Wednesday, June 22

After such a busy day yesterday, we were looking forward to a low-key day today. We have a potential basketball game to go to, but otherwise just have relaxing on our minds.

We met with the other adopting mother for breakfast. We hung out a little longer than usual, but returned to our rooms for our desired lounging. We found that the television was out again. We settled in and watched a little bit of Modern Family instead.

After the long breakfast hang-out, the time crept quickly to 3PM, so we got ready to head out to the gym. We stopped in to see if the other adopting mom wanted to join us. Her birthmother had shown up with some other family, too, but she would see if there was interest and maybe follow behind.

The gym is about three big buildings down the street. Walking to the end of the hotel and crossing the street, you end up in front of the Do It Best hardware store. This more like a Home Depot or Lowes or something of that scale; maybe 2/3 scale. Next to that is a school or church or church school. It's very clean, but since it doesn't have any handicraft shops or groceries, we've not paid it much attention. Next to that, is the gym. Each of these buildings is the size of, or at least occupies as much space as the hardware store.

As we approached, we noticed the police directing counter-clockwise traffic into the alley between the school (or church...) and the gym. As we got even closer, they directed us to re-cross the street, as the arched roof on the front of the gym had evidently broken, and was sagging dangerously. We said the gym was our destination, as there was supposed to be at least the one game going on. The friendly cop didn't know anything about the games or other events in the gym, but did know that we weren't going to be allowed into the building, for safety reasons, since the roof was collapsing over the main entrance. We thanked him for the warning and re-crossed the street.

We continued down the street, as a later plan was to pick up cook-out supplies for another visit with our birthmother and at least some of the boys tomorrow. The gals had arranged another hang-out and lesson session for Thursday, and we thought that we could get rid of some of the supplies we had by throwing a little bit of a cook-out. Claire had already picked up s'mores fixings, and we had some hotdogs, beans, and condiments. We needed some dog buns and maybe more dogs, especially if all of the boys came back, or more family came with.

Claire called and warned the other adopting mother, who hadn't yet left. As we passed, she also snapped a few pictures, to go with the story, of course. Payless is just a few more big buildings' worth of distance down the road beyond the gym. We got there and grabbed some dogs and buns and made our way back. They didn't have any of the soda we wanted, so we also stopped by the Formosa on the way back and grabbed a dozen cans of different kinds.

We got back to the hotel, hot, hot, hot from the walk. We stripped out of our sweaty clothes, teasing each other about how discolored our shirts and shorts were, and put on cool, dry clothes. Because we weren't sure about the gym facilities, Claire had put Grace in the papoose harness we have. She didn't mind it much, being turned facing out so she could see, but she didn't like it much, either. Because of this, Claire had a big X across her back, and the front of her shirt was pretty much in the shape of the harness, too. She laughed that it looked like I was building a deck, as I had the same day-long pattern I'd had when I built our deck.

We cranked the air conditioner, seeking a cool temperature. We pulled the Mac to the chair in front of the sofa, making our little theater, and sat down to watch some more Modern Family. We didn't want to go back outside, where it's hot, so we had an in-room dinner of PB&J sandwiches, enjoyed in front of our make-shift tube. We ran out of the first season disks, and turned on the television, which was back on.

Grace had fallen asleep earlier, but around 10:30PM or so, decided to be awake. We were chatting with her and just trying to tucker her out a little bit, when we got a call from bubu, who had just finished her shift at the restaurant. She didn't see us in the restaurant earlier (we didn't go down), but had some books for Claire that she'd mentioned the last time we had seen her, and wanted to give them to her. I invited her up, as we were just tending to Grace. It was about 11:30 at this time, but Grace was in full alert mode, and we hadn't changed into sleepwear yet, so it was just late.

Bubu appeared, and bee-lined to Grace. They sat on the sofa, and she gave Claire a couple of how to make handicraft books. They gave a little history of the crafts, and some of the origins of the materials. There is a comparison of the different styles from the different atolls, too. Claire noticed the book was autographed, and she explained that they were given to her by the woman who wrote them. Claire suggested maybe she could take them and make copies, and we could return them so she could keep them as they were obviously gifts. Bubu said that would be OK, but they were Claire's now, so she can do as she wishes.

We also learned that the pointy tool used to puncture shells seems to have been misplaced from the visit yesterday. There was a flurry of clean-up, and it was feared that it may have been put in the garbage. We lamented that the trash had already been taken by housekeeping, but promised to give a more detailed scan under the sofas (on which we were sitting) to try to find it, in case it were just pushed aside. I also volunteered that we could visit the hardware store for another if we couldn't find it.

When she felt she'd visited long enough, bubu said it was time to go. We like visiting with her, and while it was after midnight, we didn't think we were pushing her out the door. In a completely different way than with other family, upon this declaration, she handed Grace back, put on her shoes and left, with just a friendly yokwe on her way out. Sometimes when we leave friends or family, or they leave our place, the exit can take almost as long as the visit.

Grace lasted a little longer, and went down with just a little bit of a bottle. We also went down, although we didn't need the aid of a bottle.