JANUARY, 2010: TINIAN
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We're about to take off for what my boss calls "the most exciting 6 minutes in the CNMI!"
Hmmm. Seeing who's driving, it may be an even MORE exciting 6 minutes!
Now YOU can join us! Fasten your seatbelt! Notice how the door is open until ready for take off, and then opened again as soon as we touch down. One of the unique things about flying here in the CNMI!
Apparently we have some large beasts off our shore. This one hangs at the Tinian Airport.
First stop: Tinian Blow Hole. A lot like some of our local politicians, but much nicer to watch.
Olga likes looking at things from a different angle.
Right there is the very runway from which the Enola Gay took off to deliver the first atomic bomb to Japan.
The bomb shelters, which were a state-of-the-art feature of the Japanese Airfield, are maybe 1/2 mile from Runway Able.
The Enola Gay was loaded with LITTLE BOY, the first atomic bomb, from this bomb pit.
On to lighter moments and window shopping at the Tinian Dynasty, a monstrosity casino which represents a desperate attempt to bring dollars into the CNMI. It is a pretty cool place to visit (and to stay, for that matter), though.
See, they've got some pretty cool stuff around the Dynasty.
House of Taga. There were originally at least 8 of these 2-section columns, in two rows of four, with a building on top.
No one knows how the stones, quarried about a mile from here, were transported or how they were erected.
Also unknown is why, after hundreds of years of using this technique, the ancient Chamorro abandoned the latte stone method.
I'm leaning and trying to straighten this thing up! You can see part of the new Catholic Church building to your left.
The local Tinian Asian food restaurant. Long wait. The servers totally disappear regularly into the back. But the food is good. As you can see, the plates we ate off of were small. I think you did enjoy the food though, right Olga?
Taga Beach. One ore the more popular swimming places around.
This is where the large stones you saw at House of Taga were quarried.
Now we are on the other side (the east side) of southern Tinian, at Tinian's Banzai Cliff.
Tinian and Saipan both have cliffs where locals and Japanese jumped to their deaths once it became obvious that the Americans were going to be victorious in taking the islands.
View toward San Jose from the south. House of Taga is near the center of the photo. Taga Beach is toward the your right side, near the edge of the photo.
T'was stormin' windy when we returned to Tinian Airport for our flight back to Saipan. Here is our FIRST attempt to return. Notice that wind sock!
In the first attempt we got about half way and the pilot could not see Saipan (due to fog), so he turned around and returned to Tinian Airport. Here is our SECOND attempt.
