Day 11 – “Beach Day at Tumon Bay”

Joel and Kevin just chillin

After a week of intense, albeit inspirational, meetings, I think we were all ready to have a little bit of down time together. I’m sure from my previous writings our week didn’t sound that intense (what with the facials, pedicures, etc). But it really was! Lots of chapels, evening services, and many meetings. So anyway, we all planned to leave at 10 this morning to head out to Tumon Bay. As I wrote earlier, Tumon Bay is kind of the big tourist area in Guam (think lots of Japanese). We all went down to one of the main beaches there, with great plans to get some sun, shells and snorkeling in. And we got plenty of everything.

The Herrons brought a canopy to set up on the beach, under which we put all of our picnic food and drinks. We also had a bunch of chairs set up in the shade of the canopy for those of us who got a little warm. ☺ Almost everyone hit the water right away – however, several of us girls couldn’t stay out there long, due to the severely strong current. I was swimming as hard as I could, and when I looked down through my goggles, I wasn’t moving at all. The snorkeling just wasn’t going to work for me. I only swam for a little bit and then came in. And with no sunscreen on, in just that short time, I had all of the sun I could take for the day. My face was a nice shiny red. Most of the guys went out snorkeling for a long time. Not Joel. He only did it for a little bit and then sat under the canopy with me while we talked with Kevin, the Herrons, Brother Steve, and Megan and Joaquin Peña. Several of the girls stayed out looking for cool seashells while the other guys kept snorkeling … and snorkeling … and snorkeling. Jessica actually came in with a conch shell – that still had a conch in it! It was then that Kevin told Jessica how poisonous live conchs are. So she handled it a lot more carefully after that.

Joel and me with some great sun

At about 2:00, the older folk decided to head back home (aka. The Herrons, Brother Steve, the Peñas, and Kevin). By that time, it was Joel, me, Bridget, Amanda, and Jessica left on the beach with absolutely no idea where the guys (and Olivia) were. After scanning the bay forever, we finally got the lifeguard to look through his binoculars for them. As he was looking, we saw five of them walking down the far end of the beach. But no Mike or Josh (Roland). Then the lifeguard yelled at us, “Hey! Do any of your friends have a white or gray t-shirt on? I see two guys out by the reef!”  Yup, that would be Mike and Josh. No one is allowed out by the reef, so the lifeguard hopped on his jetski and went out to bring them in. Because of the current, it took the guys a while to swim back. But they finally made it, and we were all safe and sound. I think Mike and Josh ended up snorkeling for over 4 hours. But they saw some pretty cool fish and shells out by the reef – I guess that’s where all the good stuff is. It was 3:30 when we finally left.

We got cleaned up and then went over to yet another Harvest soccer game. They sure do have a lot. And so far, they’ve won all of the ones I’ve been too. I guess they’re pretty good. After the game, we all got together and went over to the Guam Premier Outlets, which is basically just a mall. But it sounds cool. ☺ We had supper there in the food court and then headed to one end of the mall for the real fun of the evening – a trolley ride.

Trolley Ride

In Guam, they had these old trolleys that they call Shopping Buses. Maybe they are buses, but they are made to look like trolleys. They have different ones that just drive throughout Tumon Bay and stop at different points. We all got on a double-decker trolley and sat on the top. It was super fun! Our goal wasn’t to get off anywhere – we were there for the ride. A few times there were some tree branches that came and almost hit us in the face. We had to duck way down so we didn’t get decapitated! Eventually, we made our way back to the Outlets and then to the church. Joel spent some time getting ready for Sunday, and I, as always, especially with all of that sun exposure, collapsed into bed.