12 Oakdale

I subscribe to a website that scours state park’s reservations listings and sends me notices about ones I’m interested in. February 1st, I got a notice of a cabin open Presidents’ Day weekend at Blue Spring when Mary would be visiting with her children. I jumped on. Time to show Bella and Remi what manatees look like. They would visit Ryan’s dad and sister in Fort Myers while we birded in Belize. Then they would come to Orlando, Ryan would return to California and work, Mary et al would visit us for 10 days. Perfect. This has been a hard-fought decision with Mary anxious about traveling with children, especially the return by herself. We’d agreed on the basic dates before I’d made a commitment and put down our deposit for Belize. They couldn’t come until Ryan had taken an important test at the beginning of February, then he would have time for leave. All good until mid-January when she suggested she come before Ryan rather than stay after. I was already booked with events I couldn’t ch...

Lee stomped on the scorpion, which I guess was a natural reaction. We had returned to our rooms at La Milpa, and he surprised it, or it surprised him, in the middle of his floor. Welcome to Belize! Thursday morning, Grant and I’d flown from Orlando to Miami, where we met Kathy and Lee to fly on to Belize and spend a night at the Black Orchid Resort in Burrell Boom before our tour started the next day.  So far, I’d found the insects tolerable (mosquitoes) or avoidable (local type of fire ants). The scorpion brought a new level to my awareness.  We birded around the resort’s grounds, adding tropical mocking birds, melodious blackbirds, and rufous-tailed hummingbirds to my life list, if I kept one. Also at the resort were a group of English birders on tour and a bunch of Rotarians who’d come to build houses with a local chapter. Kathy, a long time Rotarian, introduced herself and us, and the poolside party began. I think the birders went to bed early to get an early start. We cal...