Tuesday, May 31

A big day has been planned to help us recover from our leisurely Memorial Day celebrations. We've planned to take our laundry to the laundry trailer. Later today, our birthmother is visiting.

After a quick bowl of Cheerios in the room, we threw our things into a couple trash bags and set out to meet up with the other family and pile into the car. We made the trip to the laundry, and decided to try to approach them separately, to try to have them keep the clothes separate. Last time she charged us for soap (whatever), but this time she said if we wanted the laundry washed with soap we'd have to run to the store and bring some back. Perhaps she was out.

We scooted the car back around the treacherous terrain and parked in the lot near the RRE. We all piled out and wandered into the Formosa across the street. There, after some confusion and way too much time looking at fabric softener labeled only in French, we found some Tide rip-off powder in a plastic bag. We grabbed two, and the other dad and I tromped through the muddy path to the laundry trailer, and returned to meet up with the girls, still circling in the Formosa. We wandered a few doors down to the post office, where we grabbed some postcards. It turned out they were out of stamps, so we weren't able to post them.

After a bit we returned to the hotel room for a little cool-down. After what was longer than planned, but not quite long enough to be cooled, other dad knocked on the door and said he was returning for the laundry. I went along with him, while Claire stayed back with sleeping Grace.

We got back in time for our birthmother's visit. We waited a while and then a while longer. A half hour passed and then an hour. We called Claudia, because while she's still working on island time, she's called before being this late to tell us she might be late. She apologized vehemently; apparently our birthmother couldn't make it, and Claudia had planned to call, but ran out of time or forgot or something. We made plans to try again tomorrow, same time, around 3PM, island time.

While we were supposed to be visiting with our birthmother, the family from the other hotel came to ours to swim at our little stretch of sandier beach. Grace was sleeping, so Claire downstairs to go visit with them, and I was going to catch up after Grace's nap. Grace woke up about a half-hour later, I changed her and we went downstairs, too.

The other dads were there, the one from downstairs holding his boy, the one from the other hotel holding a cold one. The moms had decided to go to the hotel lobby gift shop and look around for souvenirs. Dads were left to tend the kids while they swam, was the plan.

The older kids were flopping around in the water and running around on the beach with some other kids. At one point, someone grabbed a four-foot long, broken bit of pole, like someone had driven through a chain-link fence and tried to dump the evidence at the beach. They were swinging that around at each other, laughing the whole time. I cringed a little bit.

There was some kind of party going on at the little picnic area just adjacent to the swimming area. There always seems to be some kind of party going on at that little picnic area. This added a little background chatter over the splashes and squeals.

Except for the occasional spot of really bright light peeking through the shade of the tree overhead, Grace seemed to be enjoying the out doors. She'd fidget occasionally, but be satisfied with a shift so she could look at things from different angles. After a while, she started hungry fussing, but I had thought to leave the bottles and sundry behind, since we're just downstairs from the hotel room.

I bid my “see ya later” to the other dads and kids, and returned to the room for a quick feed. I was hot and gritty from spending an hour outside with those guys, so I took my time changing and feeding Grace in the room.

Claire returned before the feeding finished, and said the other families returned to their hotels, and that the family here was intrigued by the hotel restaurant's pasta buffet planned for dinnertime. She also showed me the box she bought, and the box-load of things inside the box.

We went down a little later than usual for dinner. Having experienced the breakfast buffet from our viewpoint of late enough to be in the swing of things, but too early for anyone on island time, we decided to linger a little longer and be there a little later.

We were still among the first couple couples in the joint. We found a table and said we'd probably take the pasta buffet, and ordered something to drink. You'd think we wouldn't have to ask for coffee in the morning or iced tea after that, given how often we choose them, but I guess they're just doing the right thing by not assuming.

I took a run past the buffet and returned to report the contents. There was a little salad bar at one end, a few buffet containers full of different pastas, a container filled with a couple kinds of lasagne, and a sauce station where the waiting dude would cook up whatever kind of sauce you wanted.

I grabbed a bit of lettuce with cucumber and onion, and then a bit of penne with some of the seafood and vegetarian lasagne. Neither of the lasagne had much in the way of noodles, so it made for a fair plate of pasta. Claire also grabbed a salad, piled with salad goodness, and she got some linguine with a white creamy shrimp sauce.

Just a little after we started, the other dad and the schoolgirl joined us. Other mom had decided to stay back with their boy, as he was a little fussy from being outside all day. We chatted and ate and then went our separate ways, another day done.