Florida...A Pearl

     It's been forever, but I'm finally blogging about our vacation to Florida. I think I go through bursts where all the ideas rush to the front of my head and I just want to blog all day long, Then, usually for months after, I write nothing even though exciting stuff is happening all the time!

     To work on keeping things short. I'm going to try and blog about our vacation in 500 words and I'm staying away from point form. Here we go!

     We left Canada on a Saturday morning to drive to Pittsburgh where my brother lives. We would be driving down with him and his wife. Sunday morning, after my brother finished church, we piled into two cars and began our eighteen hour escapade. If you know me well, it probably won't surprise you that all I packed to entertain myself was a notebook, a pen and a novel. The ten hours the first day were beautiful, as we drove through West Virginia and Virginia, I loved the mountains. Around ten o'clock that night we stayed the night in Columbia, South Carolina. The next day we drove the rest of the trip and stopped for roadside peaches just inside Florida. Around six that evening we reached the cottage on Anna Maria Island. What a surprise it was to find trees blown over and streets flooded. We'd caught the tail of Tropical Storm Debby.

     The first few days were spent at the beach across the street, collecting shells. The positive side to the storm was that it washed up all kinds of things. If we weren't too tired, we'd get up at six, before high tide and collect all kinds of stuff, then spend the days at the beach and wash off at the pool later on. After day one, even with sunscreen, we were burnt to crisps. Slowly, the murky water started to go back to it's clear blue, it stopped raining and got hotter. Every day I wore a dress and my hair in a waterfall braid. I called it my beach look. My brother caught two catfish that we ate for dinner, they were delicious. The Friday after we arrived we were joined by my older sister, who flew down for the weekend just so we could have a real family vacation. The first in eight years.


     That was probably the best part of the trip, when the most stuff happened. We went out for dinner a couple times. My brother took us fishing in the Gulf of Mexico and while I was catching little fish-whose names I only remember sounding like Tracker Jacker-Adam caught a baby hammerhead shark. He was actually adorable, although it was creepy that he was swimming just a few feet in front of us. We also saw a manatee twenty feet from shore along with some dolphin's while we watched the sun set on the sand. I found a bunch of baby clams in tide pools and my older siblings swam out to the sandbar. Then we bought a few souvenirs. I love when we're all together because that's when we all laugh the most. 

     My sister went home and we stayed until the following Thursday. July 4th was our last night and we went out to the beach to watch the sunset. After it got dark fireworks were exploding in every direction literally above our heads. We didn't know where to look next. They were exquisite. The next morning we were on our way back home. Finally we pulled into the driveway of my brother's house and that night, collapsed into our beds. The next afternoon we drove back home and unpacked everything. That night I fell asleep really fast. I hadn't slept in my bed in two weeks. Yes, we would miss Florida, but it was good to be home.


Total: 558 words. A little over, but it's worth it. 












     

A Sunset

     I've been suffering from an extreme case of Writer's Block this past week and it's not so much that I don't have ideas, but that I don't know where to start. To get me back on track I've decided to write about the simplest thing I can right now: The sunset

     When I look out my window, the first thing I see are the shadows of houses hanging over the fence boards and the leaves dancing on the maples. It hasn't cooled down entirely from earlier today so the breeze is warm and sweet and it's gently blowing the curtains back through the screen door. I breathe in the scent of early May. The one that's only present after a warm spring afternoon, right before twilight hits and just as the birds are settling.

     From the balcony, when I look to the left I see my mountain, otherwise known as the Niagara Escarpment, illuminated with the sun's last golden light. The new leaves are bursting beautiful greens and every once and a while a still budding tree top lets you see the branches lying underneath. The blue of the sky is slowly sneaking away and changing into a lovely shade of lapis that stretches all the way across Grimsby. 

     The distant laughs of kids at the park fill my ears and I'm smiling at the thought of longer days, warmer nights and the hours of running barefoot in the grass that are soon to come. However, in all of this, the main subject of beauty is the beautiful sunset to my right. The sun's just going down and the horizon is highlighted with a baby pink glow that spreads over the pines and across the park, it's beckoning. 

     When I look down, the white on the street sign is glinting, making the words Trillium Lane shine so perfectly.

I'm glad I live here. Where it's so quiet you can hear a whisper, where the birds sing so sweetly, where I can watch the sun make its graceful disappearance into tomorrow. Here on Trillium Lane.