Day 9: Sunday, 5/29

Sundays in Majuro don't seem to involve much besides church and family time... for many of us, just like home. We'd made plans with the other families to visit Laura beach on the other end of the atoll so we set about eating breakfast and getting ready for the big excursion.

We decided to try out the brunch buffet at the Enra downstairs. It started at 10:30 and we were to leave at noon... as we were running behind, it's a good thing it was 10:30 island time. Breakfast fare was pretty much the same as you'd see anywhere with the addition of a few things like fresh tuna or coconut syrup. It was all very good but I must admit I'm needing some variety so we're going to make an effort to visit other restaurants. The food at the Enra has been good and safe for us to eat. Service is pretty slow but it seems to be the same everywhere on the island. The biggest attraction is the convenience – it's just downstairs and we can charge everything to the room.

So around 12:30 we gather ourselves enough to go meet the other families. There must be some standard time delay for people with kids because we all ended up ready around the same late time. The family from the RRE had rented a van as they'd planned to pick up their birth family to bring with us. Might be a good idea for later in our stay for a second trip back to Laura but for today, it was just us. We rode in with the other MIR family in the car they'd rented. The drive is about an hour away over what has to be about 100 speed bumps. Normally, in the Jeep, not a bit deal but in the sedan-sized car with over 400,000 miles on it and probably the original struts, we had to slow down to a near stop to go over each one.

We are told that Laura beach is the nicest on the island. It has nice, white sand and a variety of shells to pick up but, unfortunately, also has signs of abuse with trash left about by everyone. One of the Marshallese woman with us told us to leave our trash behind because they'll come by and pick it up... I'm not too sure that'll happen from the looks of things.

The small car arrived at the beach first and the girls went looking for shells while the boys hung out under this amazing tree with the babies. It rained a bit but it was refreshing as the breeze isn't quite as strong on that end of the island. A while later the van showed up with, I kid you not, 19 people inside! I really wished I'd had my camera out as it was a bit like watching a clown car unload.

The afternoon flew by with loads of kids thrashing around in the ocean, pb&j sandwiches and assorted snacks being consumed and the occasional rainstorm. Grace doesn't seem to mind the water at all – seems she'd rather have the rain on her face than be shielded by dad's baseball cap. For swimming, it's suggested that women wear t-shirts and either skirts or long shorts or capri pants in the water so there were were in basically our normal clothes out in the ocean. Despite the modest attire expected from adults and children, even when swimming, you'll still see children that appear as old as 10 whip off their clothes and go dashing into the water. Not that I'd do the same but I was hoping swim shorts and a tank suit top would have been acceptable. For the first time today I could actually see my farmer tan developing.

With plans to meet for dinner on Monday over at the RRE, the families piled back into our respective cars for the trip back home. It was interesting to note that after driving through the less populated areas (both richer and poorer) on the way to Laura, downtown suddenly seemed much more developed. Feeling somewhat sticky from the saltwater and tired from the day, we headed up to shower and lay low for the night. Despite my resolve to try new places, we soon headed down to the Enra for a bite to eat.

Dinner accomplished, we called it a day.