I wake up thinking I heard Caleb say my name, but it seems to have just been a dream, a helpful one. We had about six stops planned today that would have us arriving in Tarpon Springs around dinner time but chose to forgo them for an earlier arrival. With this decision, Caleb picks Highway 98 so that we can enjoy more scenery on the way. We’ll stop around Old Town for gas and get to our destination city around noon. We are given a tour of the house and then the girls will walk us into town to see the manatees in Spring Bayou that come in every year from December to February to enjoy the consistent 72-degree water.

We see the manatee’s backs interrupting the slight ripples and wait for their snouts to break the surface. I’ll watch a squirrel, with a mouthful, climb to a high branch to eat its snack. We walk around Craig Park, so named in 1979 to honor two former mayors, after being named Coburn Park in 1935 after the man who sold the seven acres to the city. We find an Ama, Japanese for Woman of the Sea, mermaid statue. This one carries her tail with her while on land for her inevitable return to the ocean. Ama was created in 2014 by Amaryllis Bataille and is the 17th of a hundred similar statues around the world to raise awareness for protecting our seas.

The statues are available for sale as a fundraiser with a third of the proceeds going to charity. She is the first on America’s East Coast by this artist. There is a website: mermaidsofearth.com that shares the location of statues by other artists; as if I needed another bucket list item, but I’ll take all the ideas I can get, knowing I will never see everything. Ama’s plaque information was gathered from the Heritage Museum, which we took the girls to while we waited for Fallon to join us after work. Inside, we learn about the Town Improvement Assc., a small group of women who helped keep the town clean, educated, lit, protected, and fed. It’s now actively involved in the General Federation of Women’s Clubs.

We also look at the Golden Crescent, named for the health benefits of the bayou and the rich Victorian homes built around it in the late 1800s. Many of these homes are still standing and can be lived in if their historicalness is maintained. There is one, The 1883 Safford House, that has been turned into a museum and is available for tours Wed – Fri from 11a to 3p. The other side of this half of the museum is dedicated to the Greeks; their culture and heritage still maintain a large influence in the community with the annual Epiphany drawing some 20,000 people to the largest Epiphany celebration outside of Greece.

Another tradition that’s over a hundred years old in this town is sponge fishing. The Greeks began to send crews to man the one hundred boats based in Tarpon Springs in the early 1900s and the diving suit eventually led to their domination in this industry. The other side of the museum has paintings by Christopher Still dedicated to the history of Florida – Native Americans, the Spaniards, underwater paintings, manatees, warm water springs, and railways. We skip the Safford House for today and return to the bayou to watch kayakers among the now more active manatees in the heat of the afternoon.

The five of us make our way to the historic district. Many of the buildings have found multiple purposes over a century – from grocery store to newspaper office to hobby shop to dress shop to a five & ten and hardware store. Another building was converted from a furniture and hardware store to a department store to a cafe to a meat market and restaurant. It’s good to see the structures so well built that they can withstand all the internal changes through the decades to accommodate fluctuations in ownership and interest in a particular commodity.

Lunch, sandwiches for all, is had at Urban Grounds. Next door is the Historical Train Depot Museum which we only have a few minutes in before they close at 3pm. This stone building was erected in 1909 to replace the wooden one that had burned down the year before. In the mid-1980s all rail traffic was discontinued so the historical society took over the use of the building. The city obtained ownership in 1992 and began restoration 12 years later. Now it houses the history of Tarpon Springs in exhibits and artifacts of travel, sponge diving, segregation, household goods, and medicine; to name a few.

My favorite stop was wandering into Faklis’ Department Store & Shoe Repair and meeting the grandson, Vasile, of the owner, a master shoemaker who founded the business in 1912. During the Great Depression, Faklis turned to repairing shoes instead and eventually started selling suits and hats too. In 1994, Vasile opened an orthotic shop in the back to provide customers with a more complete service. As I talked with him today, he still wants to continue to update the store to keep it relevant by taking down some memorabilia, moving things around, and making the clinic more noticeable to passersby. I caught up with the others as they left me to enjoy my chat.

We pass by the manatees, splashing about, and the Craig House, built in 1910, which was the mayor’s house from 1927-1942. While Caleb and Fallon put their feet in the pool I will busy myself with a spiny orb weaver, sometimes called a crab spider for their shell-like abdomens. Then it’s off to one of the soccer fields for the girls to practice from 545 to 720pm. Dinner will be had afterward, at Jimmy’s Neighborhood Restaurant, on recommendation by Ryan who ate here frequently while he was taking care of the house.

There’s a strong military appreciation and Greek family theme here. I enjoy banter with the waitress and recall that this is the southern hospitality that those unfamiliar might find odd, but that I find kind. In California, the server can be rude or nonexistent because their tip is the law and I don’t know how things are run in Florida now but this waitress can tease me and deliver excellent service in the same breath, and we are both in a better mood as a consequence. I go against her suggestion and get the baklava cheesecake because it’s something new for me to try. The phyllo should be perforated before serving.

I let everyone try a bite and learned that these two desserts are best served separately. Caleb will start laundry when we get back to the house and the girls sit down to work on their sticker puzzles. We’ll talk and then after the laundry is put away we’ll stay up late to watch an episode of School Spirits, a ghostly teen murder mystery. This 2023 show is rated for mature audiences (meaning legal adults above 18-21) but is recommended for 14+ because of characters in distress and occasional blood. Meanwhile, Thirteen, released in 2003 has the same age recommendation for an R-rated film showing all the negatives (sex, drugs, stealing, self-harm, etc.) of peer pressure in high school.