Plumeria Resort Saipan

... a car this old, they don't need the registration. But it made them happy and advanced the process.

We then went out for what ended up being a very nice hike. We started up near Bird Island. The idea was to explore the cliff line in the vicinity of Kalabera Cave. We had a touch initial slog through thick branchy growth after jumping into the jungle at a random spot off the road. Suka ...

We decided to go hiking in the morning. But I didn't check the maps and winged it on some roads that I'm only passingly familiar with. We were going to park by the Hawaiian Rock Quarry and hike out on Naftan Point. Since I wasn't confident in my directions and we took the rough road (that would have gotten us there, I later verified), we decided to just stop at Obyan Beach (map pin is where we parked) and hike (east) from there.

We had a nice hike through ...

... a Shoe Down-Down is the drinking of the Sacred Nectar from the soon-to-be-retired shoes of the departing Hashers. You have a sequence of them as people pay tribute to the departing.

I found out later that Alan had done extensive bleaching and rinsing of the shoe, which made it not quite as disgusting as it could be. I didn't know that at the time and just couldn't bring myself to drink out of someone's shoe. I was told by someone with first hand experience that ...

I broke the trail story into two entries so that I could put map pins at each end. "On Home" is the term for the end of the trail, in this case at the top of Kannat Tabla. The FRBs (that's Front Running *******s) came in in just over an hour, which is perfect timing. Back to the beginning of the trail, Suka and I took off, went through the bunker and circled back down the hill. The hounds could see us, so they completely ignored the nice ...

... 48708;바ᇜ 0;). The "dokkebi" part is some sort of big monster sort of like an ogre as best I can tell. "Banul" means "needle." So they are monster needles or something like that. They're about a quarter inch long with two barbed hairs on one end. When they stick to clothing, you usually get dozens of them bristling out like stiff fur. There is also a redoubled phrase, "dadak-dadak," for lots of things that are countable that ...

... from Boston. Why? I have no idea. If I thought it pertained, I would have included it. We should get a letter in a few days telling us exactly what additional documents they need. Once we submit them, she should get her Green Card in about a month. Disappointing, but not negative. Things are moving forward, just not as fast we we had hoped.

Uneventful days since the caving. I got my upgrade notification for the Minneapolis-Boston leg of my return on Monday. I also got an e-mail from Northwest with six system-wide one-way upgrade vouchers. Suka will definitely come to the States in first class now without leaving the upgrade to the whims of frequent flier status and the question of whether the new international rules would bring a companion with me, as well. And that should upgrade us both ways to China, as well. Mr ...

... Lee that the weather was too rough to dive the Grotto like we wanted, so we headed off to Lau Lau Beach (map pin, you can even see the inlets in the coral where the entry ropes are set if you zoom in enough), stopping at Global to pick up my scuba gear on the way. We spent a little extra time playing with the dogs. We brought some extra bones from breakfast for their dining pleasure. Suka also spent some time on the regular ...

... the pipeline where we found three sea turtles like Harry said we would. We followed them for some time. They're protected and very much not afraid as long as you don't approach them too fast or mess with them. They keep a healthy distance, but you can get within ten or fifteen feet of them pretty easily. They're quite graceful. The ones we saw were about three to four feet long, the largest maybe even a little bigger than that.

... some decent rides, but I wimp out before finishing the hillier courses I had in mind when I start. I'll work on that. We asked Mr. Ham, Suka's boss, if she could have a couple of days off after Christmas so we could take a trip to Rota for scuba diving and sight seeing. He hemmed and hawed. He really doesn't like giving direct or quick answers. We started to assume he was going to say no. Friday night was Suka's DFS Christmas party. She had to ...