PDX Christmas

Christmas had come and gone and I had a really great Christmas this year. Every year that I'm not in Saipan, I'm somewhere else in this world. This year, I decided to spend my first Christmas in Oregon. It was a quiet and private family Christmas, just the way I wanted it. The tree was beautiful.

I cooked for all day and I enjoyed every moment of it. The dinner was frantastic and the girls loved it.

We all went to church after dinner, mass only lasted an hour and 10 minutes compared to the Christmas masses in Saipan. How does that happen that Christmas mass can last for an hour and 10 in Oregon, but 2.5 hours in Saipan. I shouldn't be saying or comparing masses or I'll be condemned by family for doing so.

After church we opened gifts, there were at least 50 under the tree and another 15 in the stockings. It was fun being like a kid again.

I woke up on Christmas morning and it was sunny at 10:00 a.m. and snowing by 11:30 a.m... it was really just flurries. I took some video, but not long enough because I was glued to two NBA games on TV and after the Suns-Lakers game I looked outside and it was dark and rainy.

Tonight we're having dinner in Woodburn with some friends from Tinian and tomorrow, I'll be curled up in my warm bed, sleeping and definitely not worrying about work back in Saipan.

Merry Christmas!

Holidays Away from Home

Yesterday, I arrived in Oregon to spend the holidays with my family. It's so pleasing to be away from home for a little bit. I arrived early in Portland at 6:30 a.m. and it was still dark, but by the time I got out of the airport, the sun had risen. The first thing I did when I got home was crawl in bed and slept for 9 straight hours, then I went shopping for a bit but I had to go back home because I couldn't deal with traffic, crowds and cold weather, so I went back home, and crashed all over again.

This morning, I was reminded why I love the holidays away from home, gingerbread houses and everything is seasonal even the coffee. I woke up this morning to the great smell of Peet's Holiday Blend coffee, a bold blend of chocolate and berries. I also had slices of Panettone that I found at the World Market. One of my favorite stores second to Trader Joe's.

I'll take more pictures later on, I've been pretty lazy about doing anything! Well, I'm on vacation and I don't even feel like snapping my camera.

In Memory of the Broken Angel

Last summer, my friend Rachel and I watched a video entitled "Dave Chappelle's Block Party", it was the most boring flick I've ever seen. Dave Chappelle was having a block party on Downing Street in Brooklyn, New York right in front of a house called the Broken Angel. Rachel and I both became interested in the building's architecture which we thought was insane and it was just so funny to listen and watch the owners describe how they patched it together. On the video, they took Dave Chappelle on a tour of the house. You have to rent the video just to listen to them and go on the tour.

Last October, before Rachel moved to New York, we promised ourselves that if I ever come to visit her, our mission would be to find the Broken Angel in Brooklyn. In February this year, I went to visit Rachel and we made plans to go find the house. We got on the subway and went to Brooklyn and within 45 minutes we were standing in front of this masterpiece of junk. A building that violated every code in the book. It was such a treat for us to find it and to be standing right there in front of it.

The building seemed like it was under construction and the owners were no longer there when we came. The City had determined the house to be unsafe to live in when it caught on fire sometime last year.

A few weeks ago, I got a text from Rachel saying, "Fran, they're tearing down the Broken Angel"! I was sad to hear the news, but I'm happy that we were able to fulfill our mission in finding the house before it got torn down.

Staghorn City

I went out today to help the Marine Monitoring Team conduct benthic surveys down the south Saipan Lagoon. We swam from the shore to the reef.. whew! We started out with massive algae patches, then we were rewarded with spectacular beds of staghorns. We haven't been to this site in about four years and it has wildly bloomed throughout the back reef.

ThanksMas

This past weekend Off the Beaten Path held a benefit for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.


OBP President Fran Castro and Vice-President Frankie Eliptico.



Make-a-Wish representatives attended the event, Victor Camacho, Executive Director, Kathryn Barry and Vicky Benavente, Board Members. Also, two wish receipients attended the event, Rica Ada and Raykina Chong.

Harry Blalock donated some of his underwater photos, and he also attended the event.

Brad Ruszala and Patty Coleman were the master and mistress of ceremony.

We were all "off the beaten path" the next day. It was another fran~tastic event.

A Golden Celebration

A few weeks ago, my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. It was a real special moment for myself and my family who traveled from afar to attend this occasion.

Peter and my friends joined in the celebration.

Congratulations Mom & Dad!

Another side of Paupau

Today I went to Paupau to do something special for a friend who lives in D.C. and is leaving the NOAA Coral Program to move on to greener pastures.


I wanted to take a picture of something in the water to remind her of what she will be missing when she vacates her job. She is the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force Outreach and Education Specialist for the International Year of the Reef. This is what I did for her:



My friends and I frequent Paupau Beach whenever we get the chance, during the weekends and sometimes weekdays. Whenever we're there, half of the group just sits on the beach and stare at the water, while the other half go swimming or wading for minutes at a time. As I was taking pictures, I thought it would be nice if my friends could see what was really in the water at Paupau. I think they would be amazed at the marine life that exists there, and they would appreciate it even more. It's definitely a prime snorkeling spot, one of my favorites, and rarely red flagged by my office, DEQ.

As I was perusing around in the water, I started snapping away my camera and I just couldn't stop. I missed taking underwater photos, they are such an art and really fun to look at afterwards.Here are a few shots that I took today. I've exceeded my limit for photos, so I send the rest on Picasa.

Yvonne

A couple of weeks ago, I met Yvonne from American Samoa, she’s Peter’s friend and they met in American Samoa through his good friend Craig. Yvonne was in Guam the week before attending a Sustainable Agricultural Resource and Education (SARE) meeting. Yvonne is farmer in American Samoa and she makes really good coconut jam.

From the moment I met Yvonne, I felt like I’ve known her for many years. She reminded me of one of my best friends, Sam.

Yvonne flew into Saipan at 3:00 a.m., without Peter knowing, he wasn’t expecting her until later on that day, and he made plans for us to hang out with Yvonne in the evening. However, she showed up early at DEQ looking for him. So he had to take her to his place to rest because she was really tired. At lunch time, we went up to Pete’s to have lunch with Yvonne that was when I first met her. My best friend Deb also came and had lunch with us. I had already decided earlier that I would take the afternoon off to relax since I had been feeling very overwhelmed and tired. I wanted to go to the beach and just sleep there. Peter asked me if I would take Yvonne with me and I said “yeah, of course.” After Peter left for work, Yvonne came down to my place to hangout while I was getting ready for the beach.

We were on our way to the beach and it was Yvonne’s first trip to Saipan, she was so appreciative of how beautiful and green the island is compared to Guam’s urbanization. When we got to the beach, Deb laid her mat and Yvonne laid her lava-lava down to relax. We had a cooler of drinks and the entire Paupau Beach to ourselves. Yvonne asked me if it was allowed to just go to the beach and relax with a cooler. I said, “yes, it’s open to anyone”, that really amazed her. In American Samoa, you can’t just walk to the beach and stake out a spot and go swimming, you must first ask permission at the village before you get your feet wet.

I started asking Yvonne about what she did at 3:00 a.m. when she came into Saipan. She said she asked people at the airport if there was public transport to the main town, the guy she spoke to, told her that we didn’t have any. So she started walking and until she got to a store that was open, she said she stayed there and talked to the “storekeepers”. She also said they were so nice to her, they even fed her. As the sun rose, she started walking again and she flagged down a guy in a car and asked if he knew where DEQ was, the guy said, “yes, I’ll take you there”.

Yvonne was in Saipan for 18 hours and she had a really great time hanging out at the beach, but she was really exhausted from her 3:00 a.m. arrival. She’s a very nice person and very positive and appreciative about everything in life. Whenever we say something to her, she would respond with “yeah, yeah”. She was very grateful to Deb and I for taking her out to the beach. We took her out to dinner and then I dropped her to the soccer field to hangout with Peter until it was time to take her to the airport. She actually didn’t hangout but just fell asleep.

After I dropped Yvonne, I was happy that I took the day off and got to spend some time with her during her whirlwind tour of Saipan. Yvonne flew back to Guam at 9:00 p.m. on the same day and then she heads back to American Samoa the following day.

The Birth of this Blog

I always told myself that I will never start a blog because I won’t ever have the time to write anything in it, but lately, I’ve been having this urge to share my experiences on and off island most especially after I attended this meeting in Guam regarding the military build up. I’ve grown to love our natural resources throughout my life, the green land, the crisp air and clean water. I felt this need to keep things the way they are, knowing that it may never be the same again in the next 3-7 years. Therefore, I have tasked myself to capture all the beauty that nature has to offer through photography and in some cases videography for my own collection of memories.

While I was in Guam, I hung out with friends and made new ones. Everything I did was indoors, we met, ate and partied indoors. On our last day in Guam, Peter asked me if I was interested in going to Ritidian Point in Guam. I was a little hesitant because we we’re going back to Saipan at noon and it was scorching hot at 8:30 a.m. He said to me, “lets enjoy nature now”, he wanted to see the coral fossil rocks and the beach, and I felt like it was going to be such a chore, but thought, what is there to lose.

Ritidian Point is a National Wildlife Refuge that lies on the northernmost tip of Guam. It used to be a restricted military area now accessible to the public. Ritidian consists of many acres of native limestone forest and marine habitat.

I was so amazed by Ritidian’s beauty from the drive downhill, it was my first time. When we got to the bottom, we parked the car and took a short hike to the beach. I immediately took out my camera much to Peter’s surprise that I had it with me, and I started snapping away at the beautiful white sand beach. The sand was so soft that I had to take my zories off to feel its softness, and Peter did the same. I thought it was one of most beautiful places in Guam and in a few years, this attractive scenery might not be here anymore. I then started to appreciate the beauty instantly.

As an avid shell collector, I had no urge on that day to collect some of the beautiful shells that were spread throughout the beach. I realized that I want to leave everything as is, the way nature had left it. I could just take a picture and it will be mine forever.

After the walk on the beach, we hiked back to the car to try to get to the rocks, which we then realized that it was inaccessible because it was all fenced in. On the hike back, we came across a tangantangan (Leucaena leucaena) patch. Peter suggested I take pictures of it. We learned in the Guam meetings from a U.S. Fish and Wildlife staffer that it is still a mystery on how the tangantangan arrived in the Mariana Islands. Rumors have it that seeds were sown through the air after the war, but no proof has been found as of yet. If anyone knows, how the tangantangan originated in the Mariana Islands, please let me know.

We got into the car and drove up the hill to see if we can find some fossil rocks, but we didn’t. As we were leaving Ritidian, I was flipping through the pictures I just took, and at that moment, my blog was born.