Reflections of My Travel

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.

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.

This morning, we all had to wake up early to meet up for breakfast before our snorkeling excursion. We got off the ship in Nassau and were led to a boat that would take us out to the reef. After a thirty minute ride, we were shuffling off the boat and into the water. To ensure that we saw plenty of fish, the guides released fish food a few times and they swarmed to the buffet. For the most part, us four stayed off to ourselves, exploring some nicer coral formations further from the boat.

brain coral

funnel shaped coral

bowl shaped coral

The seas were up and I kept having to go from one side to the other to find hubby or sissy so I got a pretty good workout of flippering while looking at all the pretty fishies.

yellow/blue fishie

what's black and white and red all over?

blue/yellow fishie

parot fish

silver yellow-tailed fishies

convict striped fishie

camouflage fishie

striped needle fishie

speckled needle fishie

charcoal/yellow fishie

little puffer fishie

gray speckled fishies

lots-o-fishies

electric blue fishie

close up and personal

We were given a little more than forty-five minutes of water time and were the last ones back on the boat, with the exception of BIL who had gotten pretty green in the water, even with his patch.

sissy fishie

The ride back seemed more leisurely than the ride out there. 

tiger woods' house

we passed a sailboat race

self-portrait with sailboats

atlantis resort

cool sissy

bahamas celebration

the ship lineup - ours is the little one on the left

bahamas celebration

hubby playing around in the port market

We made it back to the ship in time for lunch, which we had in the main dining room. Here is where I tell you about the fabulous cream of asparagus soup – I so could have made a meal of it and the warm bread. Also, I ordered some lemon meringue tort thing for dessert and it was the first non-ice cream or sherbet dessert that I’ve had on a cruise ship that was worth eating. With full bellies, we got back off the ship and walked around town for a couple of hours

i think it's pretty, i reply

and then spent some time in and around the pool before dinner and show time.

sissy and BIL checking out the pool

this was the first "above ground" pool i've seen on a cruise ship

sunset from the sea

BIL and sissy

hubby and me

Dinner was a bit of a flop for me. I’m not sure whether it was snorkeling in the rough water or if my stomach had finally had enough of the horribly exaggerated rocking of this ship, but I just couldn’t eat. I had a few of the warm rolls but that was nearly it. My salad was warm and I couldn’t seem to get past that for more than a couple of bites. I ordered pasta, which was good, but I could only stand a bite or two of it. I was so hot in that dining room that I had to get up and walk around the ship for a few minutes before coming back for dessert, a warm strawberry mousse of which I could only eat less than half.

The show was another comedian, who was not only very funny but an exceptional tap dancer, and an impersonation singer/dancer. I wasn’t expecting that one to be very entertaining but he was actually pretty good. We swung by the karaoke bar for a few minutes but went to bed fairly early since it’s going to be a way too early morning.

towel dog