We headed over to Ernie and Noela to discuss the activity schedule for today. It is predicted to be about the warmest day while we are in this CG, but it is to rain by mid afternoon. So, we decided to go to Tarpon Springs, about a 35 minute drive to learn about the sponge diving and to enjoy one of their many Greek Restaurants.
Ken and I called Lanie before we left because they were leaving Michigan to head home today and they were having snow in that area. At 9:30, they had been driving about an hour and were in Ohio where it was still snowing. Road conditions were not good, but they were being very cautious. We heard from her around 12:30 and they were in rain, but the snow had stopped - hallelujah and by 5:30 they were home. We were so thankful!
The 4 of us got to Tarpon Springs around 10:45 and we immediately went to one of the sponge boats that had just docked with a huge load of sponges. We talked to one of the gentleman on board and there were 3 men on the crew, 2 being divers. Wow, did they ever have sponges that they were sorting by size and kind to be sold to sponge brokers. We also talked to a 90 year old gentleman whose boat the city bought to put in the sponge museum. He had captained that sponge boat for 20 years and left us know it is hard, unpredictable work!
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| Must have been a very "full" boat! |
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| These large ones on the boat are wool sponges and they are so soft! |
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| A lot of work needs to be done after the sponges are on board - removing the membrane that encloses them, sorting, cleaning and trimming. |
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| The ones on the left are sponges that are mostly used for decoration and the others, yellow sponges, the most common variety! |
The 4 of us went to the Sponge Factory to see the free movie about the sponge industry, which was very interesting. Just some info that you may find interesting and a few other things we saw along our walk -
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| Christmas is around the corner! |
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| The suits that were used when sponge diving 1st began were so heavy! The boots weighed 50 lbs each and enabled the divers to stay on the floor of the Gulf. The metal "helmets" were extremely heavy too! |
There are 5 types of sponges - yellow, vase, wool, silk, and finger. Vase sponges are used for growing plants, herbs, etc and all you need to do is keep the sponge moist - no soil needed. Yellow ones are used for cleaning, wool for bathing, silk for applying or removing make-up, etc., and finger ones mostly in aquariums or flower arrangements!
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| Vase sponges! |
The other item they sell a lot of at Tarpon Springs is homemade scented soaps, the perfect item to go with all the sponges -
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| Noela was checking out the scented homemade soaps! |
From there we went to one of the Greek Restaurants for lunch but all of us were rather disappointed with our food. We headed to one of the many other Greek Restaurants that had a phenomenal bakery of so many mouthwatering Greek pastries. Ken and I bought one to share later this evening with some coffee and tea and Ernie and Noela did the same. (They actually bought 2, but who is counting!)
By then it was getting very cloudy and threatening, so we headed back to the CG stopping at a roadside market for some fruit and then to Wal-Mart for some much needed groceries.
Ken and I got Wilbur organized for some card playing tonight and then he rested while I did my devotions, downloaded photos, and worked on this blog. It was still raining!
Ernie and Noela came over from 7 to 10 and we enjoyed the desserts we had purchased - delicious. Ken and I shared chocolate cake layered with raspberry whipped cream, ganache, coated in choco., and garnished with raspberries! Should have taken a picture! We played 4 rounds of Hand and Foot (a whole game) and the men won big time!!! We were close until the last round when Noela and I never got into our foot and they had about 9 books to our 1 - wow!
Off to bed by 10:30, read, and lights out!
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