Another beautiful day to go explore the gulf coast of Florida! Today H chose the white sand Bradenton beaches out on the Anna Marie Island. Happy hour started at 3pm but H was hungry and could only wait till 1pm so we had yummy seafood out on the Historic Anna Marie City Pier that was built in 1910. The pier was lined with fishermen, surrounded by seagulls above the water, pelicans on the water and a million little fishes under the water. A walk down the beach and back was needed to walk off some of those delicious calories before wandering thru Bradenton to find the National Memorial for Hernando Desoto. In the museum was a lifelike resemblance of one of Mr. DeSoto’s bravest soldiers in a stylish silver helmet! Once he took off that heavy hat, we wandered the tunnel like path thru the mangroves, along the bay and enjoyed the cool shade.
Back at the campground, a quick bite for supper and off we went on our bikes to hunt for a good spot for a sunset picture.
January 6th is Epiphany in the Greek Orthodox religion and the biggest festival is in Tarpon Springs, just north of Tampa! Thanks to Dick’s son Rick – we knew about it and thanks to the local TV stations we knew the times! We found the park in time and parked the Jeep on Banana Ave and walked 3 blocks, past Lime, Lemon and Orange Streets to the Tarpon Bayou where the ceremony was to take place. A sermon in Greek was being broadcast from the Cathedral a few blocks away and then the procession of all ages of children in costume, the priests, the choir and the teenage boys who were to do the actual dive all walked to the bayou The boys dove into the water and swam to a circle of secured dingys that awaited them. The priest finished his singsong Greek and English message referring to Jesus coming out of the water after his baptism, a white dove was released and the gold cross was thrown into the water to sink to the bottom. The throng of teen boys dove from the boats into the water and one of them finally came up with the cherished token and good luck for the New Year was assumed.
Our day’s travel ended up being a big circle which was completed as we followed south on Rt 19 and then out onto Sand Island down to Treasure Island and finally across the big toll bridge on Tampa Bay, back to 275 and then up Rt 41. In the near vicinity of the county park where we’re parked there are a half dozen nesting platforms for Osprey and it was welcoming to see them perched there, as if waiting for us to return.
