Born Free, As Free As the Wind Blows...

This day has been a long time coming. Thomas's three turtles (the red-eared sliders, more specifically) have outgrown the aquarium they have been living in for the past two years. Blastoise (formerly known as Squirtle), the largest one, was plucked from the murky waters this afternoon and, after a 30 minute drive, got to feel the sun on her back for the first time in a very long time. Thomas was not happy about this--mainly because he was convinced the feds lurked behind every tree and were going to arrest us for returning stolen turtles (all of these turtles had been stolen from local lakes--NOT by us!--some years ago) to their original habitats. Nothing we said reassured him, he is convinced he is now a hardened criminal.
Blastoise gingerly checks out the grass. At this point she is about 3 feet from a lake edge and Thomas was convinced she'd never make it to the water on her own. She did seem to sit there, as if stupified by the drive, for a very long time.


But, suddenly her fat limbs shot out, she waddled toward the water at a speed I didn't know turtles were capable of, leapt into the water and paddled away. We saw a stream of bubbles as she sunk into the sandy bottom and that was that. Thomas asked again, "Will she be all right?" but after that Herculean display, he didn't actually seem all that worried. It looks like Turtle Paradise to me.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the lake there was a Car Show. While Frederick swam (just try and keep that kid out of a lake!)

two Amphicars "drove" past. Both car and boat (yet, according to reviews, neither car nor boat), they were an amusing spectacle.
We drove behind one as we left. You can see the propellers under the fender. (And there was plenty of seaweed dangling from the axels, too.) It was cute at first but when we found that the car couldn't (or wouldn't) top 15 mph, it got annoying and we were glad to see the last of it.