Rain, pigs and moving shells

Hi from Majuro, RMI - Here is a picture of Boston from Laura Beach yesterday! He had a great time playing in the sand, but ran from the water and did not want it to touch his toes.


Here is a picture of Peter and the kids from Laura Beach yesterday, Friday 6/5!

Jacob really enjoyed swimming in the ocean!

Here's Hannah enjoying the breeze on the beach!

Once we decided to head to Laura Beach for the day yesterday, we had a hard time finding a rental car. The third place we tried had one car available and Jacob and Hannah and I had a fiasco of a taxi ride getting to the rental car place. The driver stopped for directions 3 times and took us to three places that were not where we wanted to go. We had a good laugh.

The trip to the Beach takes about an hour and it is about 40 miles away. It felt like we were going to drive off into the ocean. This atoll is not wide anyway - at its widest point it is 1/4 mile wide. So at its narrow points - the road seemed the only thing breaking up the ocean all around us.

I was thinking there would be one of those brown "state park" informational signs saying "Laura Beach". How silly of me. We drove until the road stopped. Then there was a chain blocking the road so we could not go further. We turned around and asked two local girls where the beach was. They told us that chain barrier was it....and you pay to enter at the house next to that gate. So we went back - paid our $4.50 to get in (Boston was only 50 cents!), and the lady and her daughter moved the chain so we could drive closer to the beach.

Eating a peanut butter and jam sandwich in the front seat of the car with your 6 year old son is a lot of fun on an adventure in the rain to the beach, as we watched the pigs, roosters, dogs, cats and lots of other activity on the side of the road. With no front air bags in the rental car and no seat belt laws for kids here - Jacob and Hannah were thrilled to each have a turn riding in the front seat of the car! Yes, it started to rain as we headed to the beach - but it didn't matter. Boston had a nap on Peter's lap on the way there. We waited for the rain to slow and then had a great time for a couple hours at the beach with drizzle off and on. Then on the way home - the tootsie roll eating contest between the girls in the front seat and the 3 boys in the back seat is the stuff great memories are made of. Yes, Boston does like tootsie rolls and does not like raisins so far.

The beach was beautiful even without the sunshine. The sand was a lot of crushed shells, we saw fish in the ocean, the kids swam, we dug in the sand, and watched the waves. Some of the shells along the beach sprouted legs and moved which was fun to watch too. It was a great day for our family of five. We came back to the hotel, had showers, and drove to a different restaurant for dinner. I learned that a big bowl of ramen for dinner keeps Boston very occupied as he eats it strand by strand!

In other trivia - Banana pancakes are out here for days now - guess there is a shortage of bananas. And last night at dinner - I asked about dessert (as the main dinner left me a little to be desired still) and all the desserts were described to me in detail - but then I was told they didn't have any of them. Funny. And how the post office can be icey cold, but the grocery store right next door is painfully hot - these are just other curiousities to me here. I have learned that I can get a load of laundry in and out if I do it right after we get up in the morning, before housekeeping starts...but it is fun to walk in the laundry room in the morning and step on a big old bone that some animal has been chewing on from the night before.

Island life continues - weekend ahead. Thanks for keeping in touch with us! Love, Lois