Departure, Arrival, and Lots of Animals

 

Hi, this is Summer... writing to you from sunny Florida! :-)

Saturday morning was leaving-home-time. On Friday, the temperature in our part of Newfoundland was hovering right at the freezing point. Ice was forming and then melting a little and falling and shattering. It sounded like little explosions were going off all over the place. We worried this might be a problem for our plane taking off. By Saturday morning, though, things were better. It was dismal, with a little bit of rain right on the borderline of freezing, but we got to the airport and in the air without a problem.

Oh, wait, I should backtrack a minute, because there are two things I bet you're wondering:

1.) How were the vampires going to handle Florida?

Well, we got some last minute good news about that. Marie-Grace and Tabitha have their necklaces now that protect them from being harmed by the rays of the sun, but Clare and Cécile were just planning to hole up in the condo during the day, shut out the light, and make do.

Friday's mail brought a surprise, though - another package from our mysterious sender in New Orleans. Unlike the other two parcels, which had been addressed to a specific sister, this one was addressed to the whole family care of Blakeney. Clare and Cécile kind of eyed each other, wondering who would get the necklace... and trying to be charitable by wishing each other good luck.

As it turned out, there wasn't a necklace in the package, and they were both lucky! :-)

We all crowded around to see what was in the box. It was an old-fashioned looking brown bottle, with a thick liquid sloshing around in it. We were confused about what it was, but fortunately there were directions, written in black ink and the same handwriting as before.

It said, "Vampire 'Sunscreen.' Drinking three drops protects for six hours. Mind your time and don't cut it close."

Obviously, this was a huge leap of faith - but our mysterious friend had come through for us in the past, so we decided to try it and hope for the best. It worked, and we're all enjoying the Florida sunshine. Our vampires are safe... at least as long as the bottle lasts. If there's still any left when we get home, Cécile and Clare will continue to use it sparingly to try to preserve it.

So that answers that question.

2.) What about Gia?

Honestly, we were all kind of wondering that. Before everything that happened, we were planning for Gia to come along on our trip, but after it all went down, we weren't sure what the deal was anymore. We were nervous to even ask Maia, because we didn't want to bring up a bad subject. We figured we'd just wait and see. 

Apparently, Gia took the wait and see route, too. On Saturday morning, she showed up at the house with a little suitcase clutched in her hands. Her knuckles were white where she was gripping the handle so hard. She looked nervous to the point of terrified, like a prisoner waiting for a verdict. I felt so bad for her in that moment that I just wanted to hug her. 

Maia didn't actually say anything. She just took Gia's suitcase and put it in the car. Obviously meaning: she still wanted Gia to go. Gia breathed a huge sigh of relief... and frankly, so did the rest of us.

From that moment, things have been easier. Pretty much back to normal, even. Gia seemed relaxed again, for the first time since she spilled her secret. I think she feels even better than she did before, because she can be honest now.

Since we've all been here in the condo together, I've realized that Gia has nightmares. Really bad ones. I think they're called night terrors. I can't really blame her for what she did anymore - now that I've realized The Elders hurt her worse than they ever hurt us, how could I?

I'm glad the family is back to being whole again. Because, yeah, even though it's nothing official, Gia feels like family to me. The way things are again - all of us together, happy - seems like how things should be.

So anyway, back to what I was saying before:

Travel was uneventful, and by Saturday evening we had landed in Florida. We were hungry and tired, but excited and glad to be there. It was amazing to be able to shed our winter coats and long-sleeve layers.

Sunday was a pretty slow day, since we'd just had a long day of travel. Some of us went to church with Blakeney's grandparents, then we went out for lunch and then went to a local symphony group's performance of (allegedly) Irish and Scottish music. The orchestra did a nice job and we liked the show. Then in the evening, we swam in the pool.

Monday we went to the beach! It was so fun. We playing in the sand and swam in the ocean. The water had fish in it, and they came right up to swim around our feet. Then in the evening after supper we went for a walk. It was neat to see palm trees and watch the squirrels, very different from home.

Today we drove to Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. It was so totally awesome! (Inky, if you're reading this, the park made us think of you. I think you would have loved it!) It's a park where they have all kinds of wild animals from the local area. These animals weren't captured to be exhibits, but were there because for some reason they would not be able to survive in the wild. Most were injured in some way, and although they've gotten better, they wouldn't be able to move fast enough to hunt or avoid predators. A few others imprinted on humans when they were babies and wouldn't be able to fend for themselves.

One pair of birds we saw was really sweet because the original bird was brought there after it got too badly hurt to be released into the wild, and a wild bird became its mate while it was living in the park; that other bird stays at the park now by choice to be with the one who can't fly away.

The only animal they have that isn't native to Florida is one random hippo. He was there before the current park. There used to be a park of exotic animals on that land, and he was part of that. When the new park started, he got to stay. He was really interesting to see, too. We got to watch him eat his supper, which was hay and several melons.

The other animals we saw were wolves, foxes, otters, manatees, alligators, bears, a bobcat, a cougar, some snakes and turtles, and a bunch of birds and fish. They have this neat building where you can look at the fish from underwater through glass.

Kaya and Charissa told us lots of cool facts about the animals. Kaya is part of a special environmental science school program, so she knows all about these things, and Charissa just loves animals and has read a lot about them.

Bree discovered she isn't as afraid of bears as she thought she was, now that she's seen them sleepy and sluggish. The bear fear started when, shortly after she moved in with the Greens, Bree read on a website that if you go out in the woods in Newfoundland, basically bears are just going to come and murder you. Which is totally not true. Although we have been hiking and camping dozens of times since then and have not seen one single bear, Bree keeps looking over her shoulder for bear attacks. I think she may have gotten over it somewhat today, when she saw a bear sleeping and said it was "kind of cute and not murderous at all," which for Bree is major progress.

We all joked about taking Gia to see the wolves and foxes because they are her "cousins," and she actually laughed. It's such a relief to be able to laugh with Gia. We can joke again because we've forgiven her and she knows it, and because she's getting more accustomed to the werewolf thing. The truth is, though, she clearly did feel some kinship to the wolves - and seeing how beautiful they were seems like maybe it helped her adapt to what she is now. I can understand how she felt. Maia, Kiwi, and I felt the same kinship with the big cats, since we're feline shapeshifters.

After visiting the park, we had supper and then swam in the pool again. And that brings us up to the present moment! So there's our Florida update so far.

I wonder what will happen next? :-)

Love,
Summer

P.S. We haven't forgotten about the Versatile Blogger thing. (Three people tagged us - wow, thanks!) We'll do our best to get it posted soon. We just wanted to update you guys on our vacation first as we planned, before we lost track of what we wanted to tell you about all the cool stuff we've done. We won't forget we need to do that, though, don't worry. ;-) ~S