Dinner and a Stroll in Tarpon Springs, FL

In August I packed my bags once again and headed to visit family and friends in Tampa Bay Florida. I love visiting whenever I can because it is a little bit like going home. My brother still lives in New Port Richey and I have friends in Tarpon Springs and St. Petersburg. Every time I go back something has changed, but I can still count on my friends and family to welcome me and for a great time.
I can also count on The Sponge Docks in Tarpon Springs to not have changed too much. I know, it is a tourist trap-ish kind of place. But it is also one of the best places in the US to get wonderful Greek food. Yummy.
The first night of my visit my friend and I took our daughters to Hella's. On the way we were talking about food and the foods that other friends won't eat or even try. I made the mistake of saying I'd try just about anything. So of course my friend called me on it and challenged me to try some pickled octopus.

Now for me, octopus is one of those foods that look too much like the animal even in prepared form. I know it's a bit silly, but I was not looking forward to this challenge. I was looking forward to the saganaki, skordalia, baklava, and a good open face gyro.
To fulfill my challenge we started off with the cold plate that included octopus, shrimp, skordalia, taramosalata, tzatziki, olives, peppers & feta cheese. Everything was good. The octopus wasn't so good I would eat it all the time. It was pickled and I'm really not a big fan of pickled anything except dill pickles.

After that we got the sapanaki, or flaming cheese, just for the fun of it (something you can do on vactaion). OPA!!!!!!!

The kids love the show much more then the cheese.
By the time we finished the appetizers and half our gyros we were full so we took our extras and headed for their bakery to bring some baklava and galaktoburiko home.
After dinner we walk for a bit and stopped in the wonderful little soap shop, Lori's Soaps. They sold hand made olive oil soaps and some of them had a sponge added right into them. What a great idea. I only got two, but now that I'm home I wish I had more.
Here are some photos I took with my point and shoot during our stroll after dinner:



To see more photos of the Sponge Docks visit my last post: Wordless Wed.: The Sponge Docks

Wordless Wednesday - The Sponge Docks in Tarpon Spring, FL

Tell me Thursday - A Ride to the Glacier and Ice Field

When my hubby told me we were going on an Alaskan cruise for Mother's Day (our anniversary, and my birthday) I was super excited. We hadn't been on a cruise since our daughter was born and they were all quick weekend ones. I was looking forward to not cooking, not cleaning, and letting the boat rock me to sleep (really they don't rock all that much, but it sounds nice.) So when he told me he booked an excursion (we normally skip them) that would take us in a helicopter up to an glacier and that we would get to dog sled I was truly blown away.
So my Wordless Wed. photo was taken in the helicopter as we flew above a glacier. You can see the helicopter's shadow at the bottom and its propeller(?) at the top.
And it was amazing!!!! The photos don't even compare and I have a ton more to share. (even some of the dogs, which were so nice.) I will slowly be putting them up on my ljdesignphoto Flickr pages as I go though them. But for those who can't wait here are some taken in the helicopter and once we landed the first time. Enjoy!





Click here for more Tell Me Thursday stories.

Wordless Wednesday - A Fabulous Ride

Come back tomorrow for Tell Me Thursday to find out how it turned out!

My Poor Cherry Tree

Oh the fun of learning to take care of new things.

I've never had and ornamental cherry tree until this last year and it is one of the reasons we loved the house when we saw it. Last year when we first look at the house as potential buyers the tree was in full bloom and looked so beautiful. This year we were looking forward to enjoying it's beautiful blooms daily, but unfortunately it hardly bloomed this year.

The main reason, I believe, was the two late snows we had while the buds were just coming out. After the second snow most of the small unopened flowers just started to fall off the tree. While I got some lovely shots of early blossoms with snow on them, we never got to enjoy the tree in full bloom.

Not all the blooms fell off before flowering, and up until yesterday it still had a patch of flowers here and there. Here are some photos of it's last flowers.