A little more about the flight over...

The flight over was brutal - not for any particular reason, but that it was very long. Neither of us were able to sleep much, despite being exhausted from the late-night-early-morning packing we had done... just an uncomfortable, cramped, exhausting flight.

The first leg arrived late to the stopover at Narita, where we had only had an hour between flights to begin with. By the time we got off the first plane, our second plane was already in the last-call stages of boarding - and we still had to get through customs. WHY they think they need a customs checkpoint between a flight from the US and a flight to the US, I can't guess... 

So by the time we made it onto the second flight, they were already taking down the cordons and closing the gangway - we just barely made it on! Then it was another long, dark three and a half hours to Guam, and Nick finally shut his eyes and fell asleep, sitting up, in the middle of a conversation... 

...while I tried to capture the colors of the tropical sunset outside the plane window...

...made a wish on the evening star, and strained for the first glimpse of Guam, a golden glimmer in the vast, dark sea.