Today we took a day trip to a fishing village on the gulf coast called Tarpon Springs, known for sponges!

Yep, those are sea sponges. Every single souvenir shop sells them in all shapes and sizes. Curiously, this is a product for which I can barely think of a use (at least beyond the tiny ones!), but it was interesting regardless to look at them all.

It was a lazy, relaxing and (importantly) Disney-free day of browsing the shops, eating lunch in a delicious Greek restaurant and laughing at terrible souvenirs!

Of course, there were one or two great ‘souvenirs’ as well…

Tarpon Springs is right on the wharfs, and the tide was very high. So high in fact that the main road started to flood when we were there.

The drive home was in occasionally heavy rain, and dinner was fruit and salad (once again) from the grocery store. I also got this:

I’m typing this at night, in the room, listening to ostriches ‘croaking’ below our balcony. Tomorrow we’re going to wake at dawn and head to Magic Kingdom for 15 full hours!

Wish us luck 🙂