We slept so well last night. I woke up anyway at 5:30 because I am on that clock again. It was 50 degrees and I decided to cook the Spice-Rubbed Pork loin and potatoes au gratin that I couldn’t cook yesterday due to all the crab pot duty. It is supposed to get to 75 today so using the oven in the early morning makes sense too.
We moved from Port Tarpon Marina to Tarpon Landing Marina which is downtown as we wanted to explore the area and be tourists. A better option would be the Tarpon Springs Municipal Marina but they did not have space for us this morning. Tarpon Springs is is an authentic Greek fishing village complete with sponge and dolphin tours, plenty of Greek and seafood restaurants to tempt you and lots of shops to explore. There is even belly dancing at Zorba’s. You can take the Tarpon Trolley bus for $1.00 and get a narrated tour of the town and then decide what you want to do.
We had great gyros at Santorini’s on Dodecanese Blvd. We also visited the Shrine of St. Michael where Greek icons of the saint are located and are believed to help the sick. The Safford House is a mansion museum that looked very interesting but is only open on Wednesdays and Fridays now. The painter, George Inness, Jr., has several large paintings on display at the Unitarian Universalist Church and tours are available. His works have a remarkable ability to capture light.
Spring Bayou Park is an amazing place to while away an afternoon. There are 14 manatees residing there and here is a picture of a mom and calf. It is a great place to people watch and enjoy the lush scenery. The Pinnellas Trail is now a 34 mile bike and walking trail to St. Pete’s but it will be expanded to 75 miles in the near future. We didn’t do that much distance but did feel entitled to a treat. My internal GPS (Get Peggy Sweets) got us safely to the National Bakery where we had a healthy serving of baklava.
Tarpon Springs is the “sponge capital of the world” and we toured the factory and learned about how Greek divers harvest them. One boat reportedly was out for 2 months harvesting, returned with 18,000 lbs of sponge, but if it had rained heavily, the sponges onboard may have kept absorbing water and sunk the boat. I am doing a lot of boat washing down here in salt water land and decided to get a deluxe natural sponge. Maybe it will make the job easier?
We moved from Port Tarpon Marina to Tarpon Landing Marina which is downtown as we wanted to explore the area and be tourists. A better option would be the Tarpon Springs Municipal Marina but they did not have space for us this morning. Tarpon Springs is is an authentic Greek fishing village complete with sponge and dolphin tours, plenty of Greek and seafood restaurants to tempt you and lots of shops to explore. There is even belly dancing at Zorba’s. You can take the Tarpon Trolley bus for $1.00 and get a narrated tour of the town and then decide what you want to do.
We had great gyros at Santorini’s on Dodecanese Blvd. We also visited the Shrine of St. Michael where Greek icons of the saint are located and are believed to help the sick. The Safford House is a mansion museum that looked very interesting but is only open on Wednesdays and Fridays now. The painter, George Inness, Jr., has several large paintings on display at the Unitarian Universalist Church and tours are available. His works have a remarkable ability to capture light.
Spring Bayou Park is an amazing place to while away an afternoon. There are 14 manatees residing there and here is a picture of a mom and calf. It is a great place to people watch and enjoy the lush scenery. The Pinnellas Trail is now a 34 mile bike and walking trail to St. Pete’s but it will be expanded to 75 miles in the near future. We didn’t do that much distance but did feel entitled to a treat. My internal GPS (Get Peggy Sweets) got us safely to the National Bakery where we had a healthy serving of baklava.
Tarpon Springs is the “sponge capital of the world” and we toured the factory and learned about how Greek divers harvest them. One boat reportedly was out for 2 months harvesting, returned with 18,000 lbs of sponge, but if it had rained heavily, the sponges onboard may have kept absorbing water and sunk the boat. I am doing a lot of boat washing down here in salt water land and decided to get a deluxe natural sponge. Maybe it will make the job easier?
