My wild dome home: Fun day in Tarpon Springs

Tarpon Springs, FL is a real fun place with lots to do. So I made a date with some friends and my daughter to spend the day there. It is almost exactly half way between our homes in Clearwater and Weeki Wachee.

Tarpon is also known as Greek Town and was home to the sponge diving industry for decades. And each year it hosts the cross diving ceremony on Epiphany day which is the biggest celebration outside of Greece. My husband picked to live there with his parents when they moved from New York so his mom would have neighbors who could speak Greek to her. And I lived there with them for a little while till we bought our first house together. I have many happy memories of living there.

Historical Marker in Tarpon Springs

The main part of town has the sponge docks, all kinds of charter boats you can take, loads of cute gift shops, a museum , a little aquarium and several wonderful Greek Restaurants. Down one of the main roads is St. Michael's church where several miracles have been attributed to it and has been on TV shows about miracles. My daughter and I stopped there first. We lit candles for them to have a safe vacation and got a few holy water soaked cotton balls for extra security as Tara and family would be leaving on vacation sometime this summer.

St. Michael's Miracle Church

Next we waited for my friends Maj-Lis and Jacqueline to arrive. I met them when Maj-lis and I both volunteered at Clearwater Marine Aquarium, which is home to Winter the famous tail-less dolphin. I worked in the gift shop and sometimes handled tours and she worked the main register and also was part of the dolphin rescue team. She had wanted me to go out for the rescue team and I told her I was a lousy swimmer and the dolphins would end up rescuing me, they'd be pushing me up on the beach with their noses! Since my move up to Hernando county we have hardly seen each other and so we arranged this fun get together.

We decided to eat at Dimitri's which has excellent food and huge portions and over looks the water. The appetizer Maj-lis ordered was hilarious it was so big! My Greek mother in law would have used a Greek phrase to describe it with the English translation being: it was enough food for 50 sheep herders! It was all that. And we all ended up taking some food home. Maj-lis wanted to treat us to desert at Hella's bakery but everyone was so stuffed we could hardly even think about it. They looked huge, gooey and fabulous though!

Sponge smile outside Dimitri's

Hella's bakery

The view outside Dimitri's

There was a violin player in the sponge exchange mini shopping plaza and he was awesome! While listening to him we hit a few of the gift shops and each bought some little treasure to remember the day by. Then said our goodbyes and each headed for our homes an hour drive in opposite directions. I hope this little excursion will be the first of many!