We Love Fort DeSoto

This is really a nice park. On Friday we went for the 10-mile bike ride on the bike path here in the park, then we took the kayaks out during the afternoon. With the way the park (i.e. the island) is structured - like a capital "L" - there is a nice bay between the campground area and the bottom part of the L. This bay is sort of in the northwest corner of the whole configuration, so, with a light wind from the southeast, the bay is actually fairly protected from the wind. We paddled across the bay - took maybe 45 minutes or so - to the "kayak trail". It's kind of funny - we did this trail 5 years ago when we first got the kayaks and thought the trail was really fun and a little scary - but now that we've been paddling so many times we agreed the trail is actually pretty boring. But it was fun to get out onto the water - we probably spent about 2 hours or so paddling around in the bay. The main thing is that it was SO nice out - it was in the low 70s with a clear blue sky - really pretty! After our paddle, we went a few miles out of the park and went to this cool little bar for a drink. It was actually a nice restaurant named Billy's On the Water, but they had a flight of stairs going up the side of the restaurant to the bar which was basically on the roof. We had a drink but didn't really talk to anyone - it was pretty clear this was kind of a hang-out for the "locals" who all knew each other. We never mind this because we get kind of a kick out of watching people interact - lots of "air kisses" and slightly manic enthusiasm - plus the view from the bar was really beautiful. When we left the bar we drove through this housing development that Dave had found on one of his bike rides - unbelievable homes - they HAD to be 4 or 5 million dollars each. We are just amazed at the money that is down here!

Today (Saturday) was not quite such nice weather - we caught just the lower tail end of the bad winter storm that is moving through the middle of the country. It was cloudy all day with a little rain off and on - but it was still about 70 degrees so we aren't complaining! Since we knew this weather was coming we planned on driving up to Tarpon Springs today. We went up 699, which goes right up through all the beach islands. It was kind of unreal - I can NOT imagine how many hotel and resort units there must be along this 40 mile stretch - it has to be in the tens of thousands. I don't think either of us had ever seen such a long stretch of hotels, restaurants, bars, gift shops, etc. I would NOT want to be around here in March! But right now, since it's not prime tourist season yet, we really didn't have any trouble with traffic and we made it all the way to Tarpon Springs in just a little more than an hour. We really liked Tarpon Springs - we had been told that it was sort of a "must see" place. The appeal is the sponge diving operation plus the Greek community (i.e. wonderful Greek restaurants). When we first drove into town we weren't overly impressed but then we saw the signs to the sponge docks and WOW that was pretty cool. The only disappointment was that we couldn't do the boat ride with the sponge diving exhibition (which we were told is pretty neat) because of the weather. But when we come back this way in two years we plan to spend some time in the Crystal River area which is only about 50 miles north of here, so we'll plan on visiting again. But we DID have a wonderful meal at one of the Greek restaurants - we chose one named Mykonos just at random, but it was great. Dave had a huge Greek salad along with a side of potato salad - which was more like mashed potatoes with "stuff" in it - delicious! (I'm going to try to find some recipes on the internet). I had the Chicken Mykonos, which was chicken breasts smothered with a delicious mix of tomatoes, onions, peppers, feta cheese and Greek spices. It was absolutely wonderful. Neither one of us had eaten much Greek food before, but the menu looked delicious - we're definitely fans. On the way back to our park, we took the same route because it was just so interesting to us. Nice day. The weather for the rest of our time here doesn't look great, but there's a lot to do so we'll be fine. We definitely like being on the St. Petersburg side of the bay.