Sunday, March 17, 2019
Duane, Kendall and I got up at 5:45 and drove to the top of Mount Tapochau, to view the sunrise. We got there just before sunrise at 6:24 and it was a little overcast, but we were able to get some pictures of the sunrise.
You can see the whole island as well as the island of Tinian from the top of the mountain.
The last kilometre ( half mile ) of the road to the top of Mount Tapochau is very rocky with a lot of large potholes.
For breakfast we went to the IHOP restaurant before going back to the hotel to get ready for church. Harold and Phil had picked up a new volunteer, Richard Heggen, who had arrived at the airport in the morning. We drove to the Saipan Community Church and arrived there a few minutes before the 10 am service.
After the service most of us went to a Thai restaurant for lunch.
In the afternoon, Greg took a few volunteers for a tour of the island. Radar and Anet went swimming at Wing Beach. PR and I visited the World War II museum, which I had seen when I was in Saipan in 2016, but I wanted to see it again. After that we visited the memorial near Suicide cliff. We then visited Banzai cliff and drove up to Suicide Cliff. All of these locations have historical significance from World War II, which I mentioned in my journal of Saipan in 2016.
I took a picture from the top of Suicide Cliff with a view to the north end of the island,
as well as, a view down to Banzai Cliff and the American Veterans Memorial Cemetery.
We then drove to the grotto but it was closed when we got there, so I just took a picture of it.
By the time we got back to the hotel, it was 5 pm. We rested a bit and then went out for a light evening meal close to the hotel before calling it a day.
Ralf Hamm 