Tarpon Springs
Jan. 28th, 2012 05:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marinessWednesday my parents and I headed off to Tarpon Springs, Florida, at one point one of Florida's major tourist destinations. These days other places have greatly surpassed it in popularity -- in part because, as I discovered to my sorrow, Tarpon Springs might be quite close to the Gulf of Mexico -- on it, even -- but from the marina/sponge dock area, you can't see the Gulf unless you go out on a boat, although you can see mangroves. And boats filled with sponges.
Also, I got sick on the way there, which meant I spent most of the trip there, and all of the trip back, prone, which meant I didn't see much of Florida on the way there or back, and most of my pictures did not come out in the slightest. But here are some:
This more or less sums up the quality of the stores along the marina, all tourist oriented, all pretty much offering the same stuff: sponges, "authentic Greek items," sponges, shells, sponges, soaps, T-shirts, and, oh, sponges. Also, some truly excellent fudge which was well worth the investment. And sponges. And sights like this:
(Not the actual original sponge.)
But it can be cheerful:
The hands down best thing, however, was the food; I was only sorry I could only eat a small amount of it after we found ourselves at a small seafood restaurant overlooking the water and the mangroves and some lazy penguins and touristy boats:
On the way over, we took back routes past rural Florida and bits of swamp, a slower ride. On the way back, we tried something a bit faster: going past Tampa, which alas meant slowed Tampa traffic -- but smooth highways after that. As always, fudge improved both the traffic and the highways. But then, fudge improves nearly everything.
Also, I got sick on the way there, which meant I spent most of the trip there, and all of the trip back, prone, which meant I didn't see much of Florida on the way there or back, and most of my pictures did not come out in the slightest. But here are some:
This more or less sums up the quality of the stores along the marina, all tourist oriented, all pretty much offering the same stuff: sponges, "authentic Greek items," sponges, shells, sponges, soaps, T-shirts, and, oh, sponges. Also, some truly excellent fudge which was well worth the investment. And sponges. And sights like this:
(Not the actual original sponge.)
But it can be cheerful:
The hands down best thing, however, was the food; I was only sorry I could only eat a small amount of it after we found ourselves at a small seafood restaurant overlooking the water and the mangroves and some lazy penguins and touristy boats:
On the way over, we took back routes past rural Florida and bits of swamp, a slower ride. On the way back, we tried something a bit faster: going past Tampa, which alas meant slowed Tampa traffic -- but smooth highways after that. As always, fudge improved both the traffic and the highways. But then, fudge improves nearly everything.