Our daughter had a little girl. Meet Millie Adrian.
She is such a precious little thing. She and Tracy bonded immediately. It took her a couple of days to decide if she liked me or not. She decided she does!! Her brother just turned two. I think he thinks of me as a play toy. Works for me!
The name Adrian is from a high school friend of ours. Throughout the years Tracy and I kept in contact with a few friends after we graduated. Unfortunately, our Adrian died earlier this year. Prior to his death, our daughter became very good friends with him.
Our daughter lives in the Tamp Bay area. We flew into the Tampa Airport. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed four hours. Michael the hurricane, was traveling in the Gulf. Our stay in the area started with a little wind and rain, but quickly changed to being absolutely perfect weather.
Between our time with the babies, we traveled to our old stomping grounds. Most of the time we were in Tarpon Springs.
A brief history of Tarpon Springs. It was established in the early 1800’s with farmers and fishermen. It was the first city to be incorporated in Pinellas County. The city is named after the Tarpon fish jumping in the Gulf of Mexico. The area in the Gulf is known for the abundance of sponges. In the early 1900’s Greek sponge divers arrived, and the city is known for being a Greek city. The Orange Belt Railway went through downtown Tarpon, creating a winter location for northern visitors.
Today the sponge industry is still strong, as well as the shrimp industry. As with all other Florida cities, it is a vacation spot.
There are two beaches in Tarpon, Fred Howard Park and Sunset Beach. Howard is huge with a causeway, hiking trails, picnic areas, sailboarding, beach and obviously fishing. We used to live between the two beaches.
When you arrive, I suggest the Sponge Docks. It is a good day trip. It reminds me of old-fashioned Florida tourist attraction. They rebuilt the docks area a few years ago and it is full of things to do. You can board one of the ships to watch how they harvest sponges. If you like cigars, there are two cigar makers on the docks. There are two restaurants we like to frequent on the docks, Hellas and Mykonos. Hellas has a huge bakery and is a larger restaurant. Mykonos is smaller and more family style. A brief walk up to Tarpon Avenue you will see Mr. Souvlaki. And if you travel further south you will see the Original Momma Maria’s. Those four are our favorite Greek restaurants in Tarpon.
This trip, we only were able to visit Momma Maria’s. Oh man, what a delight. We were a group that came in. We had octopus, calamari, fried cheese for appetizer. Lamb chops, Souvlaki, Moussaka. I had lamb shank. It just fell off the bone. I felt bad not being able to finish my meal.
One thing you need to remember about these Greek family restaurants. If you order the same item from the restaurants, they all will be different. These are all old family recipes. All of them are incredible.
One day we decided to head into St. Pete to visit a place we had heard about. It is called Mazzaro’s Market. When you arrive, there are many buildings. We never had the chance to visit all of them. We went into the main market building. Wow, tons of stuff. There is a grocery, meat market, deli, bakery and coffee bar. They have a section of prepared meals. All you need to do is heat and serve. Another area is Italian wines and cheeses. They make some of their own cheeses. Did I mention the smells? We did wander over to another building. That building is geared toward the kitchen with kitchen gadgets and such.
We didn’t spend a ton of time there. We needed our quality baby time. On the way up north on US 19, we stopped at Tiffany’s. Very nice family restaurant. Excellent sandwiches, especially the Reuben.
Other places we had breakfast, Toast in New Port Richey You guessed it, they serve toast. They are only open for breakfast and lunch. We have not had a bad meal there. The other is called Broken Yolk in New Port Richey This is probably our favorite place to go with the family for breakfast.
Both places are laid back. Serve good food and it looks like everyone is happy working there.
One great thing about Tarpon Springs, it is within an hour of beaches, Ybor City, Busch Gardens, Tampa Zoo, the Gulf, St. Pete, Clearwater. There are tons of things to do.
Our last day in Florida we went to West Palm Beach to visit Tracy’s Aunt. She is in her 90’s. Her nickname should be Grandma GoGo. She is still full of energy. We had a great time with her. One of her favorite places to eat is called Duffy’s Sports Bar. That is a fun place to hang out. TV monitors everywhere. It is not loud but stays very busy. I would assume on game day is gets rowdy. The food is fantastic.
All in all we had a fantastic time. It was very hard for us to leave.
When we visit Florida we are not tourists since we lived there. We tend to go to places most tourists don’t frequent