After we left the Homosassa area we drove on to Siesta Key, but not before we didn't make two stops! First stop: Tarpon Springs! When Scot suggested a pit stop at Tarpon Springs, I was honestly skeptical. I have never heard of it before. He used to visit TS with his Dad and buy sponges there for race horses. We arrived in TS and I was immediately smitten by the small Greek town. Soon after we parked, a lady called us over and sold us tickets for a Sponge Diving Tour. It wasn't expensive and she gave us Finn's ticket free (because I lied about his age, and Finn totally gave me away and she thought it was hilarious!) and so we went.

Honestly it was so much fun and very interesting. I never thought about where sponges come from... the Sponge Factory? and to learn about the different types of sponges and how they are harvested from the ocean floor just totally blew our (especially mine) minds.

The tour guides even did a demonstration dive and the kids were able to "wear" his diving helmet.

Afterwards we found this great little Greek restaurant. The kids wrote good old fashion postcards to their friends while waiting for our food. Jake had a pound of shrimp that he absolutley loved. Scot and I had an Gyro and Finn, a big plate of Pasta. Scot gave him the 101 in Spaghetti Fork Twirling.

After lunch we knew we wanted to buy a Sponge, but we don't really like cheesy Souvenir shops. It didn't take us long to find a little stand with just the perfect sponges. We ended up buying two sponges and buying the BEST Lemonades anyone of us ever had. Seriously, I am not really into Lemonade but I could have sucked this whole cup down in a few minutes!

Everywhere in Tarpon Springs you see these bikes... love it!

From Tarpon Springs we drove on to Tampa to visit Scot's old Elementary School and Baseball field. Obviously nothing looked like when he was a kid, but it was still interesting for the boys to see where Daddy played baseball and went to school.

We arrived in the evening at Siesta Key at another amazing Airbnb and headed right away to the beach for the sunset and a little swimming! Enjoy Jake's video!

EDIT: after putting this post together I noticed a little boy releaving himself after being in the car "forever" and a large cup of lemonade ;)