Part Two (aka Day Two)
For the first full day in Florida, we decided to go up to a little town called Tarpon Springs where there is a large Greek immigrant population and it is also a town famous for sea sponges.
Sea sponges? Sounds weird and a little boring, right?
Well I was looking for weird and boring on this trip, I didn't really want to go to all the usual touristy spots. I wanted to go see hole-in-the-wall type places full of local charm and great food.
Well I found that in Tarpon Springs; tons of charm and amazing Greek food.
It was cloudy and it actually rained on us off and on but that didn't stop us! Our first stop was the town docks in search of the sponge shops.
It turns out you can grow certain kinds of plants on top of the sponges, which I found pretty cool.
It was amazing to see all the different kinds of sea sponges in baskets and bins lined up along the storefront.
Bet you can't find sponges at your local bath and body stores for these prices!
One of the shops had a little museum dedicated to the dying job of sponge harvesting, running an old documentary showing the traditional ways and the more modern ways of harvesting and cleaning the sponges.
Most of the stores were run by families of Greek heritage and were super nice to us. One lady was very flattering to my Mom, telling her that she did not look old enough to have adult children and that my Dad was very good man for giving her the diamond on her wedding ring. She was a lot of fun to chat with and even told us where to go for the best Greek food in town.
This open-air market was pretty great, there were clothing shops, jewelry shops, sponge shops and much much more all centered around a little square. I probably would have come away with a ton more pictures from this square had the sun been out but that will just have to wait for another time.
Due to the overcast day, it was hard for me to get a good picture of some of the sponging boats but we just loved these two ladies and couldn't resist snapping their picture.
The largest sponge shop had another museum dedicated to the town and it's livelihood were we found some really cool displays that I had to get a picture of.
Back at the condo the weather had enticed some surfer dudes to show up, which was alright for us and gave me some really fun opportunities for pictures.
This surfer was pretty legit, he had a full mane of hair plus a substantial beard but he was intent on getting some of those waves.
The seabirds were scrabbling around looking for food and any other washed up delicacies from the storm thrashed seas.
The colors of the water and the sky were beautiful in the way that only a storm can bring. Dark steel grays and deep blues mixed in with the white crests of the waves were an awesome sight.
This bit of seaweed caught my eye, mainly because it was in a nice little bundle for me and I could get a shot with the waves in the background, I'm still working on keeping the horizan straight in the backgrounds of my pictures but I still ended up liking how this one came out, crooked horizan and all.
Somehow we didn't get a single picture of the Greek food we had (we were way to hungry to care about pictures) but let me tell you, it was Amazing and we had enough leftovers for about two days.
All in all the day was a success, we even stopped at a quilt shop for my Mom's blog and we both ended up buying some fabric for our respective stashes. I got some experience in shooting on cloudy days and we got to explore a really cool town.
As always I encourage any comments, tips, or criticism to help me continue to learn to take better and better pictures of the amazing things that I come across. :)
