Forbidden Island rocks

Forbidden Island is one of our very favorite hiking destinations in Saipan.  A couple of weekends ago, a group of us took a trip out there and spent the morning exploring and swimming.  Our friends Amy and Matt had family visiting and we all wanted to show them the gorgeous island.  

Here's some pics of our trip, although a lot of them were taken by our friends Kara and Grant, who have an awesome blog about life in Saipan here.  Check it out!

 The hiking trail down to Forbidden is pretty steep and can be really slippery if it has rained recently.  Taking it slow is best because then you can see the amazing view as you go down.

We always take lots of pictures on the hike down :)

At some points, ropes are in place to help you get down the tricky parts.

 Once you're down to the beach, there are tons of cool rock formations to climb and cliffs to explore.

 Love this picture of us girls even though i'm cheesing it.

 We found an "I Love You" shoe

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!

Happy week of Thanksgiving!

My girls Kara and Amy above Forbidden Island

Hello everyone,

Guess what we're excited about.....

THANKSGIVING FOOD!!

We have two Thanksgiving dinners this week- we feel very lucky! On Monday night, our small group Bible Study is having a big Thanksgiving dinner and we're bringing stuffing (yum!). On Thursday, we will have another wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at our friend's parents' house, and we're making Brian's favorite T-Giving food: sweet potato casserole (from his mom's awesome recipe).

It's always tough to spend the holidays away from our families that we love and miss so much, but we are thankful to be in Saipan. We feel like our friends here are truly our family away from home, and I'm so glad to spend this holiday with them.

The steep hike down to the island- at some points you need to use a rope.

Hike to Forbidden Island

Last week 6 of us hiked down to Forbidden Island. Forbidden Island is a marine sanctuary that is protected from all fishing, boating, etc. I think it is one of the most beautiful places on the island. The hike starts out through the jungle then the steep banks to the water.

The tide was low enough for us to cross over to the island by foot.

It was a really steep and sweet climb to the top.

The view from the top was well worth the climb with Saipan on one side and miles of open ocean on the other.

This is the view from the top of the Forbidden Island

There are so many great places to hike on the island. I have started a hiking club at the Junior High that I work at. I have a ton of students who are very excited about our trips. Next weekend will be our first trip.

Hen piàoliang means "very pretty" in Chinese

This is "Forbidden Island." It looks a lot like Bird Island (from our pictures before), but you can recognize Forbidden by it's flat top.

We love to watch the cloud formations in Saipan. There are always big, white, puffy clouds overhead, the kind that are easy to recognize shapes in. Because we are just a little island out in the middle of the Pacific, the clouds move very fast above us. A rainstorm can blow in, and then blow out to sea again within 10 minutes- it's really amazing to see. Also, you can be standing in a dry spot where it is not raining, but you can see it raining 20 feet away from you, like the cloud is hovering over just that area. The weather in Saipan is really unique and beautiful.