Haputo Beach...

On Labor Day, we took advantage of our superb baby-sitter (she stayed with the girls and made stepping stones and painted flowers with them) and went on a kidless hike to Haputo Beach.

 This is the trail head.  Straight down, of course.  Most trails in Guam go straight down to some sort of water, then save the straight up for when you're all tired from swimming...

 This, I think is a pandanus plant.  Isn't it pretty?  There was a big one growing in the Climatron, back at the Missouri Botanical Garden.  Little did I know then that I would someday live in the Climatron...

 View of the ocean.

 This spider web was incredible!  It's hard to see, but much of it was perfect little squares.  It looked like graph paper.

 B picked up some baby coconut crabs...  Sort of freaky.  I think they could still nip off a finger...

 And this is the beach.  Um.  Have you ever seen such a perfect place?

We went snorkeling.  I love the little blue fish!

 Here's a picture of me.  Shocking I know.  I am not fond of having my picture taken...

 

 We saw lots of pretty fish.

 Lots of puffers!  They're so cute.  I was surprised by how many beautiful colors they come in.  I always assumed they would all be brown, like the puffer fish on Finding Nemo.  But we saw brown, and blue, and green, and orange.

 Sadly, we also saw lots of these.  This little guy right here?  He is a cone snail.  I am developing a nightmare-inducing terror of cone snails.  Do you want to join me?  Watch this:  http://video.pbs.org/video/1811431815  It is a video about the world's most venomous creatures, and it contains a very... enlightening section about cone snails.  They completely freak me out.

 There's B, checking out the surf breaking out on the reef.

 We climbed along the rocks to this little cove.  The rocks were covered with crabs when we came around the corner, but they disappeared pretty quickly.  We sat on a rock and let the waves break over us.  It was nice to be in waves again.  Here in Guam the reef almost always keeps the waves out of reach.  Which is nice, usually, but once in a while I like a good big surf.

 B took more pictures of me...

 And more...  This is a little cave we climbed up to.  Oh, and it looks like I'm missing a hand, but it is still there, just wearing one dive glove.

 And the view from the cave.

Then we walked along the beach.

 A pretty mushroom rock.

Is this not the perfect beach?  Paradise.