Florida; Tarpon Springs 5

Day 165
No Travel

We finally walked the streets of Tarpon Springs to see what the town has to offer. According to one travel brochure, Tarpon Springs is two towns in one - the Sponge Docks and the Historic Downtown. We visited the sponge docks first. I had strolled around there a couple of days ago while Clark worked on John's boat, but it was still fun to explore the area in Clark's company. We found some interesting sights that I did not see on my last walk through the area.

Although we did not go in, we came first to the aquarium which features shows throughout the day where either sharks, eels, or some other sea creatures are fed. Customers of the aquarium can purchase food and feed some themselves. I had no interest, and as far as I know, neither did Clark. We walked on.

View of Aquarium at entrance to the area known as the "sponge docks"

 We strolled into the ice cream store next to the aquarium to find out what flavors they had for later consumption. It turned out that they had 32 flavors to choose from. We left without purchasing anything and continued our walk down the street past the restaurant where we ate our first night here - Hella's.

Hella's Restaurant on Right

 We went into Hella's Bakery shop to see what goodies they had to offer and found 16 flavors of ice cream to choose from as well as an array of delicious Greek pastries.

Hella's Restaurant and Bakery

 Clark was anxious to see sponges since this is after all the "sponge docks". We found a store with baskets of sponges on display. We wandered inside and were snagged by the proprietor of the store who gave us the run down on sponge species. She did such a good job of introducing us to sponges that we bought one large Wool one that she said we could cut down into multiple sponges for a variety of uses. The key selling point for me - natural sponges do not go moldy like synthetic ones!

Decorative and Utilitarian Sponges for Sale

Some sponges are used for decorative vases, others for washing in the shower, others for exfoliating skin cells, and still others for applying cosmetics. I bought a wool one used for cleaning purposes.

Continuing our walk through town we saw actual sponge-fishing boats at the docks as well as Spongeorama Sponge Factory -- a store running an informative free movie on sponge fishing and providing a free museum for self tour. The movie was interesting but very poor visual quality. The museum was very informative but extremely dark so no picture taking made sense.

Sponge Fishing Boat -
note the sponges hanging at bow of boat

Spongeorama with Free Movie and Museum

We spent quite a while in the museum which had numerous display cases - some explaining the sponge fishing business and procedures required to prepare sponges for sale and others reflecting traditional Greek garb and culture.

Having walked the length of the main street for the sponge docks, we came upon the Chamber of Commerce visitor's center. The woman working there immediately noticed that we had purchased a sponge and ran over to grab a sheet of paper explaining the various types of sponges but more importantly explaining the proper care of a natural sponge. It seems I need to soak my sponge in a baking soda solution monthly to keep it from breaking down over time.

She told us that we could take a shortcut to get from the sponge docks to the historic town district that would take us by the Greek Orthodox Cathedral and that we should definitely stop into the church to see the beautiful interior.

St. Nicholas Cathedral 

Cathedral Interior

Example of numerous stained glass windows

From there we proceeded down the main street of the historic district to see what the area had to offer. We had driven on this street a couple of times but had not stopped to look around. We found a few shops and restaurants as well as the old train depot converted into an historic Tarpon Springs museum. We did not find any shops that drew us in and the museum was closed as it was late in the day, so our time in downtown was minimal compared to the time we spent at the sponge docks.

Clark reminded me that we needed to stop at the food market before making dinner, so we set off to return to the boat by way of the ice cream shop we visited earlier in the day so Clark could have a sweet treat snack. About this time my feet were screaming at me to stop walking. I was wearing old, used-to-be-comfortable sandals that have lost most of their padding. My feet wanted a rest but we kept going. When I got to the ice cream store back at the sponge docks, I checked my FitBit which said I had walked almost 6 miles (I should definitely have worn my sneakers!)

When we finally got back to the marina to grab the rental car, I quick swapped out my sandals for my sneakers and it felt like heaven to my feet. We decided to go to Walmart since I was not impressed with the vegetables at Publix in Tarpon Springs when we went there previously. When we parked the car, I noticed the Sally Beauty Supplies store in the corner of the plaza and told Clark I needed to go there first.

I wanted to buy a small hairbrush and figured Sally Beauty Supplies was just the right place to go to find one easily. When I made a comment that I had too much hair for one of the smaller brushes, Clark said, "You could have more." (He is not fond of my shorter hair since I cut it before our boat trip started.) He wants me to grow it long again.

Not surprisingly Clark had never been in a Sally store before. He walked around in a trance. When I asked him what he found so fascinating, he said, "This store is unbelievable. I am amazed that they have half an aisle just for combs". It never occurred to me that they shouldn't have have an aisle dedicated to combs.

Our trip to Walmart proved rather fruitless (no pun intended). We did find some veggies but not as fresh as I had hoped. The other items I had on my list were either not available at all or not available in boat-sized containers. Applesauce in a container that will occupy one-fourth of my refrigerator space is not viable. We purchased a few bits but then left and went to Publix to complete our shopping. I should have gone to Publix to begin with.

When we got back to the boat, I made dinner and then, after we ate, I pulled out my bread knife and cut up my large sponge into a number of smaller ones. I am hopeful that they work out to be as nice as the salesperson promised.

Tonight, as I sat here typing up my blog entry, I checked my FitBit once again. It claims that I walked over 16,000 steps today for a total of about 7 miles covered all told. Ooooh my aching feet!