This collection of travel logs was a particularly boring set of days. I’m posting them so as to not gather too many of these together, potentially burying more interesting days to come.

Travel Log: Day 141 (11/15), Guam

JC and I decided not to run today. I have excuses but it boils down to us being bitches. We slept like crap last night, like most Friday nights due to alcohol plus salt. I love our Friday nights, but I’m really tired of losing a night of sleep and then having a shitty day just to have fun for a few hours. Normally we would repeat this on Saturday night as well, but today we broke the pattern. Even though we planned a date night which always involves alcohol, we decided to do it without alcohol. I hope we can keep that up and get down to a single night of drinking per week, or maybe even no nights.

After our failure to run this morning JC and I went on a power walk to Gun Beach and then had coffee at Coffee Slut. I got a few rounds of workouts in through the day as well. JC, BC and I made a trip to the beach and then we came back to get ready for our date night. We went to belt sushi at Donki for dinner since we needed some things from Donki anyway. The main objective was to get some sort of roach traps or poison since we saw our roach friend again today. This time he was in the silverware drawer, which was especially disgusting.

Throughout the day we browsed Airbnb listings in Da Nang Vietnam and the Philippines. We’re struggling to decide where exactly to go next. This will start the bad water portion of our year with the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and South Africa up next. I’ve never been anywhere that the water wasn’t potable and it’s messing with my mind. That might be silly seeing as how millions of people work around that issue in those locations.

Travel Log: Day 142 (11/16), Guam

This was a day without much happening that was interesting. Our no drinking win last night was erased by drinking tonight before we went to the Tumon Night Market. JC and I had tacos there, and the kids had pizza and a hot dog. We dropped the kids back at home after that and JC and I did some more night walking.

During the day we searched locations to stay in the Philippines, and then we went to the grocery store. The grocery spending is really settling down, only $111 for this run.

Travel Log: Day 143 (11/17), Guam

After school in the morning, JC and I went on a long walk. We walked all the way down the beach toward the hotels, including through the broken steps to the far area over by Lotte Hotel. In the afternoon we decided to try out snorkeling at Ypao beach. Luckily we decided to drive there because we turned right around and went home. The water was really choppy and flowing fast, so it didn’t look very inviting. Instead of that, we went to the mall. BC bought a USB adapter so he could use the mouse on the Macbook, and JC looked for some sunglasses. We scouted out the movies as well and will probably go to one tomorrow when prices are cheap.

Travel Log: Day 144 (11/18), Guam

Home School Frustrations

School was super frustrating today. We discovered BC was probably doing some sneaky stuff in math in Khan academy. He is supposed to tell us every time he gets a wrong answer so we can review it and make sure he understands the material. I happened to walk by him at one point and he started explaining unprompted why he pushed the back button on the browser. I didn’t notice or ask, and he was explaining because when you press back it resets your quiz so you can start over fresh, eliminating wrong answers. He then also didn’t notify me of three wrong answers after that, and the problem is you can’t get back to them after you move on. I was very pissed off at him and will now be watching him take quizzes and unit tests.

Next Travel Location

We booked our Philippines lodging and flights. It’s good to have those set, but I didn’t get the usual sense of relief afterward. I think it’s because we’re basically starting the trip again after living in what feels like the mainland US. We will have to get back into the scary unknown of international locations. I was worrying a bit about the safety of our area in Ortigas/Pasig until I looked at the crime index by city. Our area in Manila is slightly safer than Denver. As Americans we forget that we already live in some of the more dangerous parts of the world.

Ending The Day

I felt like crap toward the end of the day and I’m not sure why. I made it through five rounds of workouts before stopping. I’m not sure if it was due to the workouts catching up with me or what.

We ended the day with a movie night. We watched Men In Black which was a lot better than I remembered.

Travel Log: Day 145 (11/19), Guam

School today went a little better, but it was another struggle with BC. His personality and attitude are not great for home school. He’s just better suited to be in a classroom with a stranger as a teacher. For whatever reason he’s not inclined to be defiant and rude to someone outside of his immediate family.

After lunch we went to Ypao Beach to try out snorkeling. The water was pretty choppy again but we went anyway. It really was an upgrade over our immediate beach area. We all saw so many more fish and we’re eager to go back.

We went to the airport to exchange our current Nissan Sentra rental for a Toyota Corolla. This is for the extended portion of our trip which our original rental period didn’t cover. We were excited to get the Corolla because I want to fully test it out. This is most likely the car we will buy when we return to the US. The model we got is a 2025 LE hybrid. The hybrid is a nice touch because it makes the acceleration feel like less of a CVT windup. I briefly tried out some of the features like adaptive cruise and lane keep assist.

After getting our car we drove to the Chamorro Village Night Market. It was much more lively today than last time we went. I guess it must have been the weather last time that dampened the festivities. There were so many more things to do. The kids took advantage of a dart balloon game, basketball, and rock climbing. We ate at the really popular place that all the Asians line up for (Kris BBQ?), and it was really good. Much better than the place last time which had similar food but nobody in line. BC wanted to stop by the art place for a second time so we did that. Those guys in there are very friendly and engaging. The main dude told us all sorts of things about the art and his own travels once he heard we were going around the world.