Today's events were as wonderful as the last two years that we have headed down to Spring Bayou to watch this celebration. The speeches, prayers and chants were abbreviated to spare the young men more exposure to the water than necessary. We heard later that, while the top temps of the water in the bayou was about 35-40, it was 71 degrees on the bottom...chilly still. E and Bill stayed at the top along the wall while Jo and headed down one of the stairs leading to the bayou where I got these, and many more, wonderful shots of the boys. The first should be of them receiving a blessing at St. Nicolas Greek Orthodox Cathedral. After the procession down to the platform over the bayou, the dove was released, the signal given and the young men swam out to their boats. A brief prayer and benediction followed, the cross was tossed, the boys dove into the murky and cold waters and one very blessed young man rose victorious from the waters with the white cross in hand.
We headed to Snooker for a warm up and then on to Historic Palm Harbor for lunch at Peggy O'Neals. We're waiting on the weather to see if we are going to Dunedin Friday for the market or waiting til Sat or Sunday for the art festival.
It has been a wonderful day with two great friends!
3 comments:
OK, so I've taken note of the date for future trip(s). I would so love to have been there! Did you see Enriquo there??
Clare, I believer his wife had him tied to his cigar making bench the entire time. I'll see him soon, I promise.
Great photos Jules. It really does sound like a wonderful celebration of the feast. Stay warm!
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