Wellington in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Hi fellow Girl Scouts.

I'm sorry it took me so long to write, but I wanted to make sure I included pictures.

I am in a horse town called Wellington.  It is a suburb of West Palm Beach, Florida.

My host mom picked me up after work on Saturday, April 7th.  She apologized for being so late but made up for it by presenting me with a cupcake.

I had my own room with my own bed in my own room.

After settling in we went for a walk with the dog.  It is so hot and humid here even though the sun has gone down.  It is still over 70 degrees and my hair is so curly.  My house mom has a funny part to her hair that she calls her cow lick.  She says it acts up all the time.  On our walk we saw several toads.

My host parents tell me that these are exotic or non-native toads and are a pest.  It is hard to believe that something so cute could be such a problem.  I guess they are toxic and can kill your cats and dogs if they lick one or pick one up.  On our walk we saw quite a few exotic house geckos as well.

They are pretty cute too and not harmful.  I guess in some cultures it is considered to be good luck if a gecko enters your house.

After our walk I was pretty tired so I went off to bed.

The next day was Easter Sunday.  It was a nice relaxing day. We went out to get some bait for fishing.  Almost everything was closed.  The grocery store and even Target was closed.  We picked up some bread for fishing at the dollar store and some earthworms at PetSmart and headed home for some fishing.  They had enough fishing poles that I could have my own.

Can you see my yellow bobber in the water?

I didn't catch anything that day.  My house parents said that the fishing is usually better during the evening.  We did see some really big fish swim by though.

I was still pretty tuckered out from a day in the sun so I headed off to bed after our walk with the dog and guess what?  There was a gecko in my room!  I took a picture of him. 

He is starting to re-grow his tail.

Monday the 9th I spent the day bird watching.   This is what it looks like in my host parents' backyard.

Don't let the grass fool you.  It is very crunchy feeling on your feet.  I guess there is so much sand in the soil that the grass absorbs some of it.  My host dad was kind enough to pick me up for a picture.

Here are a few of the birds we saw.  A whistling duck:

A funny looking bird called an ibis (they have blue eyes):

This one is a juvenile. You can tell by his coloration.

A long-tailed grackle:

And a bunch of exotic Muschovy ducks.  My house parents named one of the Muscovies "Sneezy" because he sounds like he sneezes every now and then.  He came right up to me.

The evenings are pretty much all the same.  Walk the dog and in for the night.

On Tuesday we went for a bike ride and lizard watching.  Check out the pictures of the exotic lizards they have right in their neighborhood. This guy is called a curly tail.  When he runs he curls up his tail.

This guy is called a brown anole. 

I guess they also have green anoles here but the exotic brown anoles are taking over and chase the green ones high up into the trees.

Speaking of trees.  Check out this awesome picture I took of a pine tree.

Check out the other plants growing on the tree and the flowers.  My host parents told me that the flowers bloom here year round.  I also took a picture of a bromeliad that was growing on another pine tree.

Tuesday we all headed off to bed early.  My host mom said that she had to get up early to send me off to my next host.  She wanted to take me to the zoo where she volunteers on Wednesdays, but she said I was on a tight schedule.  I need to visit two places a week if I am going to make my 100 places in a years time.  She wanted to keep me longer and take me with her to Peru this summer.  She promised that she would keep up with my travels on the blog and maybe even send something back from Peru.  She said that I am now heading north.  She wouldn't tell me all the details but said that there might even me snow where I am headed.