Guam: Day Three & Day Four

DAY THREE -


We woke up in our beautiful hotel suite to the early sunshine of Guam for the first time. And this day happens to be the Labor Day holiday, as well as our chapel wedding day.


After breakfast at the hotel, the local wedding service company that we signed on for drove us to their salon. While I was being pampered by the stylist for almost two hours, hubby waited and tried to familiarize himself with the chapel ceremony process. At noon, we arrived at the beach side chapel in a limo. With help from the pastor, the wedding coordinator, the photographer, the vocalist, the pianist, we said our vows. We also had a photo session by our photographer at the nearby beach following the ceremony. I've not seen these photos as they've yet to arrive from Guam by mail.


This was taken by the coordinator using my dc.






At 2pm, we arrived back at the hotel to change into more casual wear, then headed out to enjoy the remaining 1 + 1/2 days on Guam by ourselves without a local tour guide.


*It's super easy to get around most of Guam's tourist attractions as the island has shuttle buses that services popular routes.


Me, sitting on the windowless shuttle bus.





We got on the first available bus at our hotel and was taken to GPO "Guam Premium Outlets" within minutes, so we decided to grab lunch at the food court inside the outlet and maybe do a little shopping.



Guam Premium Outlets





Grilled sub, one of my favorite mall food.





Lasagna from Sabarros Pizza.





GPO houses a Ross, a Nine West outlet, a Guess outlet among other lesser known stores. In my opinion, you're more likely to find bargains from GPO than from Micronesia. But the shelves at Ross were more than half-empty on the day we went, I was kinda disappointed. Perhaps they couldn't restock fast enough than the speed at which the goods are flying off the shelves?



After GPO, we got on a shuttle bus again and took a ride down Guam's famous hotel road. We strolled down hotel road, checking out the many high-end shops, such as JP Superstore, DFS, etc. The biggest names, including Gucci, Fendi, Cartier, Tiffany, and many others all have set up locations here. Along with Guam's tax-free status, this area is truely a shopping paradise for the HAVE. Unfortunately for me, these high-end names are out of league. Although I still had a little fun getting souvenirs for my sisters from the JP Superstore.



A snap shot of the hotel road.





We had dinner at a small ramen house on hotel road. Miso Ramen and California Roll for dinner.






DAY FOUR (LAST DAY ON GUAM)-


In the morning, we stayed within the hotel compound and just explored its garden, taking in the ocean view from its backyard, and visiting the hotel's two on-site chapels.



Aqua Stella Chapel





Nestled at the top of the property is Hilton Guam's other chapel named St. Probus Holy Chapel, the larger of the two. This glass-walled chapel sits on the edge of the cliff line allowing undisturbed ocean view.





At noon we took a shuttle bus to K Mart, where I got myself some items that normally couldn't be found in Taipei. I'll devote another entry entirely to my guilty pleasures from Guam later on.



Guam K Mart is the largest K Mart in the whole USA.






We wrapped up our stay on Guam by taking an evening stroll down a stretch of the sandy beach of Tumon Bay, starting at Nikko Hotel and ending at the Hyatt hotel. We had dinner at a Korean restaurant on hotel road across from the PIC hotel.



Complimentary Korean appetizers including Kimchi





Bulgogi, Korean marinated barbecued beef.






Bibimbob





But I still had to get some last minute souvenirs for my brothers and sister-in-law before we had to head back to your hotel to pack. We had to settle for ABC Store - the local convenience store - since our flight would be leaving in a few hours.






Read about Guam: Day One & Day Two

Guam: Day One & Day Two

Since our time on Guam is such a large topic (and picture heavy), it will be broken down into at least 2 posts. Let me get started with day one and day two.


DAY ONE -

Our flight to Guam was scheduled for 10 PM. Flying time to Guam from Taipei was approx. 3.50 hrs. In addition, Guam time zone is 2 hours ahead of Taipei time. So that meant trying to make ourselves comfortable and getting as much rest as we could on the overnight flight as we'd be arriving on Guam at 4 AM local time with a full day of planned fun ahead of us.



Unfortunately for me, the now less-frequent-traveler, the flight was less than enjoyable as I fought a newly-developed fear of flying and sleepiness. It was when our plane finally landed that I was able to relax a bit.



Me, looking excitedly on a bus on our way to the Taipei airport.






At the departure gate inside the Taipei airport.

Top: Express from years ago

Skirt: local boutique

Gentleman Hat: local boutique

Pink Tote: local boutique






Arriving at Guam airport.






DAY TWO-

Arriving at Guam airport, we met up with our tour guide and he immediately brought us to our hotel, the Hilton, and checked us in early. Our beautiful 6th-floor suite comes complete with a balcony with a fantastic view of the Tumon Bay. The balcony in my view would have been one of the two best Guam destinations during our stay. The other being the sandy beach of Tuman Bay just steps from the Hilton.















After catching up on some sleep and a light lunch at the lobby cafe, we joined our guide for a city monuments sight-seeing tour.







The afternoon guided tour was a quick and short intro to some of the well-known, must-see city monuments on Guam. I've already forgotten the exact order in which we visited these tourist spots, probably due to lack of sleep and the extreme heat.



Statue of Liberty





Fort Santa Agueda





Governor's Palace





Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral





Two Lovers Point





Our last stop for the day is the Micronesia Mall. It's said to be the largest American style mall on Guam. In my opinion, It's really a small-medium sized mall compared to many others on the mainland. It does not house as many US brand name apparel chains as I would have liked. It's missing quite a number of the usual mall staples such as AE, Gap, BR, Express, Victoria's, J Crew, etc. Here's the website for Micronesia Mall with a link to their store directory. I did notice that Guam does offer quite a selection of swimsuits. I ended up not getting anything from Micronesa except for some vitamins for my dad from the Vitamin World. But we had dinner at Denny's Restaurant inside the Mall. Ooh how I miss eating at Denny's!



Swimsuits, bikinis rack at the Macy's inside the Micronesia mall.









Meatloaf w/ gravy for hubby. Baked fish for me.





Read about Guam: Day Three & Day Four

Snapshot of what I have bought so far...

Here is a snapshot of what I have bought so far on the trip. ;-)

Antique lace and trim, vintage silk skirt/tunic, red scarf, cameo necklace and key chain, "The Tudor Tailor", a 1950s London life/fashion book, Janet Arnold book (the one that came out, I believe last fall. Number 4.), rick rack...Fun stuff! 

~Ashley

Day 1 - Tower of London

After we check-in to the hotel and changed our clothes. A group of us went to the Tower of London. It was so neat to see a place I have read so much about, considering I use to think it was just one square or circle tower.

Inside the tower we went on a Yeoman Warder tour, which was lots of fun! Saw the Crown Jewels, several Lady Jane Gray name carvings, the White Tower, ravens, and so much more.

Underground Sign or the Tube at The Tower station

Roman Ruins

Outside of the Tower

You see that small hole? That is were they dropped down rocks and stuff on the enemy that was trying to break into the Tower. Remember in Henty's?

 Arrow Slit (Were Archery's would shoot their arrows).

Inside the Tower

Traitors Gate

White Tower

The Crown Jewels were inside this tower area.

Outside the Tower

This is were the Queens stayed while in prison within the Tower.

I hope you enjoyed this peek into the Tower of London!

~Ashley

Day 2 - Shakespeare Globe & Shopping

Saturday, September 12, 2009 - In the morning we went on a tour of the Shakespeare Globe, which was so  much fun! I was able to see costumes from Shakespeare plays up-close. I have some really good pictures for you'll to see. After the tour some of girls stayed for the first costume demonstration of "Ophelia". Which was really neat; one of the girls from the tour was the model. Once we were done a bunch of us girls went with Amanda and her Aunt Cari to Portobello Road Market.

On the way to Portobello we couldn't at first find the right bus stop. On the way to the correct bus stop we lost three girls from our group. We finally arrived at the market, which was busy and loaded with some goodies! (We did bump into the three missing girls at the market, which was wonderful!) I found this lovely silk panel skirt/dress (instead as wearing it as a dress, I'll wear it as a tunic with jeans) that is made out of vintage silk for 32 pounds. It is so pretty and it goes with my new orange scarf and brown belt! Hurray!!! I also picked up a deep red scarf for 2 pounds & 95 pence. Oh, and a large cameo necklace for 6 pounds. I'll have to do a fashion shoot when I get back home of my new things. ;-)

After Portobello Market we tried to head over to Marylebone, but we got lost in the Paddington area after 5:00 PM. Me and my mom were glad we were with a group lost, instead of by ourselves. We did finally make it over to Marylebone late at night and all the shops were closed. Very sad as there were shops I wanted to visit in that area.

I don't have pictures of the shopping area. But I do of the Shakespeare Globe.

  Outside the Shakespeare Globe

The Stage, "All the world is a stage" - As You Like It

Another view of the stage

Some of the seating area

Part of the group listening to our tour guide named Kitty. :-) (Think Pride & Prejudice)

Timeline mural

A costume for a play

Undergarments for a lady

Another costume

A picture of the Fish & Chips and wait for it, mashed peas with the fish itself. My mom and I didn't have any. :-) The look on Molly's face was so funny when she opened her box of food. Cari spilled some on her jeans and the ground when she open her box of food. 

I'll talk to all later!

~Ashley