As a military family we are constantly on the move and it is hard to stay in contact with friends and family. I built this site to share memories and experiences from our assignments. We have spent the last two years in Guam and we took the opportunity to explore some of the countries nearby such as Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand, New Zealand and the Philippines. Active duty Military members are restricted from traveling to Indonesia, but not military dependents. I had the opportunity to travel to Bali, Indonesia with other spouses and experience the culture and have fun dealing with the local merchants. Please stop by once and a while to see where we are and what we have been doing. You can always e-mail us at rosie@themorales.com if you want to get in contact with any of us.
Guam is one of those places that you either love or hate. Like many other islands, Guam's infrastructure is not up to par with any other US city, neither does it offer many amenities and shopping opportunities are limited. The beauty of Guam comes from its people and the breath taking scenery that surrounds the island. The military community is small and very tight, because we're all far away from family. We share holidays and special moments together, and support each during times of need.
We arrived in Guam in July of 2003 as Bert took over as commander of the OSI detachment on Andersen, AFB. On Christmas of 2003 we traveled to Honk Kong and experienced the festival of colors, which is the Chinese celebration of our Christmas Holidays with Christmas Carols, a very short Santa Claus and a nondenominational Holy Family. In July of 2004, we spent a week in Cairns Australia exploring the rain forest, the outback and the Great Barrier Reef. We shared tea and bread with honey with the kangaroos, but we didn't try crocodile meat or kangaroo hamburgers. In August of 2004 we traveled to Thailand and had a chance to experienced the Thai culture thanks to our close friend Chock Chai. In Thailand, we ate on the floor at the river market and many other local places. We took pictures with the elephants, serpents and crocodiles and many temples.
After Christmas of 2004 we traveled back to Australia and from there flew to New Zealand. We spent a few days exploring Sydney during those terrible days after the Tsunami. From Sydney we flew to Auckland, New Zealand. We spent two weeks in New Zealand exploring the north and the south islands. We explored some of the sets from the Lord of the Rings and took a bath in the thermal water pools of Rotorua. We did some shopping in Wellington, where Dante finally found the clothes he liked. In the South Island, we took the famous Transalpine train ride across the east and west side of the island crossing the famous Arthur's pass through the mountains.