Megan Arrives

More visitors! My next guest to arrive was my sister Megan. She flew from Connecticut to Newark to Japan and finally to Guam where she had an overnight layover. The following day in Guam she got to relax and adjust to the time, although she managed to get a bit of a sunburn sitting outside next to the hotel's pool. Yes you can sunburn even if its cloudy. She arrived here safely and I got her settled in the guest room.

The next morning she stayed at my apartment before meeting me for lunch. She spent the afternoon at PPR reading by the pool. I met up with her later and we went for a swim in the ocean before sunset. For dinner, we ate at Rock Island Cafe. Megan had a fish sandwich that she enjoyed.

The following day, we went on a snorkeling tour of the Rock Islands with Sam's Tours. We were on a boat with seven other people, two of which lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Megan and I were amazed by how small the world seems sometimes. Unfortunately, the weather was a bit dodgy due to a 10-15 knot wind causing choppy conditions. This kept us from going to Big Drop-off, but we were still able to go to the other spots, albeit in a different order than I had previously done. We started at Milky Way and dove down to grab some mud to put on our faces. Our guide brought up heaps of mud and those on the boat covered themselves in the mud. After rinsing off, we drove to the next spot, fantasy reef. The current was calmer than last time, so we just hung out and looked at the coral. After that we went to Clam City and saw all the giant clams. We then headed to Ngermeads Island and did a little snorkelling off the beach where we saw two black-tip sharks. We then ate lunch at Ngermeads beach. Even on a cloudy day, it is a very pretty beach and a great lunch spot.

After lunch, we went to Jellyfish Lake. The jellyfish seek the sun, so on cloudy days they rise to the surface. On my previous trips it has been sunny and the jellyfish congregated far from the dock in the middle and far portions of the lake. This time, they were close to the surface and closer to the dock. It is still an absolutely unique experience, although I've gotten used to touching the jellyfish. Once we were surrounded by the jellyfish, it was very creepy for Megan because when they touched her it felt very weird. It was very strange for her, but she stuck with it and by the end was enjoying it. It began to rain, so we had the odd tactile sensation of rain hitting our heads and jellyfish touching our bodies. It was time to leave, so we hiked over the hill to our boat.

Our final stop was cemetery reef. Despite the cloudy skies, the water was very clear and the reef was very vibrant. Just after leaving cemetery reef, the boat went through a shallow area. Near the boat we saw a large spotted eagle ray gliding along next to us. We followed it for a while and watched it swim around the shallows before it finally went out of sight into deeper waters. During the boat ride back to Sam's, it began to pour and we had to shield ourselves from the rain. Despite the uncooperative weather, we still had a great time snorkeling. After drying off and changing clothes, I took Megan to ultimate frisbee. She declined to play, but I had fun running about. Afterwards, we joined the Kregenows at Bandidos for dinner. Megan got to experience Mexican food in Palau and got a chance to interact with the Kregenows. We had an enjoyable dinner and then returned home to sleep after a very full day.

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