Saturday, April 2, 2016
Today we traveled under very grey skies to Tarpon Springs only to have the rain start shortly before arriving. Some of us chose to just stay on the bus for a bit while David and Donna worked to rearrange our schedule. The rest of the group walked over to the Original Sponge Factory Store to watch the film on sponging - the industry that drew so many Greeks from Greece creating Tarpon Springs. (we've seen this several times so didn't feel a need to get wet to go see it again)
The coast line along the gulf side of Florida from Key West to the panhandle proved to be a great area for finding sponges but this area was especially good.
Around noon we crossed over to Yianni's Restaurant
for lunch -- choosing from several possible Greek dishes offered on their menu. I enjoyed a spinach pie while Ken had a gyro sandwich filled with large pieces of lamb. The meal was topped off with a serving of baklava.
As we were finishing, the rain stopped coming down so it was announced we would attempt our boat trip out to the Anclote barrier island to see the lighthouse and hope to see dolphins and other wild life. Most of the group chose to sit inside under the canvas roof but several of us stayed outside including Ken and I where we got a bit wind blown
It did spit a bit while we were traveling out but that was it. In fact, we could see the sky getting lighter and a teeny bit of sun even peeked through. (below you can see Anclote on the horizon)
We passed a variety of boats used for fishing, shrimping and gathering sponges as well as offering pleasure boating which is quite popular in the area. Storage garages several layers high with "cubbies" for individual boats could be seen in the variety of marinas along our route to the gulf
The boats above were unloading their catches at the local fishery that supplies Red Lobster restaurants.
Below is a shrimp boat preparing to leave for a month of fishing
A few birds could be seen but there wasn't much wildlife activity along our route today. I think the thunder and lightning and heavy rain along with wind must have encouraged them to take a rest. But we did see this osprey nest with mom and dad actively feeding their offspring. I didn't manage to catch their little heads sticking up but they are putting food down into their mouths.
The lighthouse was not as fancy as some we've seen but still does the job sending light out as far as 40 miles to warn of shallow waters and land.
Being motorhomers, we were all fascinated with this "campground" created by a man who wanted to build a home on the water here but couldn't get permission. So he built around 4 park models to create this gorgeous place. You can see motorhomes parked alongside in the "true" campground area.
Since it has stopped raining completely by the time we returned, the stores had opened and tourists were again out walking about. We all joined them for a short time before climbing aboard our coach and heading back to Lazy Days.
The last time we were in Tarpon Springs we went on the boat trip that included having a sponge diver put on the old diving gear such as can be seen above and go down to bring up a live sponge for everyone to see. I think we'll suggest on the evaluation forms for this trip that we will suggest they consider this the next time they take a group.
While the rains had stopped in Tarpon Springs they had sunk lower in the state so that we hit rain again as we pulled into Lazy Days and on our way back to Hillcrest for the night.
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