out on the lagoon

The last post was the long post about the work I did while on Pohnpei.  This post?  The down time, the relaxing time.

I've done other accreditation trips before:  Santa Monica, Barstow, Visalia.  None of those featured the setting that this one did, nor did they feature the culture of hospitality that we experienced.  I told the teammates who were on their first accreditation team that no, they'll never have another accreditation team visit like this one.

On the Tuesday morning, after breakfast at the hotel,

the team went out on the college boat with the college president. 

Now then, I say college boat, and people think of a yacht or sailboat.  No such luxury, and that was fine.  In fact, the college uses the boat for its marine careers program.  It makes sense for a college on a small island to have a boat!

So off we set from Mangrove Bay.  I may have posted one or two of these photos before, but so be it.  Out past Sokehs Rock, and then eastward. 

And there they handed out hand line fishing spools and rods. 

Yes, fishing.  Something I haven't done in ages, not since going angling for Salmon with Kevin Kelly in the Skeena River in the 90s.

Alas, luck was not with us.  Brian caught the first fish, which was too small to keep. 

Then Gary, and the same thing. 

Not pictured?  The branch of coral I caught.  The president's teenage granddaughter was the only one among us to catch something big enough to keep.  No matter - it was a terrific morning.  Warm sun, fresh coconuts, fishing, chatting.  A very hospitable start to the visit.

Thursday presented the other opportunity.  We finished the report late in the afternoon, but well in time to enjoy the offer of going back out on the boat to see the sunset.  Out through Mangrove Bay again,

and then a little west, out to near where the large vessels pick up the local tuna and take it out of the country. 

Which meant sharks in the area, according to our hosts, enjoying anything offloaded from the boats into the water.  No swimming!  And no fishing.  Instead, there was a cooler filled with wine

and beer and water and coconuts. 

A table was unfolded, and we had a casual dinner of fish that had been caught the night before along with cheese and crackers. 

The sun went down, and we marveled at the sight.

Are you all beginning to understand why I would be happy to go visit the college again?

coconuts

Another silly little post....

I like coconut as a flavour.  I know it has its detractors, and perhaps being exposed only to desiccated coconut in desserts or sickly sweet coconut syrups has led to that.  Perhaps.  Even then, I've been fond of it.  Heck, bring on a huge wedge of the coconut cake at Jake's, please!

You know what might convert people?  Having fresh coconut, harvested from local trees.  Having someone hack into it for you so that you can enjoy the water, cold, directly from the coconut.  Having someone then machete it open so that you can enjoy the meat.  Oh, the meat.  Again, my experience is of coconut meat that is dry even if taken directly from the whole fruit (they are a fruit).

My time in Micronesia changed all that.  On the boat,

at the college,

even at dinner one night,

there were coconuts on offer.  We all happily enjoyed them.  The meat ranged in texture depending on the age of the coconut, but it was often slippery and sweet (but perhaps astringent if too young, or so I thought).  It was like eating a pomegranate, in a way - it took some work, but the reward was definite.

I joke about my time with coconuts while on Pohnpei, but you know, I would happily go back and have some more.  That and another helping of fried parrot fish, please!

outbound

A bit of breathing space for me, so let me do what I seem to do so much of and spend some posts in days ahead catching up on travel that is already days behind.  Wednesday now, and I got back on Monday night.  Heck, a week ago (however you look at it with the International Date Line) I was at a college in another country.

Catch up is what I will do, though, even as I head to the desert tomorrow (more on that to come).  And then again in April before a trip to Chicago.  So let me dial back to the most recent trip and get a series of posts up that share the experience.

Starting with the travel to Micronesia.

A grey, cold Friday in SoCal when I left. 

We're getting a lot of that weather this year - apparently Pasadena had just shy of 2 inches of rain yesterday.  A proper soaking, and nothing compared to what other parts of the state are enduring.  All in all, not a bad time to head out of California.  The seat was comfortable,

and Honolulu awaited.

First leg:  LAX --> HNL.

I arrived early afternoon, with plenty of time to get to the Ala Moana Center, whose stores and parking lot my "partial ocean view" (and, to be fair, I could see the ocean) overlooked. 

COVID weight means that I have outgrown belly-wise too many of my many aloha shirts, so it was shopping for me.  And a light lunch - musubi! 

I checked into the hotel after shopping,

and then later met colleagues for dinner, catching the early evening and even fireworks plus all the beach crowd at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

The next day we weren't rushed.  Our flight to Guam wasn't until mid-afternoon.  That meant a morning walk/run

around Waikiki,

6.5 miles in total. 

Plenty of time to repack as well.  It was a large and full plane

for the, oh, 8 hour flight ahead, and many many military streaming on board in the pre-boarding phase.  I felt ever so slightly guilty that I had a lovely pod seat and full meal up in Polaris class,

and thank you Conrad for throwing upgrades at the flight and hooray for them coming through.  I settled in and even dozed for a couple of hours.

Second leg, then:  HNL --> GUM.

We landed in Guam in darkness.  We left the next morning in darkness. 

I did see Guam from the airplane the next day in the morning light,

but otherwise, for all I know, Guam is always night time.  The hotel was fine enough - a Hilton on the beach.  It might have been nice to have more time there, but this was not a vacation, so ah well.  The room was fine for a short night of sleep. 

The toilet was kind of amazing, I admit. 

The cafe had some tempting treats that I didn't have but kind of wanted to.

I headed to the airport ahead of the team the next morning.  I was awake super early, so I got myself going and went to the lounge for a bit before meeting the others in the main part of the terminal. 

I found myself a last decaf latte (to be fair, I didn't have the time to check the one coffee shop I saw near the hotel in Kolonia). 

I boarded the flight (not upgraded), heading for Micronesia.

Third leg:  GUM --> TKK

The flight to Micronesia is part of the Island Hopper route that loops south from Guam, east across part of the Pacific, then back up to Honolulu.  Across the week, I managed the whole loop.  First up, though, the flight down to Chuuk, a province of the Federated States of Micronesia.

I wish that we had been allowed off the plane on all the Hopper stops, but that wasn't to be.  So I saw Chuuk from the plane, and that meant the first glimpse of the province. 

The airport is on the island of Weno, so that is the island I saw most of.  There was the airport, and a hotel nearby. 

Lots of green on those low mountains (tall hills?).  And that was Chuuk for us!

Fourth leg:  TKK --> PNI

So, let's see.  I left LAX at about 9AM on Friday morning.  I left Honolulu at about 3PM on Saturday afternoon.  I left GUM at about 8AM on Monday morning.  I arrived on Pohnpei at about 1PM on the Monday afternoon.  I lost a day in there.

I was also sitting on the wrong side of the plane to see much as we landed.  So I caught a glimpse of the reef surrounding the island,

but it wasn't until we taxied that I began to see more of it.  The airport

was an experience:  the immigration guy was, well, difficult.  Thank goodness for one of my teammates having a lot of printed stuff with him.  Ugh.  Ah well.  And then I thought my bag had gone astray.  It was a relief to go to the airport lounge to be greeted by the folks from the college there.  Leis for each of us. 

Lunches for us to take back to the hotel.  Bags transported for us, a nice college shuttle to take us as well.

So, we made it.  I had a room that was nicely air-conditioned,

and a view that may have been parking lot, but had trees and a stream beyond that and plenty of birds in the trees. 

Getting there took many hours of flight over multiple days, and boy was I glad to arrive!