Sometime last year I went to a Foodie event at a place here in Jacksonville called Greek Street Cafe. The food was amazing, the owners were friendly, and I made some new friends that night. This was a perfect little event, and it kind of had me wanting more. I was thinking about how much I have always wanted to travel to Greece. But whats a Doozer to do when the time just doesn’t present itself to go all the way to Greece? We will get to that shortly.
The next thing that pointed me in the Greek direction was a festival, also here in Jacksonville (I sometimes lovingly refer to my city just as Jax). The Greek Festival was something that I had been interested in going to but never had. There is music and dancing and games and vendors selling all sorts of items. Then there of course is the food and drink. As you read in some recent posts, I have gathered quite the group of food/drink/shenanigans enthusiasts, and they were all too happy to make plans with me to attend this year. Well some of us are earlier in the day sorts of folks. I work at night, and don’t really do the afternoon time too often! So the pack was whittled down a little by the time I was up and sending a text to see who was where. I got to the Greek Festival and was immediately excited about all there was to see and eat- I mean do!
I heard an announcement as soon as I arrived that the happy hour was soon ending-OH NO! Just as I heard this, one of my favorite partners in crime texted me that he was getting in line for more beer and did I want anything. Well yes, silly man I do! So we met in the bar line and ordered 4 beers, which meant we were double fisting beers all the way across the dance floor to find a table to sit at. And find a table we sure did. We happened upon a group of large Greek men and the only thing they were saying was OPA! at every turn. They were also handing out shots of Ouzo. It tastes like black licorice and kinda burns when you take the first few shots. After that you get lost in a haze of OPA and don’t even notice. We drank, we laughed, we danced, we OPA’d right along with them. This night will go down in history for us, and we knew that there had to be more Greek fun where that came fun.
I had looked into a place called Tarpon Springs Florida a while ago, and I knew that I wanted to go. Well now was my chance. I had vacation from work, and a plan. I was perfectly content doing the trip alone, as I have many times in many other cities. But I thought, why not throw it out to my shenanigans squad, and sure enough my Opa pal wanted to come along, and bring his son with him too! The morning of my trip I awoke at Handy Fellows place, went home to quickly pack and hit the road. I will say that my GPS, whom I call Tammy, had me taking a route that Handy Fellow didn’t think was the best one. That was the day I learned to just listen to him. Regardless of what technology tells me. I ended up in traffic and going through some podunk towns.
I arrived in Tarpon Springs and was instantly impressed with the hotel I had chosen. It had a nice big lobby with a pool table and cozy couches. There was a posh pool and hot tub area and cabanas with brightly colored couches for lounging. I had found where I belong ya’ll! I made a quick text to find out my travel friends where abouts and knew that I had some hours ahead of him since he had to wait for his son to get out of school. So I told him I would grab something light to eat and take a disco nap. I drove into downtown Tarpon and it was everything that I had imagined. There are bright stores to browse, there are docks with all sorts of boats and sponges everywhere and greek food as far as the eye can see. This is a place that I will totally come back to at some point. I settled in at a place that I had been looking forward to from Yelp, Mykonos. I had a greek beer and some charbroiled octopus to start and then started in on a fabulous gyro. This meal was everything I needed to get vacation started. The flavors were perfect, the atmosphere amazing, and; all in all just the perfect little solo lunch to unwind after my drive. I later walked around a little and popped into some shops and took a few photos up and down the main strip. I needed to head back to my room to at least get a little sleep. I had been awake much of the night prior, and was on the road pretty early in the morning as well, and I KNEW I might be up late tonight too!
A few hours later I was up and showered and dressed to impress and on my way to the lobby to meet up with my travel mates. We went to Mama Maria’s for dinner. I must have ordered the largest entree EVER. There was just no way I was going to make it through this meal, and I knew a box was in order. We happily chatted and ate and laughed and I got to know my friends son, who I came to call C-money, and have no idea why. He’s a really cool kid and it was fun having him along on the trip; even though a few times people thought I was his mother!
After dinner we took C-money back to the hotel so that we could go out and soak up some Tarpon night life. We passed by a few places that looked a little lame, and also noticed that there was so many places that were closed already or closing. We did finally happen upon a place that seemed like it was right up our alley and we went inside for some local draft beers and some gabbing! While we were sitting there, we started noticing the locals, the guys at the bar, the one that was trying to break up a fight, the ones that seemed as if they had been sitting at the same bar since 1996, and so on. We moved to an outdoor table and practically closed the place down. At midnight. We went to a nearby Walgreen’s to grab some additional adult beverages and snacks, only to be told that they don’t sell alcohol at that time of night in Tarpon Springs. I thought…what? I hadn’t even left the state, and the laws were different? Anywho, we had to go to a Walmart, and they were waxing the floors, so we had to basically break in and almost knock down a whole rack of bathing suits in order to gain access to the store, giggling the whole time. Back at the hotel, drinks and cheese poofs in hand we decided on some pool and darts and then we met some other people, that turned out to be locals, and they were heading to the hot tub to hang out. We ended up there for like …five hours.
Getting up the next morning at around 11 was not that easy after only getting to my room around 6 in the morning, but we had plans to snorkel and hit the beach and a boat tour. We met in the lobby and headed out for what would be an epic day. The first stop was for some fish tacos and a nice adult beverage at a place called Shrimp wrecked, and ya’ll know how I feel about tacos. This place was right on the water and had tiki umbrellas. If that doesn’t say vacation , I don’t know what does. We hatched the plan for the rest of the day while munching, and then left for Fred Howard Park. This little stretch of land leads out to a rocky beach where we went snorkeling. This was only my second time snorkeling ya’ll. I was swimming around and was alerted of some sea life near me and freaked out. It was better for me to see it on my own. So there I was, minding my own business when I see…a barracuda. My first instinct was to scream in my mask..next I started singing the song barracuda..then I started laughing cause I realized what a hot mess I was..and lastly I sucked in sea water in my mask from laughing too hard. This was when I realized-OH SHIT you’re still next to the barracuda..swim away, swim away! In my efforts to flee the offending fish, I came down on a rock and slashed my foot open, I turned in the water and scraped my leg and my toes. It took me a minute to realize I needed to get the hell outta there cause I was quickly becoming shark bait. I made my way to the shore line and climbed the huge rocks to safety. I laid on the beach with C-money, we were both over it with the snorkeling and he taught me about bocce ball, which we played on the sand for a little while before heading back to town. Next we went on a boat tour that had booze and dolphin sightings and took us to Anclote Key Island for some shell collecting and exploring the shoreline. The weather was perfect, and rather than actually collecting any shells to take home, I took some really great pictures.
Once we made it back to dry land we were all kinda hungry and went walking in search of some good food. The boat tour driver (captain?) told us about a place called Rusty Bellies where the seafood was brought in fresh daily and that it was the best in Tarpon, so that sounded awesome. The wait wasn’t that long and we snagged a nice booth in this funky cool little place. The seafood was delish and even though the drink I ordered had far too many accessories for my liking, that was really tasty too! This was a perfect meal to end the day. We walked and walked and took pictures and made jokes. We ended up back at the hot tub again that night, but only for a little while, as my travel companions were heading out. I was staying till the morning and bid them farewell and safe travels.
In the morning I left my beautiful vacay spot and headed to a local place called Johnny Grits to fill up my tummy before the road trip back. I had some awesome grits, along with biscuits and gravy. This may be a beach town, but its still the south Ya’ll! Back on the road, I decided to NOT listen to the GPS, and follow the directions that Handy Fellow had given me. This saved me not only headaches but some battery power on my phone as well. The only snag to the trip was the female in the silver vehicle that “looked at her phone for a second” and came swerving at the back end of my car. The driver of a yellow truck, whom I later found out was named Brandon made a maneuver that put his truck in front of her, and allowing me and the Doozer Mobile to be safe. I stopped and got out to make sure he was ok. I called that woman a dummy, and then the kind man that basically saved me asked me was I alright cause I looked like I was shaking. He joked with me and set me down on a cement barrier to catch my breath. The things and people that I encounter in my travels never cease to amaze me.
I made it home and was doing a quick turn around for my next adventure. It seems that this week was not going to end for a while, and I was more than happy for all the goings on. Now that you have lived my Greek adventures with me, hang tight for what comes next!
Diaries of Suzy Doozer 
You are getting so much better, I felt as if I was right there with you.Rosa Leigh
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