Rachel's Dad in Saipan

I really LOVED having my dad visit Saipan last week. He stayed for a week, and we really packed a lot in to each day. He was tired in the evenings, but had such a great time hiking, visiting the war memorials, snorkeling (his favorite), having bonfires and foil dinners on the beach, meeting our wonderful friends here, and taking the ferry to the little island of Managaha. Brian was able to take off work Monday through Wednesday to be with us, which was even more awesome.

My dad especially loved our Thursday evening Street Market, which is a big event every week in Saipan. A street in Garapan (the tourist district) is filled with stands from local restaurants, and my dad had a great time choosing skewers of BBQ from each of the stands. He also tried Poons, my husband's favorite Chinese restaurant, during Street Market.

Bonfire night at Wing Beach

Visiting the Suicide Cliff Memorial.

Saturday morning, waiting for Brian's race to begin. My dad was really excited to be here to see it, and I can't believe we both stayed at the race site for 6 hours!

Hiking down to the beach of with Forbidden island in the background.

It's a rainy, rainy weekend here on the island of Saipan. Right now I'm sitting at Coffee Care, which is up on the hill above our house and has an excellent view of the hills below and out to the ocean. The rain is coming down in slanty sheets and it's gorgeous.

With our races over, we've had some nice, relaxing time lately. Tonight was supposed to be our camping night for Brian's birthday celebration but it will have to be postponed b/c of the rain, and we are having a date night instead.

The year is starting to come to a close :( as I only have 8 more weeks of school, and Brian's school ends the second week of June. We're looking forward to our weekend trip over to Guam in April for Brian to take his Praxis Test and to do some touring. (They have a Coldstone and a Little Caesars Pizza in Gaum... how I've missed those two!