I was talking with a member of the fitness club I work at last Monday, about how I wish the week would just get over so the weekend would come. His 60+ years of wisdom for me, "You should just be happy you wake up the next morning." To a certain extent I agree with this statement, but I really do look forward to the weekend and I don't think anyones opinion will sway my own.
During the week I am a corporate slave, smiling at people as they hustle into the gym with their neatly pressed shirts over one shoulder and their duffel bags in the other. They hop on the treadmills, the ellipticals and weight machines, grunting and moaning as stacks of weight are lifted six inches into the air and slammed back down again. I make small talk about the weather, clean the machines and wander about the facility looking thrilled to be there Monday-Friday. I may enjoy parts of my job, but it's still a job. I'm there to service people and my creative freedom to do, say and act as I please is lost during this time. This is why I look forward to my weekends.
This morning, Linsey and I woke up at 7:30, brewed some freshly ground coffee and ate egg sandwiches while watching yesterdays episode of the Daily Show. We decided that we wanted to go check out Honeymoon Island today (a state park about ten or so miles north of us) and thought it would be even cooler if we jogged around the nature trails on it. It's not a huge island, maybe a half mile wide and roughly two-three miles long. It sticks out into the Gulf of Mexico and many of our friends have said that it's pretty nice place. I had actually found it quite a few months ago while I was out biking but didn't want to fork over the two dollars to ride the short two miles of paved roads on the island. After breakfast we lathered on the sunscreen and drove the PT up to the island. The sunscreen was probably not needed since it was actually a cloudy day, quite rare here. The trail seemed very well kept and went thru a few open fields and some thickly wooded Florida vegetation. Here are a few pictures we took along the way.
The pictures don't do it much justice (taken with my phone) but the jog around the island was awesome. This was the first time since we've moved to Florida that we have experienced extreme peacefulness. We didn't hear cars driving by honking, sirens blaring in the distance, or a number of the other sounds you typically hear in the city. Nothing but the wind blowing, the trees rustling and the quiet slap of the surf on the edge of the beach. We both agreed that this is what we had imagined Florida to be like, not the strip mall capital of the world. It's sad that such a gorgeous place is so civilized.
After our run we decide to drive down to the beach area of the island and take a short walk. The beach was crowded with people, but the lack of buildings and city noises seemed to make it a much more peaceful place. We walked down the southern edge of the island where the humans were scantily occupying the beach side and found a huge collection of shells. The shells here were much larger and more common then on the beaches of Clearwater. I imagine it's mostly locals who come here all the time and they have most likely already gotten their fill of sea shells. Here's a picture of our stash.
After the beach walk, we went home, ate lunch, cleaned the house and played video games for an hour, deciding during this time that we wanted to travel up to Tarpon Springs to eat dinner. Tarpon Springs is an interesting little city. There is a very large Greek population there and it is also the self proclaimed "sponge" capital of the world. There are literally dozens of small shops along the waterfront that sell sea sponges. Sailors travel out into the ocean waters and dive down to collect these sponges, which they bring back to sell in the small shops of Tarpon. There just happened to be a festival of sorts going on when we visited today. Sponges everywhere. I saw this guy on the side of a building and decided he was a photoworthy representation of Tarpon.
While walking along the docks, we found a small stand where a man was rolling cigars. He turned out to be a very nice guy named Don Esteban. He has been rolling cigars for over twenty years, fifteen in Cuba and five since his beginnings here in the US. He sold me four cigars worth 6-8 a piece for $15. Not a bad deal at all!
We had planned on eating at a place called Mama Marcia's but instead found a place closer to the docks called Costas Restaurant. The food was decent, maybe not the best Greek I've had, but they gave us lots of it. The service wasn't much to brag about. A few times we heard someone yelling angrily in the kitchen and we had to hunt down our server after waiting quite awhile for boxes and our check. We had a good day though so this wasn't very upsetting. We arrived home about 7:45pm and I decided to try one of the cigars. It was only my second cigar since moving down here and I was curious to see how it tasted. Linsey and I brought two chairs down to our back yard/parking lot and spent the next hour sitting under our huge tree talking and puffing away at our freshly made cigar. It was great. I hope Sunday is just as much fun!
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