George, Sonny, Craig, Rusty, Jack

Posted on December 17, 2023 by TheJessicaness

We fold our laundry from last night, fill our water containers (gallons, camelbacks, and bottles), and repack the food bags so we are more prepared to leave tomorrow morning. We’ll have a snack and read while we wait for the girls to get ready. We’re joining them for breakfast but not sure if we’re leaving at 9a or if that’s when we’re getting to the restaurant. I’ll continue to add stops to our return trip while Addison cooks herself some eggs. The route to George’s is a bit flooded, and though most vehicles on the road are between 4-10″, it’s nothing our medium-clearance 7.5″ vehicle can’t handle.

Not surprisingly, Addison is the only one to not finish her meal as I help Fallon eat her pancakes and am too full to help anyone else. We get to The Florida Aquarium at 1030, wait to pay for parking, and learn that the pavement is porous so that the ground and plants can filter out the pollutants before the water runs into the bay. In what appears to be the center of this multi-floored building is a moon jellyfish petting tank. Here you are allowed to gently use two fingers to feel their bell. This species has a harmless venom for those kids with more curious fingers.

The Yellowhead Jawfish uses its mouth to dig its burrow, move things around, spit rocks at aggressors, and males will incubate eggs until they hatch. The Coral Restoration Foundation is helping to plant coral trees, a pipe structure, that keeps the fragments from breaking or getting smothered in the sand and keeps them in the sun and current for better growth. To volunteer as a diver, costs start at $110/day through the dive charter, which changes each time, and a $50/pp donation is required on each trip; not something we could afford to do often, so I’ll keep looking for a more cost-effective opportunity.

The aquarium has a 15-foot-deep habitat that visitors can pay $95 to walk around in for 20 minutes after 55 minutes of training, prepping, and a safety brief. Perhaps these people can also afford to plant coral. The fluorescent flower hat jellyfish are nocturnal and are seen between December and July, as adults only live for a few months, near Japan and South Korea’s part of the Pacific. Then there are the upside-down jellies, up to the width of a frisbee, that spend all their time on the shallow lagoon bottom amongst mangroves feeding in the sun.

We sit in front of the largest tank awaiting feeding time, in which the staff feeds the larger animals, a turtle and the sharks, first so that they’re full and the little fish can get their fill too. I’ll sit on the floor and have a look at the creatures hidden behind the rocks, but soon there are kids with sticky hands and hungry mouths on the glass, so we decide to move on. The painted frogfish (aka coral blob fish), found in the Indo-Pacific area, live solitary lives except for mating and don’t tolerate each other after, which is ironic because hermit crabs are very sociable but their name means loner.

There’s a group from the New England area looking at the lionfish and I inform them that they make good ceviche and shark snacks as an invasive species. One guy says he would try them while a woman says she’ll stick to her lobster, once only a cheap daily for the poor before the 1880s when demand increased. The polka-dot batfish looks like it expanded the wrong way and as a result has to use its pectoral fins to walk along the ocean floor. There’s a hands-on station where you can attempt to see what the four-eyed fish, Anableps, sees – above and below the water surface simultaneously to hunt for prey and monitor for predators.

I learn something new about catfish too. Most of them are electroreceptive to sense their food, and only a few species are electrogenic and can stun their prey, ward off predators, and communicate with other electric catfish. I get to see the cute axolotl, a pedomorphic amphibian that I first read about earlier this year, that doesn’t metamorphose to land but retains its juvenile features as an adult. The paddlefish, an awkward filter feeder, is described as having a shark-like body with an elongated snout that looks like it belongs there, unlike the platypus, a beaver/otter/duck, that got its face stuck in a Crocs shoe.

The male platypus has venom-filled glands in hollow spurs on their hind legs that are used in defense and to kill small animals. When I think of poison-filled animals it’s snakes, frogs, and spiders that come to mind, but there are other venomous mammals such as shrews, vampire bats, and slow lorises. There are more fish tanks outside, with resident birds, and an alligator pond. We’ll walk in a balcony-like area upstairs and around the kids’ splash park, let the girls throw snowballs at a target, and see the saddest penguin exhibit ever; regardless of preference for rocks or ice, of which 14 species prefer the former for their warmer locations.

We watch an otter perform tricks for snacks, a conversation between tortoises, and a duck napping. It’s past our usual lunch hour and our appetite has us ready to leave, but after the girls get a chance to pet the moon jellies again. A late afternoon lunch will be had at Sonny’s BBQ in Palm Harbor. I notice the peach cobbler egg rolls, something new to try, and it reminds me of the southwest eggrolls I got from Chili’s with their two-for-one drinks at happy hour; no longer a go-to meal or restaurant. Fallon orders the cinnamon sugar donut holes with sweet tea glaze and we all get some dessert to feel just the right amount of stuffed.

We drop off Fallon and the girls and drive to Craig Park to set out on a key lime pie hunt adventure, something of a Florida tradition that I started when we visited The Keys on dive trips. Our first stop is Rusty Bellies Waterfront Grill which also sells glasses, shirts, and keychains. We forgot the military discount so the waitress threw in another slice for free. I know that’s in appreciation for Caleb’s service, but it made me feel like it was my birthday, since I knew he wouldn’t be eating any of my dessert. I like to pick up a slice from two places, so I can compare them.

Dock’s WaterFront was next on the list, but they’re closed for cleaning for the day, due to the flooding this morning, so I’ll have to wait to try their sea salt cheesecake. Lucky for us, there’s Captn Jack’s Bar and Grill across the water, and less than half a mile walk, so we order a slice from there. The bag is lopsided because the restaurant only has one size of to-go container that easily holds three pieces. My wants being met, we can finish our walk by exploring more of this lovely town. We see a shop with a dive flag in front, Mac’s Sports, closed on Sundays; and though we’re bummed to not go inside I’m glad that people can take time off.

Just down the street, a bright blue and white boat-shaped bookcase catches my eye and we’ll talk with the guy who has been building other furniture and mailboxes down the street for 23 years. I didn’t think to ask how long he’s had this place, but it was up for leasing in March. He uses recycled plastic in all his products and has a guy who helps him with larger orders (not sure if that means product size or quantity), but given his friendly demeanor and the colorful tables, chairs, and flowers I would definitely decorate a yard or porch, especially in a high termite area, with these bright eco-friendly options.

There’s an event going on at the Saint Nicholas Community Center, and without putting our faces to the windows, from across the street it could be cookie decorating or just a celebratory meal without the attire of a wedding reception or baptism. The house is locked when we get back, one of the girls lets us in, and Fallon tells us she was parked behind us when she returns. We wash a load of laundry so we have clean clothes for the week to drive back to San Diego. We watch Leave the World Behind, over two hours long, about the horrors of an Airbnb rental (I’m not the only one who’s had my reservation canceled last minute or shown up to a gross room) at the end of the world.

The actress who plays 13-year-old Rose is an 18-year-old with 21 roles in her portfolio. I mention this because there have been a lot of generational talks — Millennials bringing about the “30 is the new 20” as far as aging goes and I still get compliments on my looks but I do see adults from Gen Z that look like high schoolers; some of them go to my gym. At the other end of this, is 65-year-old Kevin Bacon who reminds me of my 38-year-old brother, as far as the hat-wearing and gun-toting go. I suppose time will show us how the vape and face cream play out on the skin of the young as cigarettes and stress did for the Boomers.

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How to Spend a Rainy Day

Posted on December 16, 2023 by TheJessicaness

I’ll wake up with the headache I went to sleep with so I lay back down while Caleb gets ready. The forecast is rain all day so we’ve made indoor plans. We’ll start with breakfast at Johnny Grits, a southern-style place with an agreeable menu close to our next stop. I’ll start with a green Popeye smoothie that has half a bottle of Suja mighty dozen juice, fresh spinach, and some unmeasured powders tossed in. I missed the fruit being added while watching the tables beside us – to the left: a guy on his phone with nothing on his table and to the right: three guys complaining about work and their table placement.

I’ll enjoy my Benedict and grits before the party of eleven arrives with their three kids on iPads. The waitress tells us, “If you want to live longer, don’t work at a restaurant.” Her timing couldn’t have matched ours better and we were out the door. Across the street is the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art in the St. Petersburg College Tarpon Springs Campus Library which opens at 10am, except Sundays, and is closed on Mondays. The museum was opened to the public in 2002. It was accredited in 2013 by the American Alliance of Museums which provides membership-based educational programs for students and professionals (active and retired).

This distinction is held by fewer than 6% of all museums and offers scholarship eligibility, discount development programs, and special access to subscriptions and other resources. The initial works in the museum were gifted by the family of expressionist artists for whom the museum is named. The collection also included notable 20th-century artists and in 2011 grew to include contemporary Florida art since 1990. The guy behind the desk seems to prefer the quiet mornings here so we leave him to it and start with a visual arts exhibition in honor of the faculty’s commitment to arts education.

This show highlights the current work of the Fine Arts and Humanities faculty and is usually held every two years but was last held in 2020 during a time of transition. The Visual Arts courses include drawing, painting, ceramics, photography, printmaking, and digital arts. The next exhibit, Artistic Journeys, shows how personal and world events in the 20th century influenced the artistic careers of the Leepa-Rattner family. The last space of the museum focuses on more local pieces gained from the closure of the Gulf Coast Museum of Art in 2009 after 73 years of operation in Largo.

We seemingly have the place to ourselves but will hear kids at some point. We stop at the only full-scale reproduction of Guernica by Picasso on the way out. It’s still raining, as predicted, so we head to the house to read for a bit. I’m not sure if it was five or fifty minutes before Fallon got the girls to clean the kitchen cabinets so she could clear her counters. Anyone who has ever cleaned by or above their stove (or seen how built-up some people let theirs get) knows how stuck on grease, oil, lard, fat, and pure love can get on wood, ceramic, plastic, glass, and metal of the surrounds and hood vent too. For this reason, Caleb decided to help scrub the prior tenant’s goo off to make a clean space for shiny dishes.

Not being one to sit idly by, I grab the broom and sweep the house before beginning to help unpack boxes and break them down. Following an afternoon of this cleaning effort was a much-needed escape from the house for us all, downpour or not. I’ll grab a piece of sweet drippy baklava to renew my energy before we head out the door, no umbrella or galoshes, to see the manatees. We’re definitely wet by the time we get there and it’s not too cold (if not in shorts and flip-flops) so we stay a while pretending that the tree offers us any protection from the constant onslaught of water droplets.

The nice thing about having a house with multiple bathrooms is the ability for us all to shower at once. I don’t envy the electric bill considering how steaming hot the three showers will be to appease those of us who appreciate getting out with our skin red and our insides warmed thoroughly as a result. Next is to run a load of laundry so our wet clothes don’t mildew overnight (maybe not a thing, but I also worry about this after leaving them in the wash too long). I’m glad we brought tennis shoes and hiking shoes so that we have a dry pair to wear.

I forgot to mention that while we were cleaning, a couch was delivered, hence why we had to be clean ourselves to sit on its fresh light-colored upholstery. Fallon makes white chicken chili for dinner while we converse and it’s nice to sit at a dining table and share a meal, a rare occasion for Caleb and me these days as it’s been years since we owned a piece of furniture for that purpose. The cushions are big enough to spread out and to cuddle on, we do a bit of both while watching Men in Black (MIB and MIIB) to introduce the girls to a piece of our childhood, from 1997 and 2002. Some things are better left as nostalgic memories; though I still like the pug.

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Driving Around Old Tampa Bay

Posted on December 15, 2023 by TheJessicaness

I awake from good dreams in a king-size comfortable bed with a perfect room temperature and natural light outside. We feel less tired, sore, and dried out after getting away from Imperial Beach which is suffering from a Stop the Stink! movement. People are tired of not being allowed in the water, but it’s ok for them to sit on the poo-covered sand and breath in the poo-filled air, especially on foggy nights. When we first moved here in 2012, there were so many signs that everything caused cancer that we ignored them, but poo kills and makes people sick and we can’t wait to move.

Not only that, our skin is softer. I’m not sure if that’s from more filtered water and the humidity but I’ll take it. It’s crazy the amount of rent and taxes people are willing to pay to live in a city with such a low standard of living (from my poor by California standards perspective), though the city is trying to clean up the trash on the sidewalks downtown now and push the homeless to other states. We are here because the military told us to be, but we begged to be anywhere else, and by this time next year, we will have a lot more freedom in the choice of where to call home.

Anyway, Caleb sets up the tent so it can dry out from the three nights ago when we last slept in it. We’ll take Addison with us to REI to get some food for our return trip. Across the street is Whole Foods, so we wander in and try samples of lobster bisque, gummy vitamins, and sparkling apple cider. Caleb finds a cheese trio with crackers and honey in a Whole Foods insulated bag so it must come with us. Addison falls asleep on the way to Keystone Farmers Market and Caleb scares her awake by screaming as I park. It startled me and I was awake.

Caleb will wait in line for boiled peanuts while Addison and I go pet the dirty cows and then we return to the house to wait for Fallon to get off work. When she’s done, we go to Sunset Beach, the western terminus of Gulf Road, so the girls can put their feet in the water. This causeway and the special events building were completed in 1926 for $65,000. The Armistice Day festivities brought 2,500 people to this “Pleasure Pier” with dances, receptions, and weddings held until the building burnt down in 1963. Off in the distance is the cast-iron Anclote Key Lighthouse.

It started operation in 1887 and was manned until 1942 when the Coast Guard took over for WWII. The light was automated in ’52 and decommissioned in ’84. It was restored in 2003 and now has a park ranger residing on the island, three miles offshore, to keep an eye on picnickers who arrive by private boat or charter. The birds are fun to watch and chase, and we notice raccoon tracks in the sand. Once we circle the island we get a drive-through tour of Fred Howard Park and the beach at the end of a one-mile causeway with a $5 parking fee.

It’s definitely the off-season as we are one of a few cars taking a look at the empty beach that attracts nearly two million visitors to this 155-acre state park, most of that being trails with gopher tortoises and fox squirrels, and the two playgrounds back on the mainland. This park is named after a former mayor, first elected in 1945, who also served on the Pinellas County Park Board for over 30 years. We’ll spend at least an hour in the car driving to MacDill AFB to buy discount (save $7.63 per adult) Florida Aquarium tickets for Sunday.

The neat thing about their base exchange is that it contains a tattoo parlor. I knew the Air Force had different physical testing standards and this shows there’s more to this branch than I realized. There’s no time for tattoos or further exploration as we looked up dinner plans on the way here and Whiskey Joe’s is about half an hour from here. We’re parked behind a line of cars waiting to turn left into the parking lot, but a truck absolutely refuses to move until we drive down the street and u-turn after others showed us this faster route given the obstacle.

Fallon parks and is approached by an attendant who tells us this lot is valet only, so not sure if he was going to repark her car or just take her keys and return the car after our meal. I’ll tell Addison, “Let’s get inside and hope the food isn’t valet too” while Fallon parks the car in the paid lot next to this one. Fallon was craving chargrilled oysters so Caleb bought some for the table too and since the girls braved a taste, I grabbed one. I usually have more table etiquette but I thought it was gross and tried to choke it down with chips and just ended up putting that mixed wad into a napkin.

The girls thought it was funny to see me act like that and I’m glad they’re up for trying new things and won’t take my behavior as a way to act in the future, unless they’re trying to get laughs. I prefer to play with my food and dangle it deliciously or slurp it loudly into my mouth for consumption. The vegetarian options are a signature salad and a bowl of Mac-n-cheese. I would’ve gotten the salmon but it was topped with a crab cake, which might have been better than so many shrimp options, which are a hit-or-miss seafood item and the other fish options came with shrimp sauce.

I chose the blackened chicken sandwich with key lime aioli as a way to have dinner and dessert as we had plans for sweets later. There’s a sugar scrub in the bathroom, which usually has me buying a tub of it on the way out the door, but I still have some at home. Addison acts like it’s the last jar of scrub and so she washes her hands a few times before we leave. She also has the smallest wallet here. I do enjoy the way the scrub leaves my hands feeling super soft and clean and wonder if I should exfoliate more. Fallon takes us along on some post-dinner furniture shopping: sitting on outdoor couches and looking at pet chaises.

We get a half dozen glazed donuts and a hot cocoa each to keep our hands busy while we get driven around to look at the neighborhood’s holiday decorations – strung lights, seasonal inflatables, and yard ornaments to name a few. We get out of the car and pretend to look at manatees that we know are sleeping, but want to stretch our legs before getting home. This won’t be enough after over four hours and some 150+ miles in the car, so I change from dirty jeans into clean sweats, and Caleb and I take a left. We find more sparkly-lit yards and some frogs hopping about on a darker sidewalk.

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A Tour of Tarpon Springs

Posted on December 14, 2023 by TheJessicaness

We’re still up early but Caleb says we can slow down today and enjoy vacation at a more relaxed pace; meaning we can wash the car and eat while we wait for the girls to wake and join us before we leave the house again. We drove to Big Dan’s Carwash, because it was close, to get some road trip out, and an hour later our car looked almost fresh from the factory. There’s a prewash scrubber, which Caleb took an overzealous advantage of, and the employee and I had a giggle at. After the thorough wash, there’s a vacuum, compressed air (for all the vents and cupholders), a mat machine, a glass cleaner, and an interior polish. It looked like a sticky kid had exploded in the backseat, but all the evidence was gone and all our gear was in our room, so we had space for passengers.

As if that wasn’t enough, there’s a gas station on the lot, which said gas was discounted, but we didn’t mind as it was already half what we were paying in California. We take a different route back to the house and pour ourselves a bowl of food while we get a chance to read our books (the ones I thought we’d have time to flip a few pages each night). Once on our way, we get to walk by large historical homes and their private docks, to the Sponge Docks, a tourist attraction with restaurants, souvenirs, and murals along the waterfront that offers kayaking and cruises.

The best thing to go with sponges is soap, so there are plenty of homemade bars on offer, and some of them merged together in different shops. We wander into the Spongeorama and while I learn about sponge diving – done by hooking them from the surface or collecting them from the bottom, from a range of ten to 130 feet and as far out to sea as 50 miles – the girls try on hats and then go outside to walk around with Caleb to look at boats. After the sponges are brought in, they are sold through the exchange, and then taken to packing houses to be cleaned, clipped, and crated for shipment.

Another shop claims to have the only alligator head-shaped sponge, so we have to go inside to see that and the snowman sponges, the live seahorses, and art on the shelves among the racks of apparel. It’s real, but after watching the man behind the counter trim what he was holding, I’m not sure how much of the alligator was shaped above and below the water. There is a bit of a market in shaped sponges, such as a 3-pk of whales and 6-pk of ravioli. Outside is a bike that seems to have been ridden undersea from Amsterdam and still has the sea detritus camouflage. If it wasn’t for the two low-air tires I might assume one of the two men sitting next to it had ridden it recently.

Greektown was listed as a Historic District and Traditional Cultural Property in 2014 for its unique ethnic heritage and maritime character. The Greek immigrants were able to bring black and white Americans along with Bahamians and Conchs (Bahamians of European descent) to work together in the expanding sponge industry in the early 1900s. The Greeks built community centers, coffee houses, and St Michael’s Shrine: the home of miracles on Hope St. Of the 200 boats built in Dodecanese island style in Tarpon Springs, only three remain.

I started to think about Greek foods, like loukoumades and gyros, and saw a sign for yogurt. I had to check it out as I do love some good Greek yogurt but wasn’t prepared for the one-pound tub sold for people to take home, not ready to eat on the street like a Go-Gurt. I’ve only been to one oil-tasting shop, Coronado’s Taste of Oils, and thought they had a good selection but also a variety of other products. The Tarpon Springs Olive Oil Company has twice as many oils and vinegars to sample and choose from and seals them in, from fun-size to wine-size, bottle of choice.

We get two flavors of olive oil, garlic and lemon, for our lovely hostess, and a bottle of Cara-Cara Orange vanilla white balsamic vinegar to practically drink for ourselves because it is so delicious. We stop at Hella’s Bakery to get a snack now, some macaroons for the three of us who enjoy coconut, and some baklava to-go. Caleb was going to get the big fresh slices, but the guy behind the counter suggested the container with smaller pieces floating in honey as a more budget-friendly, but very sweet, option that makes the little parallelograms last longer as we eat them in sticky pieces.

We return to the Train Depot Museum with more time to spare today and while Caleb and I look around, the girls will participate in a 20-question history hunt and get a gift for completion – one a hacky-sack-like ball and the other a Santa hat. There are a lot of artifacts from the 1900s and a list with historical uses of sponges: bathing, anti-friction, tampons, teething, food, and football stuffing. They are still used today to apply makeup, wash cars, and decorate homes. John “The Greek” Maillis was the youngest sponge diver in 1932 at just 14 years old and the oldest in 1999 when he ended his career at 81.

over a century old sidewalk

Fallon joins us at the museum and we walk to a closed, only on Wednesdays, Narcosis Scuba Center, with reduced weekend hours and open 11a-7p during the week. In an effort to explore all the local desserts, we stopped at Sweetwood Bakery which specializes in three-layered cakes. With thirteen flavors to choose from I am easily overwhelmed and will settle for tasting the cookies & cream and lemon blueberry slices later. We return to the house to have leftovers for a late lunch after watching the manatees frolic (at sea cow speeds) and meeting an Alapaha Frenchie in the park.

We get to the wrong soccer field before the coach updates us, but don’t leave until picking up our coffees. I ordered a matcha latte to keep me warm while watching the girls’ scrimmage on a brightly lit green field under a pitch-black sky. We drop the girls off, have a snack, and then go to Sprouts and Walmart for groceries. The girls start their show so I head to my room to plan our Monday morning departure. I want to update Instagram and realize I don’t have the photos for it, so I use Caleb’s.

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Megalopidae Jumps

Posted on December 13, 2023 by TheJessicaness

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.

bathroom graffiti

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.

Star Wars or Lana Del Rey

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.

Ama Tarpon Springs

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.

Train Depot

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.

Craig 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.

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