An awesome place to be......

My Dad moved to Florida. Retired here actually. He is living on the Gulf side which is nice. I LOVE it over there now I have more reason to go to that side! So we paid our first visit to his place. I should have took pictures of his house for my sis, but forgot that.

My dad is looking for opportunities to sell some of his drawings of light houses to supplement his income and I recommended a place I had heard about called Tarpon Springs which is a Greek fishing village. A while back I had visited a store in St. Petersburg where they were selling sea sponge cemented in yummie smelling soap. I chatted it up with the lady selling it and come to find out they were made in Tarpon Springs where she said many Greek people live and have transplanted their work from Greece to Florida. Boy she wasn't kidding. Going to Tarpon Springs is like going back to Greece. It has been a long time since I have been there but so many familiar memories came flooding back! And this place was A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

Our first five minutes there we were accosted by some tourist thing selling boat trips. The price actually wasn't bad and it sounded uber fun so off we went. Five minutes into it we were sailing away....Our seaworthy ship looked more like a giant pontoon boat than anything you see below, but gosh it was just a beautiful boat ride......

This boat we passed actually giving a sponge diving exhibition. We didn't do that one but I got the jist with that dude dressed to dive and the authentic looking Greek guy, I mean, that is the real deal right there......Diving, doing this....as depicted in a tile art piece I took a picture of in town.....

To sell sponge every five feet back in town. This shop looked particularly rustic and Greek-by-the-way-side!!!!!!
We saw a lot of wild life and it was just gorgeous! The boat tour did do a few other fun things but more on that tomorrow.....

And of course back in the village there was every good Greek goodness to buy including baklava cheesecake. I actually didn't have any but if my Dad told me one more time about it I was gonna have to serve him up a healthy portion of knuckle sandwich....Guess it was good. We had dinner after the cruise. Moussaka, Gyro, stuffed grape leaves, flaming cheese......oh yeah baby....all that goodness....needless to say this place was like finding a priceless treasure. Love love love it!!!!!!!

Tarpon Springs, Florida http://spongedocks.net/