Why men don't put sunblock on other men

You might think that the sunburn hurts - and you'd be right. But what hurts even more is the coral reef road rash on top of the sunburn. I got that little treat during the tide shift on my swim back in from double reef. It's like having a sunburn then taking a cheese grater to it...mmm good. So I'll get to the reason I've titled this why men don't put sunblock on other men... You see I actually did have a fella use some Skin and Scalp 30SPF spray block that Jen mailed me out here. It may actually look like there was no thought of protecting the old dermis but in fact, the stuff is actually superb at protecting the dome and everywhere else on my pasty body with the exception of the one place I had my bud hook me up. If you blow the picture up you can actually see that it made contact with me skin in a couple places - you know the places that don't look like imminent skin cancer. It's times like now that I truly appreciate Jen's block application skills. I sometimes wonder if the awkward feel of some dude applying block would be worth it to avoid times like these...no, I'll deal with it.

Boonie Stompin

Time for another boonie stomp and it was an awesome one. We went on one that had a series of 5 falls and the last one you could jump off of into a swimming hole. It was nice because by the time we got there we were covered in mud and smelled like a foot. The third fall had a small cave you could get to by swimming through the waterfall. It's a good thing it didn't rain before or during our trip because I'm not sure we could have made it out. The hike in was pretty sporty and would be almost impossible if it was wet or muddy. It reminded me of the good old days hiking along the trinity looking for three headed catfish. I took a ton of pictures and I'll post them on the picasaweb site for you take a look at. It was a great Saturday - went on the hike for a couple hours this morning and then to eat at Jeff's Pirate's Cove for some greasy hamburgers - the only way it would have been better is if Jen and the boys could have been here. Maybe someday we'll get a chance to come back.

The mind was ready but the body was not

So there's a base soccer team here at Guam. I thought it would be a good idea to go show the young lads a thing or to about the world's game. It turns out that the Guamanians like their football so much that they play for about 3 hours before calling it quits. My little piggys were screaming after about 20 minutes and for good reason. See you don't know you've got a blister until it's too late. The good news is that they'll callus up nicely in about a week then I'll be good to go again. Until then I'll stick to sitting on the couch and watching the Olympics.

Dad's picking up the slack

It's really heartbreaking to hear the boys say that there aren't any critters for them to catch in Idaho. I remember growing up never having a shortage of animals or bugs to catch. I'm pretty sure the little fellas never wanted to leave Texas because of it's abundant supply of things for them to chase around and put in their cherished little bug containers. It's funny because when I see a lizard or a small frog or any other cool looking bug I immediately think I need to catch it to keep up my proficiency. I guess the apples didn't fall far from the tree. So here's to my favorite little buddies half a world away, I'm taking care of the bug catching. Miss you guys.

Anatahan

It's not every day that you get to fly over an active volvano. The past week Anatahan, which is a small volcano in the Northern Marianas, has been actively coughing up ash. The pictures were taken by some of the Navy guys stationed here in Guam. We haven't been able to take any pictures of it from the air but it's pretty impressive how much ash cloud is dispersed over the area. That ash drift is about 100 miles long up to about 10000 feet above the ground.

Double Reef

I apologize for not updating the blog sooner. The past week was really no different from the last. As I reach my halfway point every weekday seems like groundhog day so I've been trying to break up the monotony with something different on the weekends. Saturday morning we woke up and went on a hike to double reef in search of the small secluded beach we see everyday when flying. The hike starts out as a poorly maintained jeep/atv trail and then branches off into some of the most rugged razor sharp coral I've seen on the island. Total it's a 5 mile hike roundtrip with about half of that on the coral. What awaits at the end of the hike is one of the coolest little beaches on Guam. It's a little overgrown with trees and it's completely secluded surrounded by coral cliffs. From the beach the swim out to the reef is another half mile or so and it's equally awesome. There are tons of blue starfish and the coral is very vibrant since it's not trafficked like at the other beaches. My dad got me an underwater case for the canon so I got some good use out of it. All told I took over 120 pictures in the 2 hours we were in the water. I posted some of the pictures here.

I can't wait to take some pictures of Cole snorkeling in Hawaii in 2 months. Hope everyone had a good July. I've got a busy August but I'll try to do a better job of keeping everyone up to speed.

Coral's Sharp

It may look like some soft stuff, but actually they're like tiny little razors. We were walking along the side of the coral cliffs and the tide was coming in and you couldn't see where you were stepping. There was a hole about 5 feet deep and 3 feet wide that I didn't see - ow! Like a cheese grater. Time for some motrin.