On Thursday evening, October 20, the kids and I caught the bus to the airport, checked in, and of course, had noodles at their favorite noodle shop. It has become tradition. :) Our itinerary was to fly from Osaka to Saipan via Guam. We left at 9:00pm, gained an hour, and arrived about 1:45am. Fortunately, the four of us had an entire row on the plane. Matthew and Jessica could both lay down across 2 seats. Jacob and I were tall enough to use the "head wings" that fold in to "catch" your head when you fall asleep. After snacks, we all settled in to nap for about 60 to 90 minutes. Once we arrived, we were able to quickly go through Customs as we were the only Americans arriving on that flight. The Customs agent was very friendly and asked us if we wanted to go outside before we caught our connection. Really? After I told him we only had about 25 minutes, he sent us over to check in with a lady sitting at a table. She checked our passports again and crossed our names off of a list. We waited for 4 additional Japanese people to join us at the table. The lady called to a gentleman to open a door behind her. Then, we proceeded to the other part of the airport where our passports were checked a third time. We were amazed to see that all of the shops were open. It was now 2:00am! As we approached our gate, the gate agents motioned for us to come forward. I noticed that the sign said "Rota". I asked if this was the name of the airport in Saipan. I was informed that Rota was another island (of the Northern Mariana Islands) and that we would be making a brief stop there before landing in Saipan. Ummm. Continental failed to tell me that little detail. At any rate, we boarded the little commuter plane, had cookies from Guam (delicious), and then landed in Rota. A few of the Japanese passengers were confused as the flight attendants only spoke English. They thought they were supposed to get off the airplane. The flight attendant was able to explain to them to stay on the plane by using motions with their arms and hands. (We now know how this feels!) After a quick flight, we arrived in Saipan at about 3:45am. We got our luggage and were met by a driver from our hotel, the Pacific Islands Club. When we got into his van, we saw a sign laying in the front seat that read "Phillip Maloney." The children all said, "Hey you picked up our dad!" Phillip had arrived in Saipan from Tokyo at about 12:30am. The drive was short, and we arrived at our hotel at about 4:10am. We checked in and walked to our room. On the walk, the kids devised a plan. We set our luggage in the hallway, took off our shoes, and burst into the hotel room yelling "Happy birthday Dad!". Phillip awoke from a sound sleep to give hugs and kisses. Then, he was fast asleep again. Amazingly, after all of the excitement, we did all get to sleep right away until about 9:30am on Friday. Then, the fun really began!
We started our Friday with a buffet breakfast. We immediately started all of the many activities offered at PIC. We went from the rock wall to badminton to archery. Then, we decided to hit the pools. The slides were so much fun. We also had fun with water polo, water basketball, and water volleyball! Then, we discovered "Point Break" which allows you to "surf".
After a long fun day in the sun, we discovered the Seaside Grill which faced the beautiful sunset over the ocean. They offered daily happy hour - half priced appetizers and drinks, including smoothies! From here, we made our way back to the pool and then to play ping pong. We grabbed a few snack items and headed to our room. What a great first day!
We sat at this table at The Seaside Grill every day and enjoyed happy hour smoothies!
On Saturday, we took a van to catch our boat to Managaha Island for a morning of snorkeling. As we arrived, we saw a sign that said, "Jellyfish. Swim at your own risk." Well, that does not sound good! I asked if they were poisonous and was told, "No. They just hurt." With Phillip leaving the next morning for Cincinnati, we decided to stay and try our luck. After all, there were lots of people in the water. Within 10 minutes, all of us were stung except for Matthew. We had to stand in line to get the medicine put on our stings. The man spoke the truth. It hurt! I decided this would be a good time to teach the children about "making lemonade out of lemons." We got stung and could not back into the water for an hour. However, we could walk completely around the island in less than an hour. It was truly gorgeous. We also got to see some items left over from World War II, including 2 cannons. The water was very clear, so we then watched fish from the bridge and even saw 3 sharks!
Once the boat returned us to the shore, our van driver was there waiting. We were starving, so we actually went through the McDonald's drive-thru to get lunch!! Yes, we have managed to find McDonald's in almost every country we have visited. After eating our take out lunch at the hotel, we quickly headed to the pool. We played there, climbed the rock wall again, did archery, played mini-golf, played tennis, went back to the pool .... PIC is truly full service. I was amazed that they even had socks and sneakers that we could borrow in addition to the tennis rackets and balls! After our nightly happy hour smoothies and more pool time, we showered quickly and headed to dinner at the buffet. We caught the end of the evening show (put on by the Club Mates) and then went to the pool bar for karaoke. I think the kids got a kick out of watching Mom and Dad sing! Jessica and I also did a duet. Then, we called it a night.
To note, PIC "Club Mates" are young adults who are stationed at each of the activities to teach and oversee, but also to get to know you and make sure you have fun. By day 2, most of the club mates were calling us by name. Also, the guys would jump into the pool and play basketball or soccer with the boys if they saw my guys alone in the pool. The club mates really made this vacation even better.
Phillip left at 4:30am on Sunday morning to start his journey to Cincinnati for meetings. The kids and I watched a little college football (on the one ESPN station we could get) before going to breakfast and hitting the pool. I was able to get wi-fi and watch part of the Alabama-Tennessee game sitting by the pool. Nice. We hung out all day making our way to all the activities again, but we spent most of our time at the pool and on the slides. We also went sailing and snorkeling off the beach that afternoon. We ended our day with smoothies, buffet dinner, club mate show, and of course, closing down the pool.
On Monday morning, our friends the McCarys and Neelys arrived. Once they made it to the pool, I found myself going down the water slide alone. Hey, what happened to my play mates?
With Phillip gone, it was especially nice to have friends there. We introduced our friends to happy hour smoothies, and then headed into town to Tony Roma's for dinner with the McCarys. Interestingly, we were able to take 2 cabs to the Duty Free Shops mall for free. We just had to go inside the mall, sign in, and get a shopping card. The mall was full of very expensive shops, like Prada, Chanel, etc.... so we walked right on through the next set of doors! We walked about 2 blocks to the restaurant and enjoyed yummy ribs! Then, we just grabbed a bus back to our hotel. Of course, the Maloneys put on bathing suits and played in the pool until 10pm closing time!
Tuesday and Wednesday were much the same with fantastic activities all day, happy hour smoothies, buffet dinners, and closing down the pool. On Wednesday night, the club mates did their Polynesian show, which was fantastic. At the end, they had a dance contest. Yes, 3 of the 4 Maloneys participated...Jessica... Matthew... and MOM! Jacob enjoyed taking pictures. (Note pictures below are only of the two best Maloney dancers!)
We closed out our last night at PIC by singing Bruno Mars songs at the pool bar with our favorite club mate, Dee.
Matthew climbed the rock wall every day. I bet he climbed it 40 times in 6 days. There are 4 levels, and of course, Matthew mostly enjoyed level 4. All the club mates knew him, so they did even require an adult there when he came over to climb!
We spent some time at the pool Thursday (10/27) morning before showers and cab to the airport. We flew back through Guam where we had Domino's pizza for dinner. Once again, our family had an entire row on the airplane. While our flight landed a little early, we just missed the bus to Rokko Island, so we had to wait about 50 minutes for the next one.
It was nice to be home. We absolutely loved Saipan, and especially the Pacific Islands Club. We just wish Phillip could have been there with us the entire week. We are so thankful to have had friends with us to share our week's adventures.
Peace and Love,
Tina
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