Rocky roads

We did not get up early as we had planned. But we did get up on time, Korea time. Locally, it was late. All our devices charged over night. I did my exercises, and ate my oatmeal with coconut water. I followed that with a hardboiled egg while I checked e-mail. Then I took a shower, and got dressed. I wore pants and a t-shirt to cover up the sunburn. I took a moment to clean up so the maid would not have clutter to work around. I also grabbed half a coconut and a knife and we went to the car. As we rode, I pried off chunks to eat.
Chris drove us to the Navy base. We went to a place known as Spanish Steps, following verbal directions of a man at the Wednesday night festival. It was past Gab Gab beach. What we found was named the Historical Trail. We parked by the side of the road and headed into the brush. I was worried about getting ticks. The trail opened up briefly into a landing strip. Then we went through heavy grasses and finally to the forest/jungle. There we were walking on broken coral stones. The footing was uneven and shaky. I wondered what we would do if one of us twisted an ankle.

On and on we went. And then, we came upon a downed plane. A Chance-Voight F4U Corsair from WW2. We walked around it, taking pictures. Then we headed back. Chris found lizards all along the way and I slapped at mosquitoes. Leaving the forest, I ripped off a piece of a papaya leaf and ate it. Its good for parasites so I hoped it would help with ticks, if there were any. When we got back in the car, we headed to MWR. But we had to stop and ask directions. And then when we found the building, we had trouble finding the front door to get in. Chris used the restroom while I found some brochures for local activities. From there, we went to Tarzan Falls. I pried the last of the coconut to feed us both. As promised, we found cars parked along the road and so we parked there, too. Then we followed a trail leading into the woods. There were only a few rocks, but lots of clay and some of it was wet. That made the steep parts slippery. The footing wasn't much better than before. But the path was mostly wide so we had lots of light. The sign said 1.4 miles, so I guess that is what we did. People leaving the falls told us to cross the stream to find the path to the bottom. So when we got there, we climbed on the rocks to take pics of the top, then crossed over and climbed down hill to reach the bottom.

We hopped from rock to rock to cross back so we could see the whole falls. A group of girls was right behind us, so we let them pass. I sat on a rock and put my feet in the running water. It was so wonderful! I could have sat there all day, but I was afraid of more sun burn. So I moved to a rock in the shade. Chris laid down on a nearby rock. Again, I could have stayed all day, but Chris noticed gray clouds forming. So we got up and climbed our way back up. I was winded with all the uphill climbing, but did not want to get stranded in a mudslide. But it never did rain. We passed people on their way and they were not the least bit worried about rain. In fact, they told us to find the pools and jump in. But when we got back to the car, Chris did not want to do that in case we went to the wrong place. Anyway, we stopped in at the Payless for drinks. I got an aloe drink to put on my back later. I also got a roasting pan and chopped nuts. Then we headed to town. We were looking for the Ben Franklin store. What we found was the former store and a sign saying where they moved to. But we did not know the place. However, when we pulled in I had seen a sign for a quilt shop. So we walked over and found it in a strip mall. The lady was sitting at the back sewing on binding. We talked for awhile, then I looked at fabrics and chose two. I got a yard of each. We bid her goodbye, and headed out. But not too far away, we found the Guam museum. We rode around looking for the way into the parking lot. It was a big place and the courtyard was impressive. The entrance fee was $3. The part with exhibits was small and mostly about the museum itself and the people who donated time, items, or land. The section with items and pictures did not explain much. It was underwhelming. When we were done, we asked if there was anything upstairs. We were told that exhibits were being prepared and it would be ready in March. We walked up just to see the outdoor view. But by the names of the exhibition halls, it was going to be very informative. We took pics then came down. We got in the car and drove to another parking lot. From there we went to a shop I saw with Superfood Acai on it. That turned out to be a fruit and bagel place. I couldn't tell what all they had, but I got a fruit smoothie with acai, banana and blueberries. We walked through town as I drank it. We found a Spanish bridge over a former river. It looked a little out of place without water.

Then we went to the Mermaid Tavern and Grill. Someone had recommended it for its brewery. Chris ordered the beer sampler. They put 8 little glasses of beer in front of him with a piece of paper showing what they were. We figured out later that the beers were out of order. The first one which smelled so floral was the passionfruit wheat. The oatmeal stout tasted like coffee to me. I smelled and tasted each one, but Chris drank them. We ordered meals, too. I got the gyro platter with lamb, and Chris got the spicy meatloaf with mashed potatoes. I gave him my pita bread and most of my hummus. I like hummus but it did not go with the lamb. After our meal, we stopped on the way back to walk on the beach. Daylight was waning, but it was nice to walk through the sand and look at the cute little pieces of coral washing up. And then the rain hit. So we got in the car and drove back to the hotel. We brought everything in. Chris played on his laptop. I put two small bananas, an egg and chopped nuts in a pan. I mixed it with my hand and added enough oatmeal to make a dough. Then I formed it into a dozen cookies and placed them in the roasting pan. While they baked, we watched an episode of The Finder. After they finished baking, we kept watching more episodes. At 11 local time, we stopped so I could write up my blog. Then I searched for Spanish Steps and found out it was supposed to end in a cave or a beach. So we had not found it after all. Chris checked me for ticks but did not find any. I typed up my post, but then found I hadn't e-mailed myself the pics from my camera. I e-mailed a selection of the huge amount to my Gmail account. Then I had to wait for the e-mails to show up. I posted to my blog and went to bed.