Monday, May 30; Memorial Day

Heavy rain welcomed us this morning. Carwash-strength deluges that lasted for a long time kept us in our hotel room. The room opens to a walkway that, while covered, is outside. It probably was the case that the hallway was safe and dry, but we used it as an excuse to stay in anyway.

After a while we left the room to have a late lunch. We're normally down there before 11AM, but today we lingered until about 1PM. We met up with the other family staying at the hotel. We let them know we were heading down to lunch and invited them to join us. They agreed, as it was a nice day and they didn't want to be cooped in their room any more. We sat on the covered patio area outside the restaurant and bantered a bit.

Just a moment after ordering our sandwiches, the other adopting father got a call from the other adopting father, who had been out at the “swimming hole” by the airport. We'd seen it the day before. It seemed to be a tide pool just off the end of the runway that a slew of kids were splashing in. They had finished swimming and were trying to flag down a taxi. It was the case that very few pass that point, and the ones that did were too full to let them onboard. Local dad offered to fetch the other family and swing them by their hotel. We offered that service takes a long time, and we could have a slow, long lunch while waiting for his return. He scurried out to fetch them and we returned to our bantering, recounting the recent days and speculating on events to come.

It took a very long time for lunch to arrive, and as it turned out, my joking was right, and we'd barely finished our sandwiches when other dad returned. He told the tale of his long drive and the apparent Majuro traffic jams along his journey. After he finished his sandwich, we retired to our rooms to rest up a little bit before trekking off to the RRE to meet the family there for dinner.

While the company is nice, and escaping the room is nearly always welcome, we were far from hungry by the time we got there. We decided to split a shrimp scampi dish, and later share a slice of coconut banana cake. We visited for a bit and returned to the hotel, wiped out after a long day of lounging around.

A good Memorial Day, even if we did go without a cook-out.