The 'Lunch Bunch'

Every Thursday at The Oaks, where I live, we have a group of us who take the Oak bus out to lunch at various locations.  Last week we visited Tarpon Springs for a boat ride on a sponge boat and then ate at Hellas Greek Restaurant.  Turns out there are a lot of sponges growing along the gulf near Tarpon Springs and in the 1800's the industrious entrepreneurs of the area imported both the Greeks and the equipment, also from Greece, where the Greeks knew how to harvest sponges.  So first the sponge, then the Greeks.  Then more Greeks to help care for first Greeks and now it's a large town of Greeks.  (the sponge boat is run by the 5th generation of sponge divers.  The marina I visited is owned and managed by a Greek family.)  Everyone I met, or asked, "talked funny."  Heck, it's all Greek to me!

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This week we took the bus over to the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa for some gambling and lunch.  I'm not a gambler so I carried my book to read and sat out at the pool deck in the shade, and had a Cobb salad with iced tea for $25. 

One item of note is the Piano in the lobby.  The Piano?  Built in 1928, the W.W. Kimball grand was purchased by Elvis for his mother in 1955, shortly before Heartbreak Hotel hit No. 1. The singer's wife Priscilla Presley had it gilded with gold leaf as a first anniversary gift in 1968. In 2015 the piano appeared at Julien’s Icons and Idols: Rock ‘n’ Roll Auction. It sold for $610,000. The buyer was Hard Rock International and the piano is believed to be their 80,000th piece of memorabilia. The company owns the world’s most valuable collection of such items and exhibits them at its locations around the globe.

We are all having fun and not starving down here.  Two of our group won some at the tables.  Dave won $1,000 and Barb won a $1,200 jackpot.  (i finished my book and got an extra tea to go!)  

I'm Livin Large Baby!        -Skip