circle island tour

Over Thanksgiving we had the whole family together. For one night we had a slide show of all of my Midway pictures...well we only made it through about 2,000 of the 4,000 I have, but that is farther than I thought we would make it. Anyway this whole experience made me realize that nobody really knew what Midway even looked like. So I thought I would take everyone on a circle island tour. Now since this journey is about 8 miles long and takes about 3 hours to complete I thought we would only hit the highlights:

This is a view of the whole island

BEACHES (going around clockwise):

North Beach, looking back up at captain brooks (the pub). This was the only beach that was officially open for us to use at any time

They had a couple of lounge chairs on the beach so we could take our ice cream cone from dinner out and watch the sunset

I found this Columbia hiking shoe on north beach and its mate at rusty bucket, which is about a .25 mile west. I was going to give these shoes to Ryan because they were his size and in really good condition, but I was so mad when I realized that one shoe was a size 13 and the other was a 9! What are the odds that I would find a left and a right of the same shoe in the same condition but in different sizes!

This was the prettiest sunset! We sat on the deck of capt. brooks and just watched the whole sky catch on fireThe harbor
This is a view of the lagoon by the fuel farm

Cargo Pier
We would go after work and jump off, a nice reward after pulling weeds for 5 hoursWest Beach. This one was closed and there were always huge monk seals on this beach. The rocky point on the left is bulky dump.
The only place on South beach that was open was a little path down to an old WWII pill box
Frigate Point. This was the nicest sand on island, it was like walking on powdered sugar! We spent our last sunset out on frigate point
West Beach. There was a nice trail that went past west beach and I found a sweet spot to go and carve or just watch the sunset
Further down on West beach this is one of the marine debris plot that we cleaned once a month
I think west beach was my favorite illegal beach to visit
Or last beach to visit is Rusty Bucket. I found a good carving rock, this was also a great place to watch the sunset

Favorite Hangouts:

The Clipper. Where we had our beautiful buffets 3 times a day

We would sit outside and eat lunch and dinner with this beautiful view every day
The new airport opps building next to runway with its beacon light on standing in the full moonlight. We would go there every time a plane came in to watch it
Captain Brooks the pub
Inside Brooks
The bowling alley open every sunday for an hour, only 2 lanes work and everything was from the 50's, but I was bowling in the middle of the pacific!

We spent countless hours playing foosball

I only played once, but they had a 9 hole putt putt course

They had a full gym and here is where I became a yoga fanatic

The Thais were awesome at ping pong. The game room at the All Hands Club had a ping pong table, a shuffle board, a foosball table and 3 pool tables! Lets just say I probably have about 80 hours of practice for each game

While the construction crew was on island we had enough people to play sand volleyball. It was always residents against visitors. I was really the only girl who played and at first they were taking it easy on me, but once they realized my power they stopped

History Tour:

These are a bunch on signs around the island explaining some of the history of the island. I didn't want to add 6 different pictures so I combined them all and hopefully you can enlarge the picture to read them all

This building was attacked on pearl harbor. Lt. Cannon was injured in the attack, but opted to stay behind until all of his men where out. He later died from his injuries and was awarded the first purple heart of WWII.
Island Sights:

These are the 12 duck seeps we would walk around every morning to check for sick or dead ducks

Most of the interior of the island was iron wood forest.

There are also tons of just open fields. This is where all the albatross nested when they came

Most of the island however is dirt roads with verbasina growing up next to it

Buildings:

We spent many an hour in the Midway Greenhouse

This was the most happenin spot in island. It had everything from the ship store to the library to the FOMA giftshop to the All Hands Club to the gym

There is tons of old junk on island all left over from even the military days. There is one place near the harbor that they call the bone yard where all the big junk goes
The old airport hanger was all old and junky. Midway Pheonix (the last airport company) gave employees one day to pack up and leave the island, so the place still has potted plants. We took many a ghost tour through that place...very creepy

This is Midway House, where the refuge manager lives. A secret meeting between the president and Japan happened in this room while the war was still going on. This is also the place where Laura Bush stayed when she visited the monument. It is also the all important place of the only usable bathtub on island!
There are tons of old junky building to explore. This is the upstairs of the recycling center. We were having fun until Tang almost fell through the floor!

The Power Plant

The garden. Cha Chai grew fresh watermelon, pumpkins, squash, and herbs. There was also a hydroponic lettuce garden and a pepper garden full of flaming Thai peppers

Our last stop on our circle island tour is the place that we spent the most amount of time. Our home

Our living room floor was for some reason really comfortable and we spent many an hour watching movies on the floor

My room was the bomb! I had a queen size bed with a double walk in closet and my own air conditioner and tv!

Our living room and you can see our dining room on the left side where we had our internet and computers set up

Our full kitchen, which we only used once to make pumpkin seeds, it was so nice to have complete meals made for you all day long

Well thank you ladies and gentlemen and I hope you enjoyed your tour around Sand Island on Midway Atoll located in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. Please come again...the tip jar is on your left as you exit the vehicle, your donations are appreciated!