Tracks by Birke baher

Today at Blythe Island Regional Park B.I.R.P. for short. : ) Anyways I went on a walk with my brother Brandt on a sand trail.While we were walking we stubled upon DEER TRACKS!!!!!!So I pulled out my Kodak camera and took pictures of the tracks.(as you see below)Sooooooo.... we walked on and on and on and on......................Finally we came cross garbage so to be good to mother earth I picked it up and put it in recycle bin!!!(Please recycle,be good to mother earth)Anyways we came upon racoon tracks so I took a picture of those.(as seen below)Soooooo....... That's my blog called TRACKS by me(birke)

Educational Information

The Sponge Docks by Birke Baehr ( a written report)

The sponge docks in Tarpon Springs, Florida is one of a few areas where natural sea sponges grow in the Gulf of Mexico. Two kinds of sponges that grow in the Gulf are the yellow sponge and the wool sponge. Another type that grows in the Mediterranian is called the silk sponge. A sponge is a living breathing animal, the sponge has a membrane on the outside which is called the gurry. The yellow part is the skeleton for the membrane. I bought a yellow sponge at the Sponge Factory (watch the video there it's free) Come Check out Tarpon Springs, FL and make sure you visit the sponge docks.

The Sponge Docks by Bailey Baehr ( a written report)

There are different kinds of sponges here are some, silk sponge, yellow sponge, finger sponge, wool sponge there are also the loofah which is not a sponge at all. The part that they take is the skeleton. They sort them by placing them through circles cut out of wood for the different sizes.

And how they get them is by a SCUBA diver. It was amazing. The end.

Road Poetry by Tricia Baehr

Silently they all slept.
Their breath was all that was heard.
The beauty of the in and the out.
Inside my own chest I could feel the beating of my heart.
I could feel the blood pumping through my veins.
For the first time in years the feeling in the pit of my stomach was gone.
I knew that I was on the right path.
Peacefulness swept over me as I flipped on the blinker and changed lanes.
In the side view mirror I saw the hills of my upbringing slip away.
Eyes forward.
The adventure, the possibilities lie ahead.
Change.
Chances.
Renewal.
The corners of my lips upturn and spread into a most glorious smile.
Yes, yes.
This is it.
It's on it's way.
And the movie orchestra music in my head strikes up a score and I can hear the angels playing our song.

Tarpon Springs & Dunedin Florida by Tricia Baehr

We've just left a great area that we want to share with everyone. Tarpon Springs, FL is located on Florida's Gulf Coast just north of the St. Petersburg area. The area known as the Sponge Docks provided us with a wonderful cultural and educational experience. The Baehr kids learned all about sponges and the sponge industry there as well as a great deal about the Greek culture and best of all Greek food. We would recommend the following restaurants, Mama Marias, Costas and Hellas. The kids already loved calamari but have now added, saganaki (Opa! cheese), keftedes, greek salads, greek chicken/lemon soup, gyros, souvlaki and baklava to their ethnic foods they love.

We also found a great little shop there, The Spice & Tea Exchange http://www.spiceandtea.com/ where we bought some great teas & spices. The proprietors, Jen & Dennis Macke were so friendly and informative. Birke is in love with the Phoenix Oolong tea and we are anticipating their "Florida Sunshine" salt blend on all the seafood we hope to be eating while in this part of the country. We also liked that they had bulk spices, spice mixes and teas in large jars so you could purchase a little or a lot. Which means less packaging and a smaller impact on the environment.

We stayed at the Dunedin RV Resort on Alt. 19 which was clean, neat and lots of friendly folk there. The kids LOVED all of the many dogs that live there with their people (just a note, I believe they have a pet free section) http://www.campingfriend.com/dunedinrvresort/

We also enjoyed the beach at Honeymoon Island http://www.floridastateparks.org/honeymoonisland/default.cfm on December 30th the kids played on the beach and Brandt and Bailey even swam quite a bit in the Gulf. The sand was white like granulated sugar with lots of stones and shells to play with.

We watched all the fireworks on New Years from the Dunedin Causeway, we could see from Port St. Richey all the way down to the St. Petersburg area. We found the Dunedin recycling center which was great except we felt that they needed to take plastics 1-7 instead of just plastic bottles. The downtown Dunedin area http://www.dunedin-fl.com/is great for walking around, shopping and restaurants-we had breakfast at a little coffee house there.

There was so much to see and do in this area, we barely scratched the surface...luckily for us the job John was working on there will require us to go back there and for his company to do another 10k sq. ft. in the future so we're excited about that!