we take a side trip

we had long meant to get up to Tarpon Springs and finally decided last week to do it today before we had busy year end financial work to do and beginning of the month work for Phil.   It isn't that far- about 90minutes away...

so off we went this afternoon planning to arrive for lunch- see the town- do the sponge diving thing and go to the local (and world famous in Florida) wine store B-21... then do dinner and head home.

we left a bit late so our lunch was late- the excellent gyros sandwich and souvlaki sandwich at Plaka - where they make their own gyros... then on to the sponge diving boat where we learned the history of Tarpon Springs and sponge diving and the different kinds of sponges- (wool can last up to 12 years!- who knew?)

on the boat, we also had an opportunity to purchase post cards of the diver and various photographs of the boats and industry... LOL

anyway- after the lunch and the boat trip what was left was mostly shopping opportunities for sponges, tee shirts, soap (a lot of soap- LOL) and tons of Greek restaurants (kind of like Greek Town in Chicago but with better weather!)

so we headed over to the wine store and were done quickly (bought Italian wines- can't believe we didn't bring any Italian down in the multi cases we brought here for the "season") so since it was too early to eat dinner - having had a late lunch- we headed home and went to dinner much later in Bradenton Beach at the Blue Marlin.

so here are our $1 post cards (all of them for $1!!!)

the various kinds of sponge- best and most expensive is "wool"- moderate priced and quality "yellow"- finger are just decorative, wire is abrasive and used in industry but not generally sold to the public... and the vase one called "grass" below can be used to grow things in without any dirt - just put a seed in and keep it wet!

our diver gave us an autograph in addition to modeling the "hip" suit - despite the 7 for $1 postcard deal you got the autograph thrown in!!! such value!!!

the final post card - the local Greek orthodox church-

 

cheap parking $3 all day- of course that was equivalent to 21 postcards in this town so maybe given the currency conversion - not as good a value as one might think - LOL

 

 

hand-rolled cigars for sale...

hand-made soap for sale-

on to the fish market-

and then the wine store- where they had some pretty impressive inventory!

back home to work and then later to dinner- all in all a very nice day and Phil was extremely happy with the gyros - he said it was the best one he had since that Christmas Day in Athens!!!!