Mark's Bean Smiling

The Turk is a happy guy these days with his abundant bean crop. He was out this morning picking 'some' of the ripe ones.

I think he was motivated to pick some this morning because he was woken up by squirrels dashing up and around his vegetable planter.  Squirrels don't really eat beans, but Mark was taking no chances.  He jumped out of bed (he can see the beans from the bedroom window of course) and ran outside in a crazed Turk sort of way...oddly a bit similar to the crazed squirrels.  This was enough to scare not only the squirrels, but most of the wildlife on the northern Pinellas County coastline.

Beans are safe and the day can begin.

A Brilliant and Loud Early Morning

We headed over to the Space Coast (Cape Kennedy on east coast of Florida) on Easter evening to prepare for the early morning launch of the final night shuttle launch - Discovery STS-131.  Marco and Katrinka eventually welcomed us to their home in Merritt Island (long story that included me and Mark drinking wine with neighbors).  After not many hours of sleep, we headed out to the Cape Canaveral Hospital parking garage, 7th floor. This location was 'inside' information from Dr. Marco and we found ourselves standing directly across the launch pad...8 miles away.

Precisely at 6:21am we saw the glowing explosion of lift off that looked like a new sun had risen in the east. The ship appeared to rise slowly in the sky, creating a brilliant reflection on the Banana River below.

Soon the ship started to arch in the sky as the booster rockets jettisoned and began to enter space. About this time, we heard the ROAR of the launch.  It took that long for the sound waves to reach us - much later than the light waves that allowed us to see the launch.   The contrail initially was dark, but started to glow as the sun approached the horizon, like a long pointer showing where the ship had been.   By then, their orbiting had already started.

Hanging Out with the Strawberries

Read the last sign carefully

The Turk and I road tripped to Plant City to the Strawberry Festival!! This area is considered to have the largest production of winter strawberries in the world.  So of course we had to check it out.  I went with the intention of eating...alot.  Mark wanted to see farm animals since the festival is similiar to a county fair complete with all the Future Farmers of America (FFA) clubs competing with their cattle, rabbits and chickens as well as plants.  Oh, and fair rides - which didn't impact us because Mark is afraid of rides that have speed or height...which I think accounts for EVERY ride ever invented.

I wanted to take photos of the foods BEFORE I ate them, however this intention was lost the moment I was handed any food. After the first bite, I would remember. This will explain the missing chunks out of each food item photographed.  We made our own strawberry shortcake with the help of the strawberry shortcake maiden, ate chocolate covered strawberries, and I tried a deep fried snickers bar which looked alot like a small corndog.  I'm glad I tried it, but fried funnel cake batter isn't very delectable to me.

Of course there were other food items I just didnt try, like strawberry pizza, or bacon dipped in chocolate (no idea how this one ties to strawberries).   There are even strawberry carnival rides!

A Walk on the Beach

While the northeast is buried under lots of 'snows', we are grumbling about our chilly weather. The sun peaked out and the Turk and I dashed out to the beach to see what we could see. And we saw nature enjoying the day without those pesky humans...except for us!  

Bike Ride to....Greece?

Cold winter finally blinked today, leaving us with a sunny and warm (70 degrees) Sunday.  Wanting to take every advantage of this day I thought -  We MUST ride our bikes...we MUST ride to....Tarpon Springs!

Tarpon Springs is the Greek community 10 miles up the road.  It was the sponge diving capital of the US until the red tide came one year and wiped out the majority of the sponges. They still dive, but I think they plant the sponges so the tourists can enjoy it.  This town really does have a large Greek population who look and even speak Greek.  And they have really good Greek food...but only in a few places.

We hopped on our bikes and hit the Pinellas Trail. It was sunny, with a slight breeze, and best of all, it was WARM.  We biked into Palm Harbor and continued north to Wall Springs Park. This is a great park built around a ...you guessed it..springs. In the 20's, people would come from up north to bathe in these springs.  It was like a spa.  The park stretches to the gulf, surrounded by mangroves for a very birdy and natural coastal setting.  No sandy beaches here, but lots of trees, nice facilities, the bubbling springs and their fish, and a 3 story wooden tower you can climb to view the area.

But we ride past the Springs because we are on a mission. A bit up the road, I hear screeching. Not bird screeching but almost like really loud obnoxious teenager screeching.  We pull off the trail to discover the Primate Sanctuary!  

The animals are all rescued and while there are alot of primates (including the arguably oldest chimp in captivity). There are also exotic birds, snakes and other critters.  But we just stood at the back fence that is near the Trail and watched the crazy chimps playing around. We didnt go in - yet.  But we will make that another adventure!

Back on our bikes, peddling, peddling north we passed the Tarpon Springs trail sign.  When we got into the downtown, we saw a farmers market.  Never passing a farmers market without stopping - even on our cross country trip - we stopped in.  There weren't alot of farmers, but there were a mix of bakers, coffee makers, and cheese guys.  We snarfed a taste of pierogi which was ok, not great.  Then on the bikes again...through town to the sponge docks.  


Once we got to the sponge docks I felt like we had arrived at any third world country tourist location. Barkers were on the sidewalk trying to get you onto their sponge boat trip. Restaurant staff were outside yelling their specials. There was even a woman just yelling for her friend, in Greek (actually some unintelligible language, but i'd prefer to think of it as Greek considering we were in Tarpon Springs and all).

After wandering around amongst the other people who were gleefully enjoying the warm day, we needed to EAT and Mykonos was the spot. We had to wait almost 30 mins to get in bur everyone who left was very happy - a good sign!  We ordered a Greek salad and combination plate. It was delicious and even with biking over 10 miles, we couldn't finish all of it.  The salad was chunks of tomato, cucumber, sweet onions and peppers with black olives and chunks of feta in a tasty lemon olive oil dressing. The combo included a dolma, pastitsio, mousaka and gyro meat. 

Mark doesnt like Greek mousaka, preferring the Turkish version. But even he had to admit the grilled eggplant was really tasty. The dolma had a wonderful tobacco'y flavor - although that doesnt sound good, it was. Pastitsio is like a Greek mac n cheese with a layer of ground meat. The cheese was rich and filling and we could only eat part of it. The gyro meat was tasty and not a bit was left behind.

We rolled out of Mykonos to get on our bikes and head home.  We had to take it a bit slow considering the additional weight we were now carrying. Our original plans had included a stop at Strachans Ice Cream in Palm Harbor on the way home, but that will have to be for another day!

Girls and Manatees

Sara and Tulin each took trips to visit us in February. After all the bragging I've done about Florida's great winter weather, it was a bit embarrassing to welcome them with layers of wool sweaters, hats and mittens.  While Sara visited first, we tried to put the blame on Tulin for the cold. After all, she flew in from Missoula MT (checking out University Montana) and the temperature was only 6 degrees different!!!

Undaunted, we still managed a hike on Honeymoon Island to visit the nests of the ospreys and bald eagles. One thing about cold weather in this area is that you know where you'll find the manatees.  So we headed down to the Tampa Electric power plant in Apollo Beach which is, apparently, a winter manatee resort!

 

 

Not very exciting pictures, but you have to understand that the manatees are at the SPA!  They are relaxing in the 80 degree waters along with their spotted ray friends who kept jumping out of the water and flopping onto their bellies with a loud SPLAT.  And the warm weather attracted some snook who also jumped out of the water spinning and wriggling their tails - quite a site!

You can imagine how the Turkish fisherman was pacing the dock trying to figure out how to catch one.  There is a fishing ban on snook right now because so many died in the cold waters which resulted from the continuous freezes we had.  There were also a bunch of manatees who didn't make it.  The sea turtles were struggling as well and volunteers were at the beach picking the cold-stunned turtles up to go to various shelters.

Fantasy of Flight

There was a convergence of visitors to Polk City on December 28 - Joanne and Greg from the east, Kathy and Mark from the west. The draw? Fantasy of Flight...well, actually a particular tour guide at FoF - dad. We were greeted by 'the dad' in his leather flight jacket and by Smilin' Jack wearing some sort of knicker ensemble complete with a beret and trailing scarf. Characters out of central casting.

We were all amazed, as perhaps most people are, of the volume of aircraft at this place. And it seems they are mostly significant aircraft that meet the collection requirements of Kermit Weeks, the man behind the plan. Kermit inherited his fortune from oil discoveries by his grandfather, and decided to follow his passion of rebuilding vintage aircraft to exact specifications, including flying specs. To share his passion, he opened his hangars in Polk City to the public (after moving there from Miami when Hurricane Andrew made its impact on his collection). Kermit's planes have been used in many movies since they actually fly, and most if not all have a unique story behind them.

Lots to see, lots to learn and experience. Dad was a superb tour guide in his sharing volumes of information, but making it relateable to the visitors with mentions of recognizable names and events. Joanne now knows more about airplane engines than she had ever planned. My favorite plane - the african bush plane painted like a giraffe, complete with giraffe needlepoint pillows inside. A highlight - Kermit flying his P-51 Mustang, strafing the field at 250 mph.  Wow!

The renovation hangers were remarkable. Airplane frames of all kinds and decades are everywhere, wings and propellers are hanging or stuffed in any spare space, engines and pieces parts sitting in corners and on tables in the midst of their renewals. But all activity seemed to be in very slow motion. Planes take years to renovate... more than 10 years is not considered too long.