Most of the publications we see showcasing our beautiful island emphasize the sun, the sand, and the sea. Our travel marketers highlight those things that others see in our island that they like. This is done so successfully that by the end of 1997, over a million and a half tourists would have visited Guam.

In this episode, I thought you would enjoy glimpses of what we see in our island and in ourselves that we like. We see a tradition of harvesting the resources of the sea that has lasted for generations still being done today. We see the development of sea commerce so essential to our economy. We see Defense activities so important to our territorial and national security. We see people sailing for fish and fun. We even see some young folks going through a dry run in preparation for that day when they, too, will sail the seas.

But most of the images captured by my lenses over the years reflect the sunny faces of people in sunny places. Smiles, smiles everywhere. Smiles from teenagers; smiles from youngsters at play; a smile from the manamko (the elderly), and perhaps a smile from these two folks some day. This happy group has more smiles than game strategy and this magnificent manamko has the smile of inner peace.

These students find it too serious inside a church to smile while these folks are having too much fun clowning around not to. Now this boy looks like he wants to smile but he is on duty -- serving as a security guard for his buddy who is hanging on so dearly to his soda pop. On the other hand, this youngster looks like she will never smile again, until you smile at her.

On our sunny island, even our religious sisters have a big smile. Teenagers are always smiling as do people leaving us and those coming to see us. Our magnificent food table brought smiles 40, 30, and 20 years ago and they still do.

This young man is smiling with pride for his prized rooster which he is securing thus keeping it from being a candidate for kelaguen (local delicacy consisting of highly spiced par-boiled boned chicken) for a fiesta.

Cutting tuba (a popular Chamorro drink derived from coconut flower buds which are deliberately cut with a very sharp knife to cause them to drip their juice into a bamboo container) is dangerous work for the cutter to be smiling but after a couple of quarts of the tuba later, he makes up for it and may even forget to tend his vegetable garden. These happy campers are all smiling for some reason but the one on the right can't see why. With these ladies, they are just too happy and pretty not to be smiling.

How about this? George Washington High School students smiling altogether as are these students from Cathedral Grade School. Music does that especially when the musicians look so familiar.

Turning back the pages some more, we see this picture. If your grandpa is sitting next to you, ask him what this structure was used for when he was a youngster. And, if grandma is near you, ask her about this building. If she is a young grandma, tell her that it replaced the "batea" of the olden days. When both grandma and grandpa see this picture, they may not recognize it because Mother Nature has covered the scars of the old World War II concentration camp at Manengon. This river still runs through it. You may not notice it but grandma and grandpa are smiling.

And, for the grandchildren who have never seen one, this is a plane with a propeller. It is reassuring to see a mechanic fixing the propeller of the plane you are boarding but it isn't a sight that makes one smile. But this one does - a beautiful ship entering the harbor as this magnificent carrier of another day makes its way through Apra.

There are many ways to see our island and us. This is one way, as recorded over the years by my aging lenses in Guam's sunny places with warm hearts and sunny faces.