feeding stations and the fish went crazy. We did that a couple of times. I saw the head ...

A Great Weekend
Apr 15, 2007

Yes, I'm calling Sunday, Suka's only day off, the weekend. After a lazy start to the day, we took our dive gear to Obyan Beach. Mr. Lee at Dive Saipan gave me a quick tour on paper of the entry points and the layout. We did my 99th and 100th dives. I ...

St Thomas US Virgin Island
Apr 29, 2006 (5 photos)

Hello, everybody Just wanted to update you on my trip to St Thomas, it was so cool I was able to be there on the last day of there one yr Carnival, for what they were celibrating i do not know, some say it is the last day of the tourist season, other ...

Leave for Hong Kong
Mar 28, 2007

Left on schedule. Flight was smooth. We were actually early getting to the airport because we were packed and all. Interesting watching the crowds. Lots of vacationing families and honeymooning couples.

Managaha and Champagne
Apr 29, 2007 (3 photos)

Managaha is a small island off the coast of another not-quite-as-small island known as Saipan. Managaha is sort of a resort island, or at least it calls itself that at times. No, the island itself is not an intelligent life form. I'm ...

Another Culinary Creation
Apr 25, 2007

There are three versions of the meal: the one I had in mind before the grocery store, the one that I bought the ingredients for, and the one that I actually made. The former two were incomplete visions that didn't come to pass, probably because they were ...

Forbidden Island
Mar 23, 2007 (2 photos)

Today is a "C" day. There are five of these that are all local holidays in honor of the process of getting the island politically to where it's at. I think today is Covenant Day. Dave, Tita and the kids all have the day off, since they all either work for ...

Settling In
Mar 20, 2007

I've checked out the dive shops. I've set up some diving for next week and gotten the names of some likely dive buddies. I put my bike together. As of today, I'm also a local. I now have an official Saipan drivers license! Dave and I have been ...

The Grotto
Mar 26, 2007

I did a two tank dive at The Grotto this morning. Very nice dives! The Grotto is a collapsed limestone cavern with inlet channels to the ocean. The water is 109 steps down from the parking area. You scramble across some rocks, timing your traversal to ...

Some Events
Apr 13, 2007 (2 photos)

First, those of you who are not on Dave's mailing list haven't heard that his father passed away on Wednesday, April 11, 2007 at 1:00 p.m. Don had been battling brain cancer for over four years and exhausted his medical options over a year ago. It was not ...

Leaving Saipan
May 2, 2007

This is the time I'm supposed to leave. I decided to consolidate the luggage. Rather than carry two significant carry-on bags, I decided to put everything in the suitcase. That made for a very heavy (80#) suitcase. I incurred an overweight charge, but ...

Guam
Feb 10, 2004

Guam was beautiful. I managed to go diving while I was there, and it was great. Rental gear and all, it was a great diving experience. I did not get much of a chance to actually visit most of the island. I remember even less of the island, except that it ...

Diving with Hwasuk
Mar 25, 2007 (1 photos)

... burritos. I decided not to have the island-specific fried SPAM with eggs platter that was offered. Yes, SPAM is big in the islands and, I think, in Asia in general. Hwasuk has told me about a kim chi soup she makes with SPAM once the kim chi gets a ...

Water Follows Us
Mar 25, 2007

... . The hommus and babaghanouj weren't great. Everything else was spiced a little too heavily. Whew! What a day! To cap off the "water following us" thing, it rained for a few minutes while we were in the restaurant, the first rain while I'm here.

Day to Day
Apr 10, 2007

The day-to-day is pretty uneventful now. Dave and I went hiking this morning. Suka and I went to the Memphis Ribs place for dinner last night. I spent a couple hours working at the coffee shop yesterday on my Perforce project. Now I'm off to pick up a ...

Meeting More Friends
Mar 21, 2007

Went to dinner with Hwasuk's best friend Judy and another friend Mrs. Joo. We went to the buffet at the World Resort. Most of the conversation was in Korean. I only understood a word or two. Hwasuk translated some of it for me. It's amazing how much you ...

Crespo
Aug 7, 2008

Appreciate!

oh yes, I'm still writing in the blog
Aug 6, 2007

... also have to play along with a pre-recorded track with things like extra percussion, synths, and strings. All of that comes to us through this little digital mixing board under our stands. It took me a long time to get used to playing live with headphones ...

Construction
Apr 18, 2007 (15 photos)

Now for some of my observations about construction in the islands. Much of this is the same in the Marshall Islands, Aruba, Bonaire, Belize, and Bali to varying degrees. I've woven a couple of photos into the text, but there are more in the album. First ...

Wrapping up Tinian
Apr 22, 2007

After cleaning up, we decided on the order of go for the evening. We would check out the casino, get some dinner, then gamble a little bit. With some difficulty, we got into the casino. Apparently thong sandals (known as "slippas" in the Pacific) are ...

Arrival!
Mar 18, 2007

... selling an extra car. The person renting the car previous to us did not return it on time, so he arranged another friend to rent us a car. That's where things get interesting. The car used to be a taxi, so even though it's a 2002 Camry, it has 122000 ...