Campsites and Coconuts

At this point, the construction talents of Nook's crew don't surprise me anymore. I again woke to find my house larger than it had been when I went to sleep. Even from the outside, the effects of the expansion were becoming more noticeable. The weather, unfortunately, was less than ideal today.

But, rain or no, I was the mayor, and I had a job to do. The bridge was complete, and Isabelle was going to be hosting a ceremony to celebrate the completion of the project.

It's kind of hard to describe how I felt right about then. It was hard to believe that this was happening because of me. I was just a normal girl leaving home for the first time, and now I had made the first real steps in developing a town. Because of me, the life of citizens in Mymeara would be just a little bit easier. I was proud of what I had done, but my explorations of the town had told me just how much more there was to go.

The ceremony was short and simple. I gave a short speech about how proud I was of everyone's contributions, and urged them to look forward to more projects to come. We were all going to work together to make Mymeara great again. I think I'll be shaking confetti from my hair from the party poppers the entire rest of the day.

With the ceremony complete, I had a bit of personal time before I was needed in the office. I decided it was time to talk with Nook, after a stop at the ABD--I had enough money to pay off the loan I took yesterday. Many of the insects and fish found in Mymeara sold for a handsome sum, and money was just never seeming to be an issue for me. I was able to pay off the loan in full with money to spare, just from selling the leftovers of working with the town to find specimens to display in the museum.

Nook, as usual, was ecstatic about my prompt payment. He said most people took months to pay him off, and he was exceptionally pleased with my dedication to repayment. Well, of course he was. My payments were his source of income.

I decided to talk to him about expanding again. I figured the more space I had to work with, the more comfortable I'd eventually be, ounce I found enough furniture and such to fill the space. Might as well plan for that day now, while I was on a roll. The price was more expensive than last time, as I expected--the bigger we went, the more cost in time and resources went into the remodeling job. I was growing a bit more comfortable with my earning power by now, and readily agreed to the price. Hopefully that won't come back to bite me.

With my personal matters taken care of, I decided it was time to head to work. Isabelle and I were still trying to tackle the mountain of paperwork that had built up since Tortimer's retirement, though we were making considerable progress on it. Once the day's quota was done, I decided it was time to look into another project.

One of the things we had available to work on intrigues me--a campsite. Isabelle explained that many people liked to visit the town before deciding if they wanted to move here, to meet the residents and see what life was like there. The campsite would give such visitors a ready place to stay for a few days while they took the town in. As a tool for encouraging more people to move back into the town, it seemed perfect, and we needed more people. More people meant more tax income, and that meant our budgets wouldn't be quite so tight. I found a nice place near the ocean and river to set it up--I figured visitors would appreciate the view from the spot. Luckily, this project wasn't very expensive compared to the bridge. We found the funds easily, though I handled the vast majority of it out of my own pocket.

With that settled, the rest of the day was free. I decided to take Tortimer up on his offer to visit that island. I headed down to the dock, and sure enough, there was a boat waiting there, crewed by a kappa named Kapp'n. He was maybe a little too friendly, but he got me to the island safe enough. Could have done without the singing, though.

The island itself wasn't very large, but it seemed to simply be just one of a large chain of small islands. Still, unlike back home, the weather here was amazing--warm, bright, with a beautiful ocean breeze. There was only one building on this island, attached directly to the docks, a kind of visitor's center. Kapp'n's wife, daughter, and even his mother were here (and let me tell you, this did nothing to reduce the creepiness of his flirting on the boat). They sold souvenirs here, though they didn't accept bells. Apparently, the island used its own currency called medals, which could be earned by going on tours of the various islands that made up the chain. Each had different activities to do. The system reminded me of the tickets you could earn at arcades.

I did try a few of these tours out, as I had the majority of the day to work with. I earned enough medals to buy the wetsuit they had on display, something I'd never seen back home. With it, I could freely go diving in the ocean. Maybe I could find something that would help the town one day.

I did try some diving while on the island, and had a great time. The water felt amazing, and I found a lot of interesting sea creatures that I shipped back to Blathers at the museum--I'm sure he'll love them, as he always enjoys having new things to display. The museum, even at its weakest, was his life's work. Seeing it coming back to life was making him the happiest owl in the world. Still haven't found a way of getting him any artwork to display, but I suppose that's a problem for another day. All of today's problems were washed away by the rolling waves.