This afternoon we drove over to Indian Rocks Beach again to have a final fix of Guppy's on the Beach seafood chowder. It is just too good! Then Rick got a haircut and we worked our way back to Bay Bayou RV Park. It's a long drive with plenty of traffic so we try to take different routes home each time. This time we took US 19N and we stopped at a famous landmark to the religious and the curious. It seems on December 19, 1996, a women exiting a busy bank, looked up to notice a very defined image of Mary, the mother of Jesus, made of swirls in 9 large panes of black glass. Since then the bank has been purchased by The Shepherds of Christ Ministries and has become a shrine of sorts. Millions of people have flocked here over the past 7 years to view this image and pray and apparently some have been healed from various afflictions as a result. I have to say, it is very impressive, even from a non-religious point of view.

I spoke with a woman there who gave me a couple of cards with pictures of this on them and a website. For those of you who would like more information about this and the organization affiliated with it, you can go to here. Here is the photograph I took.

Update: March 2, 2004 Vandals using possibly a slingshot, fired ball bearings at three of the panes, shattering the ones with the Virgin Mary’s head. Click here for news article.