Around Hagatna with the Kids

Mason was TDY for three weeks in January (a week in Vegas and two weeks in South Korea) and since evenings and weekends are the hardest for me when he's gone I decided that the kids and I would so some sort of adventure each weekend while he was away.  The first weekend we checked out the Marbo Cave Cliff, and for the second weekend we went and checked out some local sites around the island, mostly near Hagatna.

My day got a little delayed because our power had been out for 17 hours, but nonetheless, we got out!!!

We are constantly passing a Chinese Garden almost everytime we are out and about and I told myself that before we leave Guam, I would be checking this place out.  The park was established and donated in 1985 and there was a large statue of Confucius that they boys thought was interesting.  It's not much to see from the road, but it's a nice little spot with a pretty ocean view.  Unfortunately, like many places in Guam, there was a lot of trash lying around.  When we pulled into the parking lot it started to downpour so we ate our lunch and then found a five minute window when it stopped raining.  We didn't get to walk around as much as I had hoped because the rain did pick up again after only a 5 minute break, but the garden wasn't super stroller friendly either, so we got back in the car and headed to our next destination. 

Now "directions" don't really exist in Guam.  It's like, "turn left at the bank", where is the bank?  Turn right at the sign...it's crazy!  So, I basically had an idea where some of these places were, but others took a bit of work and driving in circles to find. 

Our second stop was the Plaza de Espana.  This was the home of the governor's palace during the Spanish period and it was almost all destroyed during WWII, but the three arch gate, the Azotea (back porch), and the chocolate house still remain standing.  There were many people taking pictures on the grounds, there were old canons from the war, and it was generally a nice place to walk around.  Woodrow was not that excited about this spot on our route, but he managed.  Theo thought the idea of a chocolate house (place to serve hot chocolate to guests) was a pretty neat thing. 

Across from the Plaza was the new Guam Museum.  Here we took a quick potty break and paid the $3 to check out the current exhibit.  There was a very chatty worker who was following us for the first half which was a little awkward because anytime I'd try to explain something to the kids, he's jump in and tell them about it too.  We saw some interesting things from pre-WWII and before that.

Our next stop was to find Sirena the mermaid statue.  This was a tricky one to find!  In the 1800s the Tolai Acho (San Antonio Bridge) was built to help people cross the Agana river.  This bridge survived the bombings in WWII, but after the war the river was rerouted in the restructuring of the city, so it now sits over grass.  Beneath the bridge is the statue of Sirena who represents a Guam legand about a girl who disobeyed her mother and was always swimming on her errands and was one day cursed by her mother.  Legend says Sirena swam out to sea and the ship captains can still see her.  We made a mad dash to check out this spot.  It's funny the beautiful things tucked away on this island. 

Then we went to find the Governor's House.  Theo keeps calling this place the "Government's House" which is actually what it's referred to, but it just sounds funny.  They decorated the area a lot for Christmas, but we never made it up there when it was all lit up, but some of the decorations were still in place.  Next to that was Fort Santa Agueda which has been featured on a Guam Facebook page that morning, so Woodrow and I popped out of the car to take a look at the beautiful view overlooking Hagatna.  This was a historic Spanish site that was originally built to keep the city safe from intruders.  There are three original cannons that are at the site. 

Driving around Guam there are so many beautiful murals on the walls along the road, but they are hard to photograph because they're huge and usually there isn't a good place to stop among the traffic to shoot a picture.  I've been wanting to get some good photos to show Mason's Grandma Carole and I was able to snap a few, but not as many as I would have liked.  

From the top of Hagatna we headed back via the Latte Park.  Ancient Chamorro people used the latte structure as foundations to build their homes and buildings.  You can't find these structures in other parts of the world.  These eight latte stones were found in the Me'pu area of South Guam and moved to Hagatna for preservation, but now latte stones are no longer moved when found.  There was also a map of an old Japanese cave system, but we weren't brave enough to check them out.  Most of the doors were gated off, but there appeared to be lots of trash and bugs deterring us as well.  This is when we miss our fearless leader to push our boundaries. 

Then we traveled to the Pacific War Museum.  There was one old man running the show here, and didn't seem to interested in talking with us, he merely wanted our entrance fee, which I mistakenly had put into the donations box...I don't think he was thrilled about that.  Oops.  There was a small "inside" museum with one side featuring Japanese artifacts from WWII and the other with American artifacts from the war.  There were some interesting things here, but TONS of bees.  Since both boys had been recently stung, as soon as they saw the bees, they didn't want to linger too long, and I didn't blame them.  We same some plane remnants, old vehicles, and the boys especially liked this display where you could spin different pieces to "dress" the soldier in his uniform. 

I had hoped that the Giant Latte Stone at the Governor's Complex along with ocean was going to be open, but it was closed that Sunday.  So we took a short snack break, Max got to eat finally, and we rested for a moment. 

Max and Woodrow fell asleep on the way home, so we detoured one more spot and I tried to find the top of Mount Santa Rosa which is the highest point in northern Guam, and overlooks the base and on a clear day, the island of Rota.  I pretty much just put in my map, "Mount Santa Rosa".  The first place took me to someone's house and a person quickly appeared to try to buy or sell drugs and we drove out of there pretty fast.  I then found the Mount Santa Rosa Dr. and I was able to take that road to a high enough peak where I got a view overlooking the base. 

It was a fun day of adventuring on land with my little men.  That night we took a walk on base and enjoyed some beautiful views, and I was once again reminder how fortunate we are to have the experience of living here for this brief period of time.