Happy Holidays!

Mr. Sand Snowman says Happy Holidays! Here's to hoping that everyone has a happy and safe New Year!!!

Anyone bold enough to admit to their new years resolution??? (I'm keeping my mouth shut so I don't jinx myself lol)

Eagles and Otters and Beards, Oh My!

First thing is first ... I've trimmed my beard. It was bushy and magnificent but it was becoming too strong and I was afraid that if I didn't trim it I'd lose myself to it's power forever. I'm sure that everyone is as upset about it as I am, but know that I didn't do it lightly and that it was for the best (Caniece was NOT a fan of it LOL).

Now for the Eagles and Otters ...

It seems like almost every day we get a new visitor to our little lake (we just recently featured one of the gators). I know that the pic quality isn't fantastic but because of our lens' lack of zoom capability we had to crop these and enlarge. Either way you can clearly see the otter swimming through the water and the Bald Eagle sitting on the big rock in the middle of the lake.

And for those of you who are fans of the afore-mentioned gator, here's a pic of him soaking up the sun along the bank directly behind our place.

And in completely unrelated news, Caniece has become a pro at grilling this spin off of beer-butt chicken. Instead of beer it's a half a can of Pepsi with some lime juice squeezed into it with a rub of bacon greese and The Tea & Spice Exchange "crazy chicken" seasoning.

Yes, this chicken was as good as it looks!

Caniece looked out our back window and ...

... this fella was just lounging on the bank of the little lake that our back yard abuts.

There are two or three alligators we frequently see cruising around the little lake but rarely do they come up on the bank behind the house. So we figured we'd take this opportunity and snap some pics to show to you guys.

Here's a panoramic shot of the little lake/pond behind our house (Our lanai is in the far left of the pic and the gator was under the pines to the left. For reference, the shot angle is from the south side of our back yard so if you're on the lanai looking straight out (due east) all you see is water because of the big pines.)

(click on the pic to enlarge ... this goes for all blog entries)

Here's one more panoramic shot just to show you the little lake/pond extending farther to the right (south).

So, without further adu, here he is! This is the medium sized of the three gators, coming in at somewhere between 4-5ft. (There's a smaller gator that's 3-4ft and a larger one that's got to be near 6ft ... although we haven't seen the big one for a few weeks now.)

The Sponge Docks of Tarpon Springs

About a mile south of our neighborhood is The Sponge Docks of Tarpon Srings. The Docks is where natural sponges have been harvested (most heavily by Greek sponge divers) for over 100 years and in addition to the sponge industry the Sponge Docks sport restaurants, shops, specialty food stops and more. If you feel so inclined, you can read until your hearts content here.

Heritage aside, to me, this is a quirky place! It ranges from bizarre to charming, from ramshackle to comfortable and from Greek to ... well, Greek. Yeah, there's not much of a cultural range here aside from a hint of Cuba that you get from the various cigar shops and rolling tables and a touch of Americana that comes from a few shops and eateries at the western end of the Docks. Otherwise you're in for a Greek time!

Caniece took to this place immediately but at first I was hesitant. That said, the ambiance and feel of The Docks has definitely grown on me and now I'm more then happy to kill an afternoon meandering up and down Dodecanese Blvd (did I mention that this place is REALLY GREEK ... it's probably Tim Ritchey's idea of heaven ... more baklava then you could ever hope to eat lol).

I guess we've all been to a million malls and they're all pretty much the same ... I think it's safe to say that The Sponge Docks is a pretty unique place and I'm glad to have it so close by; good smelling food, rude servers, kitschy shops, old fishing boats and all.

In the future we might review some of the shops and restaurants on The Docks but for now we're just going to cover the general bases.

And since people only ever really read blogs for pics ...

We'll kick things off with an amoebicly shaped sponge diver sign made of plywood.  

The rest of these are just shots of the dock in no specific order and from no specific direction. :)

Offensive Florida: Algiers Motel

This is the inaugural post in a series called "Offensive Florida". If I'm being honest Florida is a crazy place! LOL The weather is great and the beaches are incredible, but there's a good chance that every day we'll see something that challenges what our midwestern upbringings have taught us to be acceptable. So, as you've probably guessed, this series will highlight hilariously offensive things we see in Florida, of which there's no shortage.

This is the sign for the Algiers Gulf Resort Motel and Apartments ... hopefully the Alladin-style sign art tickles you as much as it does me!

- Charlie

Welcome to Florida!!!

Hello everybody!!!

We know this is late in coming but we're here now and wanted to get our first post up showing you guys what we've been doing most over the last couple of months ... going to the beach!!!



We'll be posting again very soon but until then just sit back and enjoy the view from the place we most frequently find ourselves!