I saw a rather interesting person the other day. I was walking around the Sponge Docks in Tarpon Springs and spied a gingerbread boy! Yes, that's right a gingerbread boy and I remembered what my cousin was telling me about what had happened in her granddaughter's class in school. It seems that Annabelle and her classmates made gingerbread boys and girls and one of the cookies sneaked out of the classroom when the lunch ladies left the door open!
Now, the little gingerbread boy I was watching looked just like the one who had sneaked out of Annabelle's classroom. So, I did exactly what Annabelle, her mom, and her grandma had said for me to do and write to the students in Mrs. Lamphier's class and tell them what I saw him doing. Well, the little guy was having a lot of fun at the Sponge Docks!
When I first saw him, he was getting onto a boat that was going to Anclote Key where the lighthouse is located. We rode the boat together with the gingerbread boy getting a little wet from the spray of the boat and I watched him giggle at the sight of dolphins playing in the boat's wake. We got to the island and the gingerbread boy ran to see the lighthouse. He loved looking up at it and had his picture taken with it. Then he ran off toward the beach. As soon as I caught up with him I had to laugh! He was covered in sand from head to foot making him look like a sugar gingerbread boy! I laid down nearby to enjoy the sun and beach and saw that he was digging a big hole. A little girl asked him what he was doing and he pointed at the hole and then to a book he had brought with him. The book was all about pirates and how they buried their treasures in the keys (islands) around Florida. As a matter of fact, there is another key close to Anclote called Dutchman's Key where even today people look for treasure!
Our boat tooted it's horn and the gingerbread boy ran back to it. He hadn't found a treasure but he had gotten a sunburn! When we reached the Sponge Docks, he ran to another boat and learned how the Greek divers, who had settled in Tarpon Springs, dove into the Gulf of Mexico to harvest sponges. He jumped up and down when he watched the diver go in and come back up with a sponge!
The next time I saw the gingerbread boy, he was eating a Greek lunch. He had a small gyro, lemon potatoes, and a Greek salad. For dessert he munched on Baklava. All in all he was pretty full and he walked down the streets past the little Greek stores to the Aquarium. In there he watched trainers feed sharks and alligators! Plus, he learned that Tarpon Lake was filled with alligators of all sizes, some of them over 25 feet long! I guess he won't go near that lake. Something really special happened when he looked over the railing into the river below. A manatee came up for air and blew water out of it's waterhole! The gingerbread boy laughed and giggled as he watched the manatee play in the river.
When I last saw him, he waved goodbye and was heading toward Dunedin and Clearwater. He pointed at a billboard which had a picture of Winter the dolphin! I bet he was going to see Winter and have fun in Clearwater, St. Petersburg, and Tampa! If I see him again, I'll be sure to write to the kids in Mrs. Lamphier's class and to Annabelle and her sister, Aida! Hey, and if you see them you should write to the kids too! They want to know where the gingerbread boy is and what he is doing!
Have fun and enjoy!
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