The days slip away way too quickly. Clark spent this morning making business calls (personal business), and before we knew it, the clock said 12:00 and time for lunch. We ate and then headed out to do some local chores - post office, extend car rental for another few days, etc. We had planned on a trip to Dunedin today to do some sightseeing, but by the time we completed all the miscellaneous tasks, the clock read 2:30. I suggested we might still go since the town is less than a half hour away from Tarpon Springs, but Clark said he wanted to get back to the boat to continue investigating the battery problem on Nuclear Fishin' with John by 4:00.
So, since we only had a little over an hour to explore, Clark suggested we defer Dunedin and go visit Fred Howard park instead. He had heard that the park was well worth a visit. The road out to the park was quite twisty turny and ended on a bit of land sitting out in the Gulf.
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| Entrance to Fred Howard Park |
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| View from Parking Lot at Park |
We decided not to park the car and walk around. Instead we opted for the drive-by tour. Clark tried to hand me the camera, but I refused to accept it. I convinced him to pull over to the side of the road and switch seats so I could drive and he could shoot. The pictures above show a sampling of his photos taken from within the car.
It is a very good thing that I am normally the navigator and Clark is the driver. I asked him to help me find my way out of the park and back to the boat, and he directed me so very well that we found ourselves at the end of a road that had no outlet. Whoops! I turned around and started to retrace our steps while he looked for the correct directions on Google maps. Finally I pulled the car over to the side of the road, pulled up the marina on Google Maps, and got the app to give me directions.
As I pulled back onto the road, Clark was still trying to find the marina on his Google maps app. Even after the app started to give us directions on my phone, Clark was still working on getting directions on his. He finally managed to find the marina on the map and manually gave me directions. For the most part his directions agreed with the apps directions, but I found it rather bizarre that I had directions coming now from two sources. The good news is that I found the marina!
We clocked the distance from the park to the marina at almost exactly 6 miles. We are thinking about riding our bikes out there because it looked like it would be a lovely ride on a nice day. Since our bikes will easily fit in the car, we can either leave from the marina or another starting point of our choice. Knowing Clark, I expect the starting point, if we opt to go, will be from the boat.
True to his word, Clark dove right into John's boat almost as soon as we got back. That left me to either entertain myself on the boat or not. I chose the "not" option and went for a walk.
My first destination was the restroom, so I headed there and checked out the turtle pond on the way. Lo and behold - two turtles today - one clearly visible on the cement and the other swimming nearby.
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| Two turtles today - The one in the water only has his head clearly visible. |
From there, I decided to go explore the Sponge Docks area of Tarpon Springs - an easy, nearby destination. Tarpon Springs, and especially the sponge docks, has a large Greek population. The technique of sponge diving was introduced into Tarpon Springs in 1905 and large numbers of sponge divers came to the area from Greece.
Sponges remain an important source of income in Tarpon Springs as well as fishing and handmade soaps. As I strolled the streets I found and perused one novelty shop after another selling knickknacks, sponges, soaps, candles, and all the regular merchandise found in gift shops, i.e. souvenirs and t-shirts. I found myself quite happy that my Christmas shopping is done as I wanted none of what I saw for myself, the boat, or as a gift.
In the middle of the shop-surrounded courtyard near the sponge docks, I found an historic boat - the Apalachicola later renamed the Aegean Isles. This boat has an interesting history of use for sponge fishing as well as a rescue boat during World War II.
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| Historic Sponge Fishing Boat Tarpon Springs, FL |
As I wandered around the area, I came upon Hellas Greek Bakery, so I strolled in there for a look around. I took note that besides all sorts of Greek baked goods, they also sell hard ice cream. Again I walked out without buying anything. I had in mind to bring Clark back to get ice cream later as they have two of his favorite flavors available - Cookies and Cream as well as Pralines and Cream.
When I got back to the boat about an hour after I left, Clark was still deep inside Nuclear Fishin'. As expected, he had not even missed me while I was gone. The weather was cool and breezy outside and warm and stuffy in the boat, so I decided to take my Kindle up top to take advantage of the breeze. I got so comfortable up there I nearly dosed off.
Around 7:00 or so I heard Susan ask John and Clark how much longer they planned on working on the boat because it was past time for her to start cooking dinner. That gave me the hint that I should get myself busy preparing our dinner as well. When I had dinner ready and still no Clark available to help with the eating part, I served myself and figured he could use the microwave if necessary when he finally decided to come back. Lucky for him though he came back right after I sat down to start eating, so his food was still hot.
By the time we finished dinner, it was too late for an ice cream run, so no treat for Clark tonight. He said that after crawling around the bottom of John's boat, he needed a shower more than he needed anything else. I guess it was a hot and sticky job.
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