Day Two – Key West

Monday, April 1, 2019

We’re pulling into Key West when I check out the view from the balcony.  If’ I’d looked when I first got up, I’d have seen sunrise!  But there’s yoga and washing up and getting ready for breakfast to be taken care of.  Tobi comes by while I’m doing my practice and Diana tells her we’ll be along for breakfast in just a bit.

When we get upstairs we spot Tobi and Ma and Maureen.  There are only four chairs but we get our breakfast anyway, secure in the knowledge that Dean will find us two more chairs, and, sure enough, when we return with our plates, there are places for us.  This buffet is a bit different in that most of the time you have to tell the servers what you would like, so you often get more than you bargained for!

Breakfast is leisurely since we can’t disembark until 11:30.  We stay and chat with Tobi for quite a while, then go back to the room to gather things and check email and such while we’re in American waters.  I’ve got a text from Wells Fargo telling me about a large charge!  I call and ask for them to put a temporary hold on the card while I check it out, since Diana’s bank hasn’t been in touch with her.  That suggests that it might be fraudulent.

We go down to customer service and learn that they put sixty dollars a day on hold – I guess because they don’t trust us to pay our bill when we leave??  Anyway, I have to call back and remove the hold.  It’s all pretty simple but could have been avoided if anyone had known that was the policy!

We all disembark somewhat separately but meet up at the dock.  We’re taking the twelve-stop hop-on hop-off trolley, which actually has thirteen stops!  The commentary is continuous and Fred, our driver is a hoot.  And a great driver!  He says that when he checks out his trolley in the morning it weighs twenty tons and is bright orange and green.  When he hits the street it becomes invisible!  We believe him when we watch the other drivers!

For my Coastie!

There is so much history in Key West, even for those of us who live in the state and have been here before.  His version of the Conch Republic’s story is the best I’ve heard!  And there’s Sloppy Joe’s and the Hemingway House and the Truman White House and the new part of town that was built by the U.S. Navy to provide housing for the service men.  And all the rest, including the fact that our barrier reef is the third largest in the world!  And the fact that Henry Flagler built a railroad that came all the way to Key West!  Unfortunately a hurricane destroyed it.

Diana and I get off near the end of the route and cruise the little shops and galleries, encountering a mama chicken and her chicks and acquiring a few souvenirs.  We chat with a Kurdish man about the state of affairs in Turkey and with Krystal in the Wyland gallery about her love of reading.  One of the musicians in our lunch spot, the Salty Angler, loves my shirt with the waxing and waning cats.  I’ve chosen “meat candy” (brisket points cubed and cooked down in au jus and key lime BBQ sauce) and a side salad.

For my key-lime pie expert.

Hemingway had this wall built to keep people away from his home.

We get back to the ship an hour before our 5:30 curfew in hopes of having dinner by then.  There is some kerfuffle about that;  but Diana and I go down and secure a table for eight and over the next half hour the rest of the troupe straggles in. 

We all think the Caribbean is so beautiful - but we've got our own gorgeous waters!

I know - but you've just got to!

I have goat quark (!) as my appetizer and halibut for my entrée.  Dessert is sticky toffee and date pudding with tabasco-spiced pecans.  And all of it is delish!  Since we wind up sitting for a while waiting for everyone else I ask for our bottle of shiraz from last night and – sorry Robin – I have both glasses that are left.  She says, when she arrives, that that’s fine because she had two last night!  She orders another bottle and I’ll have some of it tomorrow night!

I run out during dinner to catch the sunset.  Dean tells me that deck three will get me outside.

There is supposed to be a photography discussion at 7:30, so Diana and I cut out as soon as we’re through with dessert.  (Her gluten free order, which she placed last night, is perfect )

Turns out the discussion is really about how great it would be to purchase their black and white portraits;  but it’s just the two of us and a young lady from Serbia who is the photographer and salesperson, so we talk about her life and what we know of her country.  It was delightful and we each got a glass of bubbly!  She offered to give us the bottle but we agreed to just let her fill our glasses a second time and scurried off to see the comedian Jeff Burghart, at 8:00.

He’s pretty funny but definitely aims his jokes at his target audience – read that “old folks”!  Who else remembers Paul Lind??

When he’s finished we wander off and I get sucked into the jazz quartet, The Ocean Quartet, playing in the Ocean Bar, while Diana goes looking for Tobi in the casino.  They all agree it sucks;  but seem to go there anyway!  When I’m jazzed out, I move down to Barry from Boston who plays a mean piano and doing sixties music tonight.  He’s REALLY good and everyone sings along with all the songs.  Yes , we’re all that old.

At one point Dean comes by to check on me and later Maureen and Ma pass by on their way upstairs.  Even Diana has checked in to say her contacts are giving her trouble and she’s going up, too.

When Barry takes his break I thank him for the great music and a gentleman tells me that it’s too bad I didn’t enjoy the show.  I guess I was a little involved!?

Upstairs and time for a shower and bedtime stuff. We turn our clocks back tonight, so I get an extra hour to write – or sleep – it depends on how you look at these things!  Oh!  And there’s a towel critter on my bed!