Florida: Tarpon Springs wrap up

Days 167, 168, 169
No Boat Travel

I decided to take a blog break on Christmas Day as we went to visit Clark's cousin in Reddington Beach, Florida for Christmas dinner. Besides visiting Clark's cousin Dawn and her husband Sammi, we had the opportunity to meet Dawn's two friends Karen and Debbie. Since keeping food hot for the hour-long drive to their home was problematic, Clark and I said we would bring dessert. Before heading out in our car, we walked to Hella's Bakery to pick up the Greek Fruit Tarts that we had ordered on Wednesday. We also included a pumpkin pie in our meal contribution  as a more traditional offering and were almost all set. Clark decided that we needed ice cream to go with the pie, but even Walmart is closed on Christmas Day. Where to go for ice cream??

We took Alt Rte 19 along the coast through Dunedin, Clearwater, and Largo. As we passed any remotely viable open store, Clark pointed out the place and name as a possibility. I had a basic problem in that the air temperature was around 82 degrees. I did not want to deliver creamy "soup" instead of ice cream to our host and hostess. I told Clark we needed to wait until we got closer before buying the ice cream. However, as we drove through Clearwater, I noticed an open food market and decided that I could put us both out of our agony if I went in to buy some ice cream and just got it over with.

As we pulled into the parking lot of the market, we noticed that the area looked a little "sketchy". Clark asked me if I wanted him to come in with me, but I declined the offer. I am not sure what he was thinking, but I thought it better that he stay with the car than accompany me inside the store. Fortunately the store did have pint-sized containers of Breyer's ice cream. After some thought about flavors, I bought two vanilla. Since pie a la mode is normally served with vanilla, I went with normal. I was the only white person and only woman in the somewhat busy store. All of the men in the store were very courteous and allowed me to check out first. Seems everyone else was buying lottery tickets or cigarettes as far as I could tell.

I was somewhat amazed at the amount of traffic on the road between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m. on Christmas Day. We were scheduled to arrive at Dawn's home at 2:00, but between ice cream shopping and traffic, we arrived at 2:30. Dinner was not served until later so the tardiness did not appear to be problematic. We quick gave Dawn the desserts and asked her to put them in the fridge / freezer.

Dinner consisted of a lot of great home-cooked food including home-baked sourdough bread, roast beef, roasted red potatoes, squash, green beans, and a Brussels sprouts casserole "to die for". I need to get the Brussels Sprouts recipe. They tasted just like candy as they were baked with craisins, yams, toasted pecans and maple syrup. Even Clark, who does not normally eat any of the listed ingredients, said they were "tasty", which is his way of saying he liked them. How can that be??

Enjoying Christmas Dinner at Dawn & Sammi's House

The gracious host and hostess!

The whole crew sans Debbie who is taking the picture

After our yummy dinner and decadent desserts, we decided to play cards. Dawn suggested we play a game known as Phase 10. Since Clark had never played that game, and I have not played it in many years, it was quite new to both of us. I thought Dawn's head would explode trying to explain the game rules to Clark as every phase in Phase 10 is different than the last. Finally we played the first round with the cards showing, so we could get the general idea a bit easier.

After a few rounds of Phase 10, Dawn and Clark decided it was time for a second round of dessert, so more fruit tarts and pie a la mode were consumed.  We had such fun and the time flew by. Before we knew it, it was going on for 7:30 and time to head back to the boat. When we left to drive home, Dawn gave us two containers of leftovers to take with us.

On Saturday, the day after Christmas, I had one goal and that was to work on a sewing project to cover the seat cushions on our boat sofa. My side is near the side door and occasionally gets hit with salt water on rough seas if the door is not closed. The fabric has faded and  is worn through along the door-facing edge. Additionally, Clark has been complaining for a while that the seat on his side has a "whole" in the cushioning, so he sinks into that hole when he sits on the sofa. Again, the sofa is just showing its age. I decided that I could correct both issues at once if I put new cushion covers over the old ones and added some seat padding at the same time.

Before Christmas, Clark and I made a trip to Walmart to buy fabric, binding material, and thread. All I needed was a chunk of time in which to do my sewing. Since matching the green plaid fabric seemed an impossible task, we opted for a solid, complimentary color.  Working on my project took the majority of the day. I had to hop between my sewing machine and the floor. I used the floor as my workbench for measuring and cutting, and I used the sewing machine for its expected purpose.

Boat Salon Converted into a Sewing Room
note my new, baby sewing machine

By 6:30 at night I still had possession of the table we use to eat on for my sewing, so I suggested we go out for pizza for dinner. I did some research and found a pizzeria in Tarpon Springs with great reviews - Jimmy's Neighborhood Restaurant. The reviews were correct. The food was great. We had house salad, sauteed fresh vegetables, and shared a chopped beef / eggplant pizza. Both of us were very surprised to find eggplant pizza as a standard menu item. It is our favorite combo that we order at home, but we never see this option on any restaurant menus. Clark said it was the best eggplant pizza he had ever eaten, and we have eaten quite a few!

After dinner, we had to do some shopping. We needed a few groceries and we needed hardware to complete the upholstery work. Getting the upholstery hardware turned into an unexpected challenge as we headed north on Rte 19, we found the road closed and all traffic detoured. It was a mess!  I told Clark to abort the trip to The Home Depot and head to Publix instead. We did that and manged to buy our groceries. Expecting to find the road cleared after our time at the food store, we headed back up rte 19 only to find it still blocked and we got detoured and forced to make a U-turn. After practically begging him, I got Clark to go to Walmart to buy the upholstery nails we needed.

However, Clark is like a "dog with a bone" and just will not let things bgo once he has it in his head to do something. So, even though we bought upholstery nails at Walmart, he still wanted to go to Home Depot to see what options they offered. I refused to tackle rte 19 or 19-alt to try to get there, so he found a way out-of-the-way route to take us there. In the end we did buy staples at Home Depot as a backup plan to the upholstery nails.

By the time we had eaten and forced our way to The Home Depot, it was almost 10:00 and much later than I had hoped. When we did finally get back to the boat, I jumped right back into the sewing to continue on my project. Finally at 1:00 a.m. I decided that my neck muscles were too painful to continue. I also decided that bending over a computer to write up a blog entry would not help my neck pain. I took two Motrin and headed to bed. I had managed to complete all the sewing portion of new covers before retiring for the night. The only part remaining was the installation.

When I woke this morning, Sunday, I had a few items on my to-do list -- finish cushion covers, defrost the fridge, and do the laundry. As soon as we finished breakfast, I started the cushion project again. One of the items I bought at the grocery store was Scotch Guard as I wanted to protect my new seats from stains. I took the cushions off the boat to the dock to spray them and let them dry. Since we had a hot, dry day today with a pleasant breeze, the covers dried quickly and I was able to get going on the next step.

Clark and I worked together to complete the upholstery job. I held the fabric in place and told him where I needed a nail, and he hammered one in. Working together, we got the job done relatively quickly. I was pleased with the end result. I added lots of padding to the old seats and now it feels quite comfy to sit upon.

New, navy blue upholstered seat cushions on our old green plaid couch

While we ate lunch, I had the refrigerator empty and defrosting itself in the heat of the cabin. With a fan blowing into the fridge, the job did not take long. I felt pretty good about my progress through my list.

I convinced Clark to head over to the pool area with me, so I could get my laundry done while going for a swim. Surprisingly, he was not convinced he wanted to swim. Normally I am the one that requires convincing. When we got over to the laundry / pool area, I found that I had forgotten to bring my detergent. Clark kindly went back to the boat to get it for me. When we finally got the machines going, I went out and went straight into the pool.

Although the water still took my breath away when I submerged myself, the water temp felt slightly warmer than it had on Christmas Eve. Since Clark had opted to read instead of joining me, I decided to do water aerobics in the pool. I remembered some of the various moves I learned at the YMCA class and practiced them until it was time to get out of the pool and put the wash in the dryer.

Clark eventually joined me for a brief dip in the pool but quickly decided he liked the hot tub better. As I had the other day, I tried the hot tub and got out pretty shortly after getting in and went back in the pool. I see no point to getting sweaty in a hot tub when my intent in going to the pool is to get cool.

After swimming, we sat by the pool to wait for the dryer to finish. As I sat there reading or playing some Alphabetty on my phone, I noticed a little, curious lizard running around near my feet. He is no more than four or five inches long.

The Geico Gecko?

He turned his back on me after a while as he lost interest in me.

Around 4:30, I found I was starving, but I managed to hang in there until 5:30 when we headed back to the boat with the clean laundry in tow. Fortunately we had the leftovers from Christmas dinner, so I could get a meal on the table quickly. With my task list completed, I am ready to head out tomorrow for a new venue.

We return our rental car tomorrow and will be on the move again with the boat. We had a dry run on going out with the boat when we ran it before the oil change on Christmas Eve. When we are on the move, the boat needs to have items securely positioned so that nothing falls or breaks if we get hit by waves fdue to wind or wake. Since the boat has been sitting at dock for most of the past month, we had a bit of work to do to secure it for potentially rocky seas. I am definitely ready to do more exploring!