The Incredible Island of Guam and My Travels with the U.S. Navy

in #travel7 years ago

I recently took the long journey from Dallas, Texas to Guam, where America's day begins...

This journey wasn't for fun, although it was a lot of fun, it was, in fact, travels with the US Navy. I serve in the Navy Reserve and every year, I fulfill a 2-4 week active duty commitment. While my wife and daughter weren't excited about me being gone for 3 weeks, and while I would surely miss them, I was excited for this new adventure to a small Island I had never been to.

The travel began with a series of plane rides and layovers of lengths I had never experienced before. First a quick flight to Houston, then I was in it for the long haul. A 14-hour flight to Narita Japan and that was only the middle leg.

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After spending a 6 hour layover in Japan happily sitting in the United Airlines lounge, it was off to Guam – an island so small that the dot saying Guam on maps covered it up.

I arrived and instantly had the weekend to get through being jet lagged and explore some of the island.

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The beaches were crystal clear, although the rip tide was deadly. In my 2.5 weeks on the island, we heard of 2 people being killed by the dangerous riptides on the long flat beaches with coral reefs. We enjoyed our weekend on the island and it was off to work for a week. Now, I'm from Texas, so I'm used to hot and humid weather. However, tropical islands, as I found, take that definition just a little further.

After a week of working in a warehouse, I was ready to get back out there and relax

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I spent some time on the beautiful beaches right outside of our hotel.

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I went for a morning run on a treadmill with what was probably the best view I've ever run with.

The weather was beautiful and my time on the island flew by. Not only because I was enjoying myself so much in my down time, but also because I was putting in 12+ hour days in a hot warehouse.

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After spending 2 weeks on the island, I was ready to get back home and see my family, but I certainly wasn't ready to say goodbye for the last time. I trecked home on flights of what was a total of 36 hours of traveling – but only 8 hours of the day because of the time difference.

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I'll be back next year Guam to soak up some more of your beauty.

Stay tuned for a second post about my hikes through and to some WWII historical sites on the island

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Wow what a nice tropical paradise!

36 hours of traveling and totally worth it by the looks of those beautiful images. Thanks for sharing @trevorjenglish

Totally worth it, but man was it a long few days of traveling.

That's amongst like traveling to Australia! Now you know how I feel ;)