Dunedin - Marker 1 Marina (for one week)

Evening View Dunadin

Celebrating the Crossing With Patroit

After making the crossing, and taking Daisy to do her business, we were really, really, glad to stop in a Marker 1 Marina.  Great place, and great location. After a long nap, we started to meet with others that crossed with us (or is it we crossed with them?).  It was fun to rehash the minor events of the crossing, and the crab pot stories.  We then had a celebration dinner.

The Bike Trail had this type of
Artistic Signage for each village

When we arrived it was still decent weather.  We took the bicycles off the boat and took many rides.  Our first ride was to Tarpon Springs (sponge Capital), with Spititus and Patroit we had a great ride.  We had lunch at Hellas, a greek restaurant. If you have been there slip the rest of this paragraph.  It was awesome, Vicki and I shared, Mousaka (Greek Shepard's  Pie, {Lamb, cheese, veggies,  mashed potatoes etc} and Stuffed Grape Leaves.  They were superb.  We both had a great (Greek) desert. If you have been there, you know the bakery is second to none.  After Lunch, we visited a imported licorice candy store.  Vicki had Strawberry rope licorice from Germany, and I had old school Black licorice from Finnland. Need I say it?  Superb. After the treats, we did the tourist thing, we rode the bikes back to Dunedin. 

Mouth Watering just to look at!!

The next day we rode the bikes to Historical downtown Dunedin.  We found a farmers market and adjoining arts and crafts fair. We replenished our veggies. It was very nice.  Of note:  We visited a jam and jelly stand.  Okay now, not a typical booth.  These guys get old recipes that are kind of historical in their reputation  I cannot tell you how awesome the actual tastes were.  They gave us perhaps 15-20 samples….. they were superb.  I could not believe that they could capture the tastes that well.  We purchased a dark chocolate raspberry jam.  It is simply  AWESOME.

Great Seafood everywhere.

Coconut Shrimp

We drove back to Tarpon Springs on saturday night for their Sea Food Festival.  Not disappointed.  Good food everywhere, and we stopped at a band playing great music.  Kinda fun when the first 5-6 songs you hear are favorites..... Beer, food and music..... All good

The weather turned cold while in Dunedin, and very cold across the entire U.S.  We were dressed in layers, kinda like back home in Michigan.  When I departed on this trip I said I was not going to wear long pants the entire trip.  Well……. I wore them four days in a row!!! Furthermore, I developed an chest cold (first one in many many years).  All was still good.

I mentioned on another post, that I blew a head gasket on the Dingy engine whenI took Daisy to do her business right after the crossing.  I purchased a part, and installed it.  Whooo Hoo!!! it worked perfect.  Wow, I was ready to purchase a new or used engine…. glad it worked out (at least so far…stay tuned).

We shared several dinners with Patroit, and played card games as well, and drank a few ginger ales alone the night. One night we had the same with Spititus, and another night with Just Us.

Freezing 

While the temps were pretty cold, we still rode our bikes to Honeymoon Beach State Park ($2 each??)  It was not a special event other than freezing, we thought it would be much better than it was (perhaps low tide was a factor).

Hugs are great.

Vicki met up with a cousin that she has not seen in several years.  It seemed that Vicki and Debby HASTINGS had a great time talking things over....  Remember When?.......  Debby, her husband Mel, Vicki and I went out to linch at the Alfresco Cafe.

Our last night we went to dinner with at the Ozone Restaurant.  We went with Just Us, Patroit, Grand Vita, Spiritus.  Great night, and superb food.  I had Seafood Pescatore, perhaps the best meal on the Loop so far, (shrimp, Scallops, Mussels, Clams, Grouper, and mushrooms in a tomato sauce) Need I say it?  Vicki had Shrimp and crab.

Note: Sure was a lot of food in this blog entry.   Have I gained any weight?...  Thanks for peeking in on our Loop Blog.