Monday, July 4

Happy Independence Day!

We started with the usual breakfast in the hotel restaurant. It happened that Uncle Sam was there at the same time. He sat at the next table, and we had a bit of chat. He gave us the lowdown on his missed wedding on Friday. It seems his betrothed had a copy of some required documentation instead of the originals, so she wasn't allowed on the plane. Evidently, though, the kind of flight she was on will fly again in December. I didn't quite get what the deal was there, but I also didn't want to ask.

We let Uncle Sam know about the RRE celebration. He hadn't heard, but thought it was a fine thing, and took us up on our offer to drive. We warned him about our birth-family visit, but said we'd pick him up around 3PM, after they'd left.

We returned to the room and picked up a bit. Just a little later than expected, our birthmother and her girls and brother, Junior, and always in tow friend, Charles. Shortly after, other friend, Junior, also arrived. There was some sitting around, and some handicrafts done by the handicrafters. I ran in  and out, often shadowed by friend Junior, fetching fresh water and more sodas and ordering pizza.

The pizza was kind of a humorous failure. I (with shadow Junior) went to the restaurant and ordered a pair of pizzas. They said it would take about twenty minutes. I returned closer to thirty, but they weren't done yet. The Billfish Club had a meeting there, and their food got in the way of the pizzas. They were working on them, though, so maybe another ten or fifteen minutes. I returned another twenty minutes later, and learned they had a problem with one, so they had to remake it. One was done, but the other was just getting started. I said to keep the one warm and I'd just come back for both. They said they'd call. Another half-hour passed, so I went back down, and they said “any minute,” so I waited for them. Ten more minutes passed and the pizzas were finally delivered.

Everyone thought the story was a little funny. They also thought it was funny that both Claire and I had delivered pizzas as young adults, but that we could go from phone call to home in less than thirty minutes. The pizza was good, though, and was fairly quickly all but gone.

Three-o'clock came, and we kicked everyone out. We'd warned them ahead of time, even telling bubu last night, so she could prep, which she did. We got everyone out pretty quickly, sending them with the grill we'd promised them along with the remains of our s'mores fixings.

We quickly gathered our traveling things and took off for the RRE. We headed down the hallway towards Uncle Sam's room. I saw him standing at the base of the stairs on his side of the hotel, so we split up, Claire going to meet him, and me going to fetch the car. I circled around and picked them up. We made a fairly quick stop at the Payless, grabbing some baby wipes for the other visiting mother, and Uncle Sam grabbing some ATM cash.

We made it to the RRE in no time. Uncle Sam and I wandered about, touring the RRE grounds a little, and looking at the other things in the area. He hadn't been there before, and so hadn't seen what was there. He's also interested in the apartments we told him about after hearing about them from the artist, Laura. He said he'd have to return to see more about them. We also found the party.

Uncle Sam bought our food tickets, so I grabbed a round of drinks and we found a table while we waited for the others to join us.

It was a nice little party. The picnic area had a bar on one side, where the food was also being grilled, and the beer and soda sold. A dozen or so tables of four or six were spread out over the area. Maybe twenty or thirty people showed up, sitting spread out in the little groups that, for the most part, they arrived with.

I sat with Uncle Sam just about the whole time. The other family bounced in and out, hanging some times with us, and sometimes with their birth-family members who had come with. Claire made some rounds, chatting with a few people who were intrigued by Grace.

On one pass, Claire came back and said she'd had a brief encounter with Andrew, from the embassy. A number of embassy people were there, even though we thought they'd be at their own, exclusive party. To his credit, he was trying to be friendly and make small talk. To our chagrin, what he opened with was “so, have you heard anything?” Claire responded with the notice we'd received from our adoption agency that we're not to socialize with the embassy people or their families. He responded that they're still working out that balance, and made his way to his next mingle opportunity.

The food was, well, fair, at best. They had burgers and ribs. Claire and I both opted for ribs, but the meat was pretty tough, and very thin on the rib part, where it would have been easier to eat. There was also a potato salad, but it was made with potatoes cut in half. I pulled what I could off the ribs, and ate a couple potatoes worth of the salad they'd scooped for me. A few Spring Tides, and all was well.

Another retired Marine made his way to talk to Uncle Sam, and, by virtue of just sitting there, me. He was a friendly enough guy. They chatted some about Marine life, he starting in the early 70s, Uncle Sam in the mid-60s. He has much to do with the atoll's efforts to keep some of the traditional knowledge about making outriggers and canoes and such. It came about in conversation that he's a yachtie, and, yes, is married to the embassy woman we'd met before. We'd just heard the rule when Claire was telling about her encounter with Andrew, but since we'd only mentioned the adoption in passing, and we were chatting just about boats and the island, I figured why disrupt a pleasant chat.

The yachtie's wife, and embassy worker, joined us for a bit during the conversation. She mostly poked fun at her husband, and cooed at Grace, who was lounging on the table at the time, before making her way off to other mingling opportunities.

The U.S. ambassador was also there, and made a little speech about celebrating in the Marshalls. Uncle Sam called her out, just to me, as she thanked the Marshallese, and offered congratulations to America and her people; he said she probably should have done that the other way around. I'm not sure what the protocol is, but I think her intent was to make the congratulations more prominent by ending her speech with it, not to slight America by listing her last.

The party started dying down, and we had another party to get to. The Billfish Club was having their Fisherman's Day awards banquet back at the MIR. The other family was interested too, so we split into the two cars we had available. We returned to our hotel, dropping Uncle Sam at his door, and parked a bit down from our usual spot as the lot was filled with other visitors' vehicles.

We went to the room to change Grace and wait for the arrival of the other car. We made our way to the pool area, where they'd set up the banquet. On the way through, we found them huddled in the restaurant's patio area, watching a video from the weekend, including the party at Enamonet the day before. I made the reel as they showed some parts of the tug-of-war game in which I'd participated. Of course, they weren't highlighting me, but the people I was with made a bit of fun out of it.

We ran into some of the guys we'd been meeting at Enamonet, who enthusiastically welcomed us to their event and invited us to enjoy ourselves fully. We wandered about and looked at the trophies they'd be handing out. They had a special trophy made, which we later learned was for the best fishing story, for which they'd used the MIR's manager as a model, and posed him as the uplifting Buddha.

It rained torrentially for a few minutes, and we huddled beneath one of the tents they'd erected for just that occurrence. As the rain passed, we ran into some more of the guys, and they invited us to join them at their table. We took the table next to them, noting the size of our group and their group wouldn't fit at once.

We grabbed a couple more Spring Tides and settled into the festivities. They served some food. I didn't have any as I was still actually full from the earlier celebration. They went on to give out honorable mentions and awards in increasing merit.

Claire took Grace up before the awards were done, as she was having a fitful time sleeping in the noise and applause. Shortly after, the other family also left. Before they left, the other mother noted that Claire might need some consoling, as she'd received the notice from Continental that we could get our boarding passes on-line if we wanted. Since we hadn't heard anything about our visa, it's looking bad for using our tickets. I thanked her for the heads-up, and said I'd try to keep the peace when I returned.

They did an interesting thing, and when a group had earned more than one award, rather than making them appear for each, they combined them and brought the group up when their top award was warranted. As such, the table filled with our mates didn't go up until the next-to-last award, as they had earned the largest tuna award, and a dozen others. Their haul was quite spectacular.

They made quite a bit of fun of the billfish winner, with the 620-some pound marlin that had been caught on Friday. They told of how the guys got the giant fish into the boat, by tearing the decking from their boat, laying it atop their motors, pulling the fish onto the decking, and using the motor lifts to raise the fish enough to tug it into the boat, where it essentially replaced the deck, as it was so large.

They did a few of their “perpetual” awards, which I guess are the ones that are passed around each year to the different winners. They did a few and then called for an intermission. I was getting tuckered out, so I gestured a thank-you wave to the next table and made my way through the crowd toward the rooms.

On my way, stopped by to grab some ice cream for Claire. I chatted briefly with bubu, and confirmed that our birthmother would be coming by tomorrow morning. Claire and I split the ice cream, watched a little television, and turned in, preparing ourselves for the likely excitement tomorrow, as we try to chase down our visa.