More Saipan

With our camera dying in Saipan, we have been very grateful for our friends and family who have taken the time to send us pictures from our outings this last month. Hopefully Santa brings us a new camera for Christmas...=)

Saipan: Week 1

We've been here about a week now, so it's time for a recap. The first big event was Italian Night at the Conner house. Dad likes to throw these little Italian nights every once in a while, and on Tuesday he had a special guest star: Nadia Richards brought her pasta maker over to teach those who were interested how to make pasta. (Actually, the dough was all made, but I guess it's really easy. But she taught them how to roll it.)

Dad and Mike were both in heaven. 

And I'm pretty sure I know a future gift I'll be giving. If he doesn't get it for himself first--which is usually what happens.

Mmmmmm....passsssssta.

Wednesday, Mum, Dad, Mike, Madie and I hit up Townhouse beach. It is a lagoon-side beach, so it was really shallow for a long ways out. The water is also pretty calm, despite the wind we've had since we've been here, so it was bearable for the Fi.

I like to look at this picture and think of my favorite 007 ever. 

I guess now I just need to get him some of those shorts...

Modeling the latest in toddler swimwear.

I never thought my dad would look tan. But I was so, so wrong.

Thursday night we hit up the street market. We don't have a ton of pictures, but here's us eating dinner.

And if you haven't watched Madie's mad dance moves, you're missing out.

Today Madie hung out in the hammock and watched movies while Mike and I went to check out some historical sites. She loved it! And, surprise, we found out she can start movies on her own. After Winnie-the-Pooh finished, Mum said she heard another movie playing looked to see that she had somehow gotten Robin Hood playing. Scary.

We saw the Last Command Post. Like many of the sites on Saipan, this is a tragic one. 

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING STORIES ARE EXTREMELY TRAGIC. 

Briefly: the American soldiers landed on the south end of the island and pushed the Japanese further and further north until the commanders who were left holed themselves up in this rock-and-concrete bunker past Tanapag. When they realized they would not ever celebrate a victory on Saipan, General Saito, working under the direction of Emporer Hirohito, ordered those left under his command to join him in seppuku--or samurai-style suicide.

These next few pictures are at Banzai Cliff, another tragic spot. The Japanese were pros at national propaganda and had successfully convinced their people their fates would be worse if they were captured by the Americans than if they died an honorable death. Thus the only option aside from capture or murder was suicide. Whole families jumped (or threw each other) from the edges of cliffs. Banzai and Suicide were the most popular. Despite the tragedy associated with it, Banzai is one of the most beautiful places on the island. 

It's covered with Japanese memorials and shrines like these.

Behind the statue is Suicide Cliff, the other popular spot Japanese "saved" themselves from dishonorable deaths.

The view from Banzai.

The Jet to Saipan

We left Livermore at 5:00 am for San Francisco to Seattle, to Japan, to Guam, and then to Saipan. We arrived to Saipan at 9:00 am PST. That's 28 hours of traveling which includes the drive to the airport! Madie did surprisingly well on the trip. There were about 45 mins on the 10 hour flight to Japan where she was throwing a fit, but I really couldn't blame her. We were getting a lot of frustrated looks from people around us, but their frustrated looks quickly changed to "Sorry I looked your way" when I met stared right back at them with a stern look. This guy would even play peek-a-boo and would glance over every few 10 seconds. He finally stopped when I locked my eyes on him for a minute straight. We were joking with my parents afterward that I should have drawn some tats on my face to look more intimidating. A lot of people already assume I'm in the military, so that's good enough I guess.

Saipan is very beautiful, green and humid. We will be here through Thanksgiving and are glad to be with family. I know this is probably weird to hear, but in the 3.5 years of being married, this is actually my first time visiting my in-laws home.

We were given these leis when we showed up to church.

Madie really liked the lei. She spent her first day in Saipan in her underwear.

Remembering September 11, 2001

I woke up this morning and didn't realize it was September 11th. I think we need to make this an official memorial holiday. It was one of the most catastrophic days on United State's soil. Mallory and I would like to take a second and remember that day and what was going on in our lives.

Myself, I was a junior in High School. I was in early morning seminary, which started at 6:15 am PST. That's 9:15 am EST. I was probably a few minutes late. I first heard of it on the radio as I drove myself over to the Church building. I didn't think anything of it, I just heard them mention it and figured it was a prop plane that made an error. I go into my class sit down and go on with my morning. My friend Miles Curley arrives about 5-10 minutes after me to break us all the real news. A passenger plane crashed into the World Trade Center, not a prop plane. And that it probably wasn't any error. After seminary and before school I went home to watch the news. Right as I got home I saw the second plane hit the other tower live on the broadcast. That whole day, everyone in school was absolutely shocked. A lot of guys talked about having desires to join the service out of duty to their country. Others were saying it was the end of the world. I really didn't know what to think. I just remember feeling a lot of anxiety through it all. Just not knowing what would come about of this whole mess. Where the country would be in five years. Etc. So, on top of all that (not that this even compares with 9/11), my dog got attacked by another dog! Talk about getting attacked on all sides!

So Mike wants me to write in what I was doing when 9/11 struck. (I think it's funny we say that, 'cause it was actually the planes the struck... not really funny-funny, just ironic funny.) So, Fall semester of 2006, I was given this prompt from my Eng. 111 teacher and wrote the following:

It was probably the heat that woke me. I was still trying to acclimatize to Saipan, and island in the Pacific that my family had just moved to. I was almost fifteen, and I was used to the cool nights of down-east Maine. It was about two in the morning, and there's really no other reason I would be awake in the wee hours.

I wrapped my fingers around my know and opened the door. I immediately realized I was not the only person inhabiting the main parts of the house. A light from the kitchen shined off the marble floors and the picture window in the dining room. I stood in the dark hall for a few minutes staring up the steps that led to the dining room, gazing at the half-illuminated figures of Mum and Dad like a moving picture, framed in the archway I watched them through. Dad was dressed as though her were ready for work. After finishing whatever hushed conversation they were having, Mum tiptoed and Dad bowed his head for a kiss goodbye. Dad turned the corner and I heard the front door softly testify he had left. I climbed the stairs and joined Mum.

"Where's he going?"
"The hospital called him in. Governor Tenorio is meeting with all of Emergency management. Something's happened in the States."

Mum and I went downstairs to the family room and got on the computer. We accessed MSNBC and watched the footage of the planes crashing into those formidable towers like they were Lego's.

I felt like a traitor for getting out only a few months before they hit; as though leaving made me less of an American. It was a notion I had all through high school. I know now it was ridiculous, but I felt so strongly like I was abandoning my home. I had always been patriotic, but never before had I so fervently stood up for my country.