Tarpon Springs Sponge Docks

Lazydays service bays are closed today and Monday so we have time to do some sightseeing in the area. We visited Tarpon Springs 19 years ago and wanted to see how much it had changed since then. Seffner is east of Tampa and Tarpon Springs is north. The drive there took us via at least 6 different roads and is almost 40 miles from here. We plugged Tarpon Springs into our Tom Tom and hit the road. This is the restaurant we ate in the last time we were there.

We chose to avoid the Interstates since you can't really see anything from them and we like to get to know the areas where we stop for a while. For the most part we made good time and the lights were timed very well. It was interesting seeing the different areas along the way. We went through every social and financial strata to get to Tarpon Springs.

Our goal was to see the sponge docks in Tarpon Springs and stop for dinner in one of the nice Greek restaurants. The downtown area is about 6 blocks long and runs along a waterway and nice harbor. The streets were full of people and it took a few minutes to drive the short distance. There is a nice statue on the docks dedicated to those sponge divers who lost their lives in the business over the years. We tried to get a picture of the statue without a number of people in the way, but that was impossible.

Since we were hungry, we started checking out places. Parking spaces were mostly in pay lots with a few spaces on the streets. We came across a nice seafood restaurant and changed our minds about Greek food. The possibility of having a nice grouper dinner won out.

We went to the Rusty Bellies Waterfront Grill in the small harbor  and found they had a 30-45 minute wait to be seated so we put our name on the list and got a pager. About that time I noticed two seats opening at one of the two bar areas in the restaurant and we grabbed them. Back went the pagers. The bartender was a very entertaining young guy with an outgoing personality. We were there in time for happy hour and took advantage of the prices and had a couple drinks. The bartender gave Gerry a MelloYellotini sample which was very good. The grouper sandwich was huge and Gerry couldn't finish hers so being the gentleman that I am, I helped her out. Did I tell you that I love grouper?

We cruised the streets for a while and then decided to seek out the beaches We drove through some areas where the homes looked like small hotels and had beautifully landscaped yards. Just a block away were very modest homes that were a mixed bag. It was an interesting area to do some sightseeing and we enjoyed the ride.

We finally drove down to Dunedin and took the causeway out onto the Gulf. They had parking areas along side of the causeway that were full of boaters, swimmers, wave runners and every kind of watercraft available. The beach was nice but the seaweed was stacked up about 1-2 ft high at the water's edge. This is typical in Florida in many places and they leave it there to help prevent beach erosion. There were a number of kayak rental areas and one in particular was very scenic.

By this time we were both tired out from getting up early and hitting the road. We stopped at a Dairy Queen on the way home and each got a blizzard. It was good, but we were so full from the dinner that we could barely finish them.

It was a great day for us,. How was yours?