A Day in Talofofo, Part Two — Lunch at Onward Golf Resort

After our adventures in the Valley of the Latte Adventure Park on Friday morning, June 29th, we were hungry. But where do we go to eat? Most of the restaurants on Guam are concentrated in the tourist areas of Tumon and Tamuning and the capital of Hagatna. But these places are about 17 miles and at least a half-hour away from Talofofo. There is a popular tourist spot nearby called Jeff’s Pirate Cove but we decided that we would prefer a more quiet and relaxing place. So we headed for the restaurant at the Onward Talofofo Golf Resort on Route 4A.

We passed the golf course on our way from Agat through Santa Rita and across the island to Talofofo that morning and admired the scenery. The scenery was even better from the clubhouse.

Onward is a Japanese company that also owns the Onward Beach Resort and Waterpark in Tamuning and the Onward Mangilao Golf Resort. Onward bought the Talofofo course in 2006 and completely renovated it.

We found the clubhouse architecture and decor quite pleasing and we were also pleased with the food and service. While the rest of my family doted on their dessert I sneaked outside to take a few shots of the course. This photo is basically the same view we had during our lunch but on the other side of the window.

After admiring the view for a few minutes I decided to try to make a panorama and so clicked off seven shots from my left to my right.

The final result of my Onward Talofofo Golf Resort stitching project: five shots stitched together with Microsoft Image Composite Editor.

Click on any photo to see a larger version of that photo.

I use an old version of Adobe Lightroom that doesn’t have the panorama stitching feature. So I downloaded the Microsoft ICE (Image Composite Editor) software from Microsoft’s website (it’s free) and gave it a whirl.

I was surprised to discover that ICE provides several choices for stitching. I tried the cylindrical and spherical projections but was unhappy with the distorted results, especially regarding the leftmost and rightmost shots. I then discarded these two photos and stitched the five remaining photos together using the stereographic projection. I then exported a PNG file to Lightroom and completed my post processing.

Looking into the restaurant from outside the clubhouse.

I took one more shot before returning to join my family inside the restaurant. After the panorama I turned around and photographed my family finishing their dessert. Ok, Ok — it’s technically not a very good shot but –hey — that’s my family and the reflection in the windows of the golf course behind me makes it look like they are having dessert on the golf course!

After lunch we drove to Talofofo Falls, which will be the subject for my next posting — A Day in Talofofo, Part Three. Stay tuned.