New Year's Day and we are finding that many, if not all of the stores are open. I had hoped that with closed stores there would be fewer people out and about and at home nursing hangovers. Silly me! Such was not to be. Most stores that weren't open during normal business hours did open at lunch time. I keep forgetting that we are in the land of the Capitalist and the great consumer so of course any opportunity to shop and make money would be gleefully seized upon.

After a late, for us, breakfast we headed out for Tarpons Springs, just north of Clearwater. Bob and Hilde took us there the last time we were visiting them and we thought that Kayt might enjoy it too. With maps and guide books we didn't have any trouble finding the place and as we were early we had our pick of parking spots. What Barb and I had both forgotten was how much the place is geared towards tourism - nothing but gift stores, restaurants and tour boat operators as far as the eye can see. This meant that for us the visit was a little less that it was on our first visit, but for Kayt this was her first visit. The gift stores' products slanted towards the sea so there were lots of things that she had never seen before so she had fun window shopping and actually buying a few things. I watched a cigar maker practicing his trade and was sorely tempted to buy a pack but as I am trying to get back into running I decided that I could resist that temptation. We had a great lunch at a wonderful Greek family restaurant where we all ate far too much even though we tried to order the smallest things on the menu.

On the way back we had planned to stop at the Tampa Aquarium, but as it was already one thirty and the aquarium closes at five we decided that our time would be better spent poking about in some stores that Barb and Kayt wanted to visit. We'll go to the aquarium another day.

Kayt bought me a fry pan to be specifically used for omelettes as I had made such a hash of the ones that I made for them this morning, and Barb and I bought the boat some new ceramic heaters as we do occasionally have a chilly night and the heaters would be very useful while we are at the dock.

Tonight is New Year's Dinner a la Barb, but as it is warm we will be having cold ham and BBQ-ed vegetables. We'll be eating late to allow us to digest the light Greek lunch that we had at Tarpon Springs. Oooooh, I can't believe I ate the whole thing.

Wait a minute.

I didn't! There were leftovers!

It was still way too much!