The last few days have been so much fun…. and food!

Linda cooked up a real seafood feast for us and her family.  There was rock shrimp, scallops, shrimp, stone crab, grouper, clams, and more shrimp. It was fantastic! And as if that wasn’t enough, Linda’s sister cooked up an awesome brunch for all of us the next morning. These two ladies sure are good cooks.

Seafood Feast

Later on Linda and Larry took us to Ybor City, a National Historic Landmark District in Tampa. Starting in the 1880’s immigrants from Spain, Cuba, and Italy settled here. They hand rolled millions of cigars in the factories here and became known as the “Cigar Capital of the World.” Now the streets are filled with shops, clubs, and restaurants. As we walked by the shops we saw one guy blowing glass in a shop window and we saw a lady hand-rolling cigars in another shop window. Then to a Cuban restaurant for dinner.

Ybor City

A small corner park in Ybor City is land actually owned by the Cuban government. It includes soil from each of the provinces of Cuba. So I guess you can say that Bernie and I have been to Cuba now.

Jose Marti Park

Linda and Bernie and I went out to Honeymoon Island State Park and walked along the beach. There were lots of other people there walking and looking for seashells. A recent storm was responsible for all the seaweed washed up, but that should all wash back out again to reveal a nice white sandy beach.

Honeymoon Island

While we walked along the beach we found a couple of sharks washed up. I believe they are in the hammerhead family of sharks. This one was about two feet long.

Shark

The historic Sponge Docks at Tarpon Springs is an interesting place to visit too. Settled by Greeks, the sponge industry quickly became the “Sponge Capitol of the World”.  Now the streets are filled with shops that sell lots and lots of sponges as well as the usual tourist things, and with wonderful Greek restaurants, markets, and bakeries.  We stopped in for some baklava, yum!

Tarpon Springs

Sponge Harvest

Historic Tarpon Springs at the Sponge Docks

It’s time for us to continue on with our travels. We thanked Larry and Linda for their hospitality and said goodbye for now and then drove north a little ways to Port Richey.

• Gasoline Expense:  none
• Lodging Expense:   none