My older daughter Donna was married to Micah Simonson. He was in the US Navy and was stationed in Guam from 2010 to 2013. If you don't know where Guam is, it is in the middle of the western Pacific Ocean - four hours by plane from the nearest continent of Asia.
One of Guam's sayings is "Where America's Day Begins" because it is the first US Territory west of the International Dateline. It is 15 hours ahead of Central Time which meant we had to plan our skype times carefully.
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| View from the Naval Base in Guam - Donna Simonson, Kimberly Nagy, Amanda Nagy |
My younger daughter Amanda and I visited Donna and Micah in December 2011. While there, we toured the island and learned a lot about Chamorro culture. Guam was invaded by the Japanese early in World War 2 and there are a lot of battle sites and museums there. There is still a large Naval Base and Air Force base on the island to help protect our interests in the Pacific.
Guam is a tropical island - average temperature is 87 every day of the year, and it always seems to rain in the afternoon. It felt similar to Hawaii - the beach is just a few minutes away. In fact, just as we tend to view Hawaii as a honeymoon destination, Guam is the honeymoon destination for couples from China, Korea and Japan.
I was glad to have the opportunity to visit this tiny island on the other side of the world.
