USA Day 11 - rain

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Breakfast has not been properly thought through; it consists of Everything Bagels, topped with a thick coating of garlic and onion, and blueberry cream cheese. This morning daughter no 1 wants to go on a whale watching trip. On an island with a reputation for big waves. With storms forecast and a wind advisory in place. I cannot be tempted to join her, so she sets off for the marina alone. I am, of course, right and pretty soon she texts to say all boat trips have been cancelled. So we agree to meet at the mall 2 miles away. She has the money belt containing all our cash, so walking is my only option. Instead of sending me a block up and along a street lined with shops, Google maps sends me a block down along the canal. So when the heavens open, there is nowhere to shelter and I get totally soaked. My t shirt is ringing wet and my feet are sliding around my trainers making squelching noises as I walk. So I give up and squelch my way back through huge puddles to the hotel. I change into my last pair of clean socks and promptly stand on a bird poo on the balcony. Note to self: stop feeding the bloody birds! I only packed one pair of shoes, so am grateful for the heated toilet seat where I can hang them precariously to dry.

Daughter no 1 makes it back in a gap in the storm, then the rain starts up again with a vengeance. The hotel restaurant is closed, so buying lunch will mean getting soaked. We end up perched on the inner edge of the balcony consuming our remaining supplies of crackers and island seltzer. To make things even more miserable, room service only come every 3 days and were due today but didn’t turn up, so the room is beginning to resemble a rubbish tip. The bins need emptying, the sheets are full of sand and no room service is forthcoming. It rains and rains and rains with no sign of abating. Daughter no 1 is a restless soul and makes several escape bids.

Eventually, she can take containment no longer and sets off for a walk along the coast in the heaving rain, returning a couple of hours later completely soaked and clutching a ball of papier-mâché which was once a bag containing fish and chips. It’s only 4.30, so not really dinner time, but she figures no one will want to venture forth again – the forecast is for a further 10.4 cm of rain in the next 24 hour! So we have an early dinner and an even earlier night as the rain continues to fall in torrents.

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