Tarpon Springs March 2009

After living in Florida for over 15 years, I finally made it to Tarpon Springs. Jennifer came down to visit and I needed something fun and 'unique' to do and I immediately thought of Tarpon Springs. Although its only about 30 miles from my house, I've never actually made it up there. Tarpon Springs is a small town on the west c

oast of Florida. Locals are primarily of Greek heritage and its an excellent place to get Greek food. Tarpon Springs is most famous for its Sponge Docks. At one point, Tarpon Springs was the largest supplier of sponges in the world. Since the development of the synthetic sponge, business isn't quite what it once was, however, you can still sit on the docks and watch the boats come in to off load their bounty of natural sponges. The main strip is

filled with sponge stores, Greek stores, Greek restaurants and a little education on the natural sponge business. We had such a great time here, I can't believe it took me so long to get here. While we were there, we took a little boat ride to Anclote Key State Preserve, which is an island with lots of sea shells and lots of birds. On the way back we saw lots of dolphins. It was the first time Jen saw dolphins in the wild, so that was some great frosting for the day.

Ren Fest Tampa March 2009

I checked out the Ren Fest this year. I ended up with free tickets but everyone bailed on me, so I went on my own. Didn't hang out very long but checked out some of the new shows and had my chili in a bread bowl. They changed the chili and it was horrible. Since that is the primary reason I go, I won't be rushing back anytime soon. They had a new acrobatic act that was pretty good. I'm always pretty tickeled by that kind of thing so I spend quite a bit of time watching this act. They also had an entertainment hypnotist, which always tickles me. She wasn't the best I've ever seen, but considering she had to do 5 shows a day 30 minutes a show, I think she did quite well.