Guam

 

Our flight to Guam left Chuuk at 2:30 in the morning.  The Chuuk airport at 1am is a study in organized chaos.  The lines for check-in mix with the lines for customs.  Many people are only there to drop off large coolers full of seafood bound for Guam, all of which have to be opened, inspected, and then sealed up with seemingly endless yards of tape.   Continental Airlines moves a lot fish around.   Arriving at Guam around 4am, we got our hotel room,  rented a car, and spent most of the day visiting Naval Base Guam and the Nimitz Hill area.

Guam from the air.

Above left The remnants of Northwest Field, former B-29 base, are still visible.

Above right Anderson AFB, once known as North Field, is still an active base.  Built for the B-29 Superfortress, it later became home to B-52's.

 

 

 

Left Tumon Bay, the main tourist area on Guam.  Not too long, this was a peaceful, undeveloped beach.  

Plumeria Gardens Hotel

This was another great hotel find.  Away from the tourist areas, a short walk to Hagatna (Agana), low rates, free airport transfers, and a complimentary gecko.

Above View of Hagatna from our hotel window. 
 
 Right  Margaret, who started working here when the hotel opened in 1965.  Originally from Rota, she and her husband were very friendly and helpful to us.  We really enjoyed our stay there.

Naval Base Guam and Nimitz Hill

On Guam, we began using the book World War II Remnants: Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, by Dave Lotz, for locations and directions for WWII sites.  This book is a great resource for anyone wanting to see these sites, some of which can be hard to locate.  For a photo tour of WWII era historic sites on Guam, be sure to visit Project Guam, which was created as sort of a virtual version of the book 
 

Sue at the Marine War Dog Memorial.

 

For information on the last of the Quonsets on Guam, see WWII Era Quonsets in Micronesia.

Flag Circle.  This has been the home of the top Navy brass on Guam since the war.  It's easy to see why Admiral Nimitz picked this spot.

Orote Peninsula and Naval Base Guam.

Apra Harbor
Here we're about to set out to find Fonte Dam.  The directions were out of date for this site, however, and we wandered around a while in the Guam heat, tall grass, and mud without finding it. Of all the sites we used the book for, this was the only one we did not find.  Not bad considering the book was published in 1998.
Site of the old Trust Territory Hotel.  One of the places I wanted to find on our visit to Guam was the site of the old hotel.  I knew roughly where it had been, but didn't know if there was anything left to help locate the site.  When Margaret was driving us to the hotel, I asked her about it and she took us right to the spot.  It turned out she had worked there and it was right down the road from the Plumeria Gardens.  We stopped there the next day to look around and take some pictures.
 
Guam, Part 2
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