Yesterday, we continued our tradition of visiting Tarague Beach on Sunday afternoon. It’s so nice to be able to hop in the car and be at a beautiful beach within 10 minutes. This time we decided to explore the Tarague Trail and ended up hiking 3 miles along the water.
We found these guys along the way:
One crab was in desperate need of a new shell ~ I’m always fascinated as to how they find their new homes.
We could not have asked for a more beautiful view along the route:
Oh my – I’m still so jealous. It’s good that you’re enjoying it while you can!
I agree with KBG I am soooooo jealous.
Those pictures are gorgeous. I was actually lucky enough to see a hermit crab change shells once–kinda’ cool. The part that’s inside the shell just looks like a worm!
I will be arriving in Nov. How is the surfing around Anderson?
The surfing around Andersen is non-existent but here’s a link to surfing on other parts of the island: http://www.destination360.com/australia-south-pacific/guam/surf-guam.php
The Guam newspaper, Pacific Daily News, lists ‘swim advisories’ (due to high bacterial levels in the water) for certain beaches and, unfortunately, Talafofo is often on the list.
Guam is great for diving and snorkeling!
Patti thanks for the response. We will be relocating to Anderson in November and looking forward to living on the island. How is the housing off base, it is safe or is on base the better bet. Any info you can provide would be great.
Jeff
OMG! My breath was just taken away. I’m an Army wife in Germany who happened upon your blog by reading other Army wife blogs. You seem to know the secret to a good life – thanks for sharing it! Happy trails! T
Here’s more information about surfing on Guam: http://www.guamportal.com/guam_surfing.html
I lived on Guam from 1949 to 1951 with my mother who was a Dept of the AF civilian on North Field, later Anderson AFB. I was in the 5th grade in 1949. Our scout troop would camp at Tarague Beach often. We would go in Jeeps. tokk little food as we ate fish, crabs and made stew with coconuts. I also used to go spearfising with my Hawaiian sling and loved to see the beautiful schools of tropical fish. The colors were brilliant and there were hundreds of them. We lived in harmon Village and I would also hitch hike to Tumon bay which at that time had hotels etc. There were pillboxes and at time an UXB would be uncovered and ordance would come to remove it. There was still .30 and .50 cal ammo that would wash up and I would find the same in our “yard” in Harmon Village. There was an old Navy Hellcat in the jungle near Harmon Village that we would play in and also a Japanese tank. We also spent a lot of time at the base hobby shop
and a youth club. I delvered the Guam news and made $.05 a paper. I had a “Doodlebug” motor scooter that I used to deliver the paper. There were no fences so I could go straight across the front yards and throw on the go.
Living there was a great part of my life that at times I wish I could re-live.
I went to Hilaan Elementary School and one of my best friends was Juan Delgado.
I too lived in Harmon Village from 51 to 52. I was in the 4th grade at Hilaan. The best year of my life. I haven’t been able to find out what happened to Harmon Village or Hilaan School. I know they are gone, just don’t know when or how.
Must have been interesting to be in Guam during the 50′s ~ so unspoiled, I’m sure. Harmon Village is still there but not sure about Hilaan School. My daughter went to school on the Air Force Base so I didn’t get to know the other schools.
Should have read Tumon Bay “..had no hotels etc.”
John Moawad
Wow! Thanks for your comment and information about Guam. That must have been something else to see Tarague back in the late 40′s & 50′s ~ it’s still so beautiful as are a lot of Guam’s beaches.
There are still no fences on Andersen which allows people to roam between the yards.
Have you been back to Guam lately?
I lived in Guam in the mid 60′s while my dad was stationed there in the Navy. I’m reliving my childhood by looking at your pictures. If any other navy brats see this and were living in navy housing during that time, let me know. I still remember some dear friends back then when I went to New Piti School.
Vicki
So glad the photos are bringing back childhood memories for you. It’s a special place. I’ll let you know if I hear from other Navy Brats from the same time period.
I lived on Guam from June 1958 until June 1960 on Andersen AFB. The base teen club was active and I have many happy memories as a teenager at Tarague Beach enjoying luaus and shelling with my friends.
I attended Tumon Junior-Senior High the year it open in 1959 as a high school junior. It has been renamed as JFKennedy High School.
When my son was stationed on Guam aboard the USS Frank Cable in 2002 as a Navy dentist, I returned for the first time in 43 years and retraced my footsteps. Revisitng Tarague was a memorable and special event. I brought the Tarague Beach shells that I had saved for many years and returned them to their rightful home. The beach was still as beautiful and as pristine as I had remembered.
Thanks for the wonderful memories. My Dad was stationed at Anderson in 1957-1959, and we too spent every Sunday we could at Tarague. Glad to know the tradition goes on. There were still Japanese soldiers hiding in the boondocks then, waiting for the war to end. Can’t say that I blame them. It was a lovely place to be. There are real rewards to being a military brat, and this was one of them.
My dad was also stationed at Anderson AFB from 1958-60.
I loved it there and have always wanted to go back.
I attended Tumon junior senior high from 1959-60.
Bill Hanke
I loved my time on Guam!!!! What an experience! We were so happy with the people of Guam and all the that they had to offer us with their awesome island!!!!! I would live there again in a heartbeat!!!!
My soon-to-be wife, Becky Gibson, and I were Air Force Brats at Andersen from the summer of 65 until the summer of 67. Both our dads were part of the bombing effort that started in 1965 under General Crumm. Still married after all these years and very attached to those Guam days. We organized a big reunion in Phoenix in 2000 and 150 Air Force and Navy “Kids” showed up. It was a real time machine. I lived on Ponape Street and Becky lived on Rota Drive. Rhea and Becky Cooke, San Angelo, Texas
Rhea: I love to hear stories about those who lived on Guam and loved it. And yours sounds like a sweet love story! We were only there one year but it’s very special to our family as well. We would like to go back sometime soon but… Have you been back since 67?
Our son was stationed at Misawa AFB in Japan about ten years ago and we wanted to visit him there and do a side trip to Guam. The deal fell apart. It was just way too expensive. I am retired now and Becky will soon be also. We are not opposed to taking a Civil Service job on Guam and may consider that if there is still demand for such. In the sixties there were many Civil Service “Statesiders” on Guam. When we arrived, the Teen Club was still in an old Quanset Hut but was soon replaced by a brand new building near the NCO Pool. We attended the Superfort Theater often, plastic sheet and all. I know a lot of others will know what I am talking about.
My father was a Protestant chaplain (Lt. Col. Gene (Mike) Mikesell) and we were stationed at Andersen AFB from June 1964 to June 1966. We arrived soon after Typhoon Karen demolished a large portion of the island and there was significant rebuilding everywhere. The base chapel had recently been completed and was reinforced with steel beams along with the BX-indoor base theater and entertainment complex. We lived at 1307-A Ponape Drive, at the base of Suicide Cliff, where many Japanese committed suicide by crashing their planes into the cliffs when they found out Japan lost WW II. I (Dee) was a naive 17 year old who had just graduated from high school and my brother (Bob) was a sophomore in high school. We had a little brother who was six and our mom was pregnant and had our baby sister at the Naval Air Station hospital in Jan 1965. My brother and I spent a lot of time at various beaches on the island….primarily Tarague Beach. My brother was known to be quite the sand surfer and ended up falling into some poison coral….not a happy story. We had huge magnifying boxes that we would hang on to all day long and watch the beautiful sea life until we were a couple of prunes! We spent much time at the Officers Pool and my brother was known as quite the diver….hmmm…he got a lot of “water” attention. I, on the other hand, had a lot of “boy” attention and Dad nearly got a couple of soldiers court marshalled for their strong pursuit of me…ha! Guam was almost totally uncommercialized during our stay. I remember going down to Agana to welcome the first commercial tourist ship, the Himilaya. I believe there was an A&W and that was the fast food restaurant of the island! I loved the outdoor, sit-down movie theaters where we had to take large sheets of plastic to cover ourselves because of the rain! In fact, I remember pretty much taking an umbrella with me everywhere! I DID NOT like the millions of frogs and the huge snails that we stepped on or drove over, but I eventually got used to them. AND Guam had the largest cockroaches I’ve ever seen to this day. I’ll end this novel by saying I had gone to the movies with this cute guy and thought he was tickling my arm. I thought that was odd, but then I was naive. I was too embarrassed to ask him to stop, but I finally got the courage to look down to my arm and saw the biggest cockroach in the world….that guy made fun of me the rest of our tour. I am on FB “Dee Mikesell Higuera” if you would like to visit!