Reflections of My Travel

This morning, we had to be out of our cabins at 07:30 even though the debarkation process wasn’t going to begin until 09:00. We four met up, stowed our luggage in the theatre, and made our way to the buffet dining room for breakfast. Fortunately, we were able to pass more than an hour sitting in there eating slowly and talking. Close to 09:00, they started closing the dining room down and we had to go into the crowded theatre to wait for our freedom. My guess is that the majority of the crowd had not been cruising before because they all crowded around the door and hallway like that would get them off the ship faster. Us four went up to the second floor of the theatre, which was practically empty for the aforementioned reason and waited comfortably, if not patiently, up there.

my artsy ceiling shot to fight boredom

For those who don’t know, disembarkation on any cruise ship we’ve been on is a game of hurry up and wait. After being treated like royalty the whole trip, that last morning is a rude awakening of getting kicked out of the comfort of your stateroom, and forced to crowd into a designated large public area with everyone else on the ship. You hear the ship make dock and think, surely, you must be close to getting off, but – no – they don’t even start letting people go for another hour (customs has to come on board and inspect/clear the ship). When they finally do start to release the crowds, it’s by deck number so you’d better hope you’re a high-roller in a penthouse because if you’re on the lower decks, you’ve got another hour of waiting to do. Really, if you know what’s to expect, it’s not too bad… but for a first-timer, it totally feels like you’re being held captive.

the last buffet

Anyhow, we did finally get off the ship, sometime around 10:30, after waiting for our deck (lowest) to be called, waiting in line to disembark, waiting to go through customs, and then waiting to get back through security… we were free at last! Sissy and BIL graciously agreed to drive out of their way to drop us off at a car rental place in Miami and we said our farewells. Hubby and I then made our way even further south in our Mustang convertible. It took a while to fight through the Miami traffic (I so don’t miss living in a big city!!!) but we made it to the Keys and then proceeded to go all they way to Key West, which neither of us had visited before. The drive was long but lovely most of the time. We stopped in Duck Key for my photo opp with some signs (the last time I visited the Keys, that was as far south as I made it).

me in duck key, fl

i missed the sign for little duck key but caught the one for the channel

When we had made it to Key West, we drove around a while, stopped at a visitor center, and went into a few B&Bs before finding a perfectly quaint bed and breakfast on the east end of Duval Street. The Southernmost Point Guest House has character that just absolutely drew us in. I was amazed that it was also the cheapest place we had checked because it was so much lovelier than any of the others.  Even more, the owner, Mona, supplied each room with fresh roses and a bottle of wine.

wine just waiting on us

lovely roses

soft pink petals

We had some leftovers from lunch so we heated them in the microwave in our room and went down to the garden to eat and sip a glass of wine in the hammocks. It was a wonderfully relaxing end to a day of driving. Since I hadn’t really slept much in my cot on the cruise the last couple of days,

a real bed!

I made my case for a post-dinner nap so that we could recharge and be ready to explore Duval’s night life later on. Thirteen and a half hours later, we awoke on Thursday.

After a ridiculously long night’s sleep (not that i’m complaining) last night, we were up and ready to go this morning. We started out with Mona’s breakfast on the front porch

i didn't even realize what a lousy job i did of getting pix of this cute and cozy b&b

me on the 2nd floor balcony of the southernmost point guest house

and then we went for an exploratory walk. We had to check out the beach that was just one property to our east. Key West is not known for its beaches so I wasn’t too surprised to find it nowhere up to competition with our backyard.

pelican and gulls hanging out

you lookin' at me?!

turret! i'd love to have walked through this mansion. it looked amazing.

We then had our obligatory photo opp at the southernmost point in the continental US, just a ninety mile swim to Cuba!

hubby and me playing tourists

We spent the next hour or so walking up and down Duval Street and the marina and cruise port. Turns out, it’s a little bit like Kauai here.  While there aren’t nearly as many, the free-roaming chickens are a hoot.

hen and chicks

roosters

Down by the waterfront, there is a red brick building that totally stands out among the more pastel palette around it.  It is the Arts and Historical Society building and it has slice-of-life type sculptures all around it. 

out of order since it was taken later in the day, on the way back from snorkeling, but you can see just how much this building stands out

The one that amused me was this one of an artist painting a still-life of a sculpture across the way.  The name of it is ”Copyright Violation.”  It amused me.

so i guess i'm violating copyright violation?

A Wendy’s frosty and water on our way back saved us from spontaneous human combustion in that heat. When we made it back to the B&B, we changed and gathered up all of our snorkel gear and got ready for the walk back to the west end for our snorkeling trip out of the marina. We did the sunset snorkeling trip to get snorkel time and a sunset cruise all at once. This was our first snorkel trip on a sail boat so that was fun.

hubby on the upper deck

hoisting the sail

sailing away

hubby's hair flies around more than mine now

The snorkeling was… disappointing. We went to a reef on the seven mile ridge but the coral is all dead and bleached out as can be. We did see some large parrotfish and a few huge lobsters but not a whole lot more.

never seen the blue/black fishie before

the little pink-bellied guy looks dead there

giant lobster, not very photogenic

it's a trap!

kinda neat coral

this reminds me of the scene where forest gump meets his son and they sit in front of the tv and cock their heads the same way

he's bright, bold, beautiful, and blue!

love the little fishies surrounding his mouth looking for scraps

schooling

speckly loner

On the way back from snorkeling, we were served wine as the sun started to set.

spectacular sailboat sunset

me, hubby, and a sunset

We watched a boat similar to ours set anchor to enjoy the sunset,

just like us only stopped for the setting of the sun

which is what we thought we would be doing as well, but instead we kept right on sailing as the sun disappeared. So that too was a bit disappointing.

another, cooler looking, boat stopped for the sunset

arrrr, matey

sun setting with the moon already shining

The walk back along Duval Street was loud, boisterous, and fun.

Today, we took our time checking out of our very welcoming accommodations in Key West and headed back to Miami. We managed to get into town just in time for Friday rush hour – I so don’t miss living in a big city! We put down the convertible top and cruised South Beach a bit,

cruisin'

stylin'

scouting for a hotel. It didn’t take us long to decide that we didn’t want to pay South Beach hotel prices so we made our way to the much more business-friendly airport area and checked into our old standby, Holiday Inn Express. You always know what you’re getting there. We were both pretty darned pooped but, as luck would have it, there was an IHOP across the parking lot so we feasted on a dinner of breakfast – my favorite!

pretty purple parking lot flowers

peek-a-boo

We had every intentions of making it an early night so that we’d be fully rested for our cruise embarkation tomorrow but when we started repacking all of our luggage, we discovered that all of our towels, bathing suits, and snorkel paraphernalia reeked. So here we are in the guest laundry room of the hotel at 22:00 at night, waiting for our stuff to dry so that we can go back to our room, pack, and go to bed.