Our Guam Experience

We have had an amazing opportunity to travel to beautiful Guam to work with the National Pesticide Safety Education Center on an invasive species project. This is most of the group that traveled. Betwin and his wife opened their home for a traditional meal. Bill and I weren’t able to join them because our flight didn’t arrive till 2 days after everyone else. 

This is the typical Guamanian greeting: Hafa Adai. 

Our hotel was on the beach. I could have stayed here much longer. The water was truly the aquamarine color and so clear. 

We were able to snorkel right there. 

The work started with a meet and greet at Guam EPA office. This meeting brought a lot of different agencies together to discuss how they can work together more effectively to control several invasive species, the green tree snake, fire ants, and the Rhino Beetle. The green tree snake has eaten most of the birds in the jungle and the Rhino beetle has desimated the coconut trees, which is an important crop in their economy.  


This is one example of a control method for the Rhino

And this is the other method that seems to work better. 

This is the plumeria tree where the flowers come from for the leis. 




We visited the University of Guam to deliver a worker protection program. Take a look at their view. Imagine coming to work everyday to this. 

The island isn’t too large, about 32 miles long and 4 miles wide. With the speed limit 35 MPH, it took awhile to get around the island but it was a gorgeous drive. 

This is the spot where the Americans first landed during World War II. It wasn’t that tranquil then. Now it’s a National Park. 




A colleague, Dean Herzfeld from Minneapolis, had a car and drove us around the island with a lot of stops to walk and take pics. 




I was amazed at the size of that philadrendon leaf. The vine was growing up a tree




We stopped at several World War II museums. Interesting to learn the Japanese side as well as the American view. 

As we were walking on the beach, there were a group of firemen celebrating some of their firefighters’ retirements. They invited us in to celebrate with them. The people of Guam are so welcoming. 





This is a type of necklace they make for celebrations. It’s leaves are used to make Chanel #5. Very aromatic. 


We were able to taste several of the island’s different foods. 

Of course, what would a trip to the islands be like without a Polynesian dance. 

Play time is over. It’s time to get back on the big United bird to head home. 

3 hours to Tokyo

11.5 hours to Chicago 

1 hour to State College

Yep, it was worth the long airplane ride. 

May 3-4 - Exciting and Eventful Days

Need to update you on a few things that has happened us. We were driving along and saw an RV sales place that had some smaller motor homes so we thought we’d stop and take a look. We did and we liked one so much that we went back the next day which would be May 4 and purchased a 30 foot motorhome. Here’s a picture of it

So if you can imagine deciding to buy a motorhome on the road in a different state, transferring all our stuff which was a lot and doing all the paperwork in one day, it was stressful exciting and scary. We also sold our truck and Tracer Air camper. We did ask ourselves “what were we thinking!”

But after our first night in the camper with stuff strewn everywhere, we are enjoying organizing all our stuff. 

We found time to visit Eagle Island State Park and hike a little. Lenny was able to get in the creek and swim to cool off. I got Reuben wet but he wanted nothing to do with swimming!  

With our motor home purchase, we got 2 nights free at a camping resort, Mountain Home RV Resort.