Day three was when I felt like the cruise really started. It was our
first day in port and also our first excursion. Ronald and Ryan's
stateroom was right next to ours. Every morning one of us would wake up
and inevitably the first thing we'd do is head out onto the balcony to
check out the view. We were just barely off the coast of Florida and we
could see the water getting bluer as we went. I walked out on the
balcony just in time to take this picture. Can you see the line where
the water turns color?
I wanted to hop over the balcony railing and just sit on the edge of the
boat. Which, I technically could have done, but I figured I'd have to
spend the rest of the cruise in boat jail, and so I just took more
pictures.
After breakfast we changed into our suits and cover ups and hopped off
the boat. I was really surprised how close the boat docks to everything.
Key West isn't that big of an island, but still, we could see gorgeous
condos and shops right next to the port. It was also the first time we
got a real look at the boat. In New Orleans you don't really get to see
the whole thing as you're focused on shuffling on with your bags and
such. Plus, the boat just looked prettier in Key West. Whoever named
their boat their sailboat 'Elvis' is an awesome human. If I had a boat I
would name it after one of my dogs. I just don't know which one. I
would need a fleet I guess...
The boat we were on is called the Serenade of the Seas and what really
amazed me is that it's one of the 'medium-sized' boats in the Royal
Caribbean fleet. Blows. My. Mind.
Hopefully this provides a little more scale.
We had to be back to the port for our excursion, but we decided to kill
about an hour or so walking around Key West. I have to be honest. I
thought Key West was going to be my least favorite stop on the cruise. I
don't know what I expected but I just didn't think I would like it very
much. Well, boys and girls, I'm proof that you shouldn't judge a city
by it's tourists. Or something like that. I loved it. So much so that I
want to go back and see it again, along with all of the other Florida
Keys. I wish I had learned more about it before we went. To me, Key West
felt like a really busy small town. I loved all of the houses and
architecture. This building was particularly pretty. Its red brick stuck
out above all of the white and gray. We saw it from the boat. I later
Googled it and found out it's known as the Custom House and it's the
home of the Key West Museum of Art and History. It kept reminding me of
the downtown Fort Worth court house, which makes sense because it has
served as a courthouse, post office, and a million other things before
becoming a museum.
Positioned all around the Custom House were lots of art installations. Some big...
Some small...
Some nude...
This one was my favorite, only because after I finished taking this
picture two dudes walked up and started doing some hilarious poses. One
of them tried to reach up and grab a boob, but he was too short so he
settled for leaning against the um.. you know. ;)
We walked past this old market building where we decided to stop off and
try to find gifts to take home to friends and family. Plus they had air
conditioning. We lucked out on finding anything good, but Joel and Ryan
picked up some cigars to enjoy later that night. I loved that they
still had their Christmas decorations up almost mid-way through January.
I like to think that they just stay there all the time.
Directly across the street from the market was an ice cream shop that
was basically shouting my name at the top of its lungs. They did have
chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick (I saw it advertised at other
ice cream shops too so apparently it's a thing), and I wanted to give it
a try, but the guy who worked at the shop said the strawberry
cheesecake ice cream was better. I didn't even have the key lime pie and
I agreed. I think I said something like 'Dear Sweet Baby Jesus' when I
had the first bite. Normally I would say that putting fruit in desserts
is a mortal sin, but I do believe I have found the one exception.
I really, really wanted to go inside this place, the Audubon House.
Their garden was amazing. Apparently this place is used as a wedding
venue quite often. I could see why. This phone picture does not do the
place any justice. It was SO green.
Legend has it that the place is haunted. I didn't know that at the time so maybe it's a good thing we skipped it.
We wanted to keep walking but we had to stay close to the port, so we
headed back toward the boat and stopped off at one last place while we
still had a little time, the Key West Aquarium. I was happy to find out
they didn't actually have any sharks that big inside.
But they did have... chickens? Not what I expected. They wouldn't even let me pet them. Rude.
They also had hideous, nightmare inducing floating monsters. Bleeegh!
And one fish to tried to get a little too fresh with me.
The pond area was pretty...
Until you turned around and saw these scaly little creatures just waiting to attack.
There were also two huge open tanks the middle of the room with rays and
turtles and nurse sharks in them. They were cool, but I was a little
freaked out by them. I was ready to leave when one of the keepers was
feeding the sharks and dropped a bloody fish head six inches away from
my foot.
Luckily we had an excuse to get out of there. We said goodbye to the locals and headed back toward the dock.
We had an underwater date to get to...
We went SNUBA diving!!!!
You're probably wondering what the heck snuba diving is. Well, it's
basically a cross between scuba and snorkeling. You're attached to a
floating air tank that you share with a partner. You use a regular scuba
regulator to breath and you're attached to your tank via a 20-something
foot hose. You can swim down to about 18 feet or so, and you can see
all kinds of stuff. Lobsters, fish, gross coral-y things. Maybe even a
shark! Luckily we didn't run into any of those. The scuba divers will
even give you stuff that's okay to touch if you want to take a photo.
Look how awesome Joel looks!
Now, as awesome as snuba diving is, and as much fun as I had, I have to
tell the truth... I took me a while to get the hang of it. By the time
we were heading back to the boat I felt like I had finally gotten
comfortable. Breathing with a regulator is way, way harder than I
expected. Plus we had weight belts on to help with staying down under
the water. You have to kick fairly hard to help keep the floating tanks
moving along with the group, so combine being weighted down with trying
to swim much harder than you usually do and only breath out of your
mouth while feeling extremely winded. I basically paid $70 to feel like I
was slightly drowning for an hour. Ronald was having the same problem I
was. We asked our instructor to take our weight belts off and instantly
felt much better. I still stayed up at the top the whole time, and I
saw a lot of cool stuff. Now that I know what to expect I would do it
again in a heartbeat. Only I would ask to not put my weight belt on
right away and just see if I could get the hang of my breathing first.
Even with the problems I was experiencing, it was still a lot of fun.
Joel and I kept saying that we both want to learn how to scuba dive now.
You know, because of all of the awesome scuba diving spots in Fort
Worth, Texas. ;)
I would like to state for the record that we are not peace
sign/cowabunga people in real life, but we didn't really know what to do
with our hands. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Sexiest get up I've ever worn. Oh and by the way, the water was freezing and I swallowed lots of Floridian salt water...
Of the two of us, Joel definitely had a better experience and got more
out of it. He even touched a lobster's leg. He took to the whole thing
pretty quickly. Even though our tank was at the back of the 'fleet' he
kept swimming up ahead of everyone else. He had a blast, which is all I
really wanted. Well, that, and to be able to take a full breath.
This next photo is terrible because I had to zoom in so far, but I had
to show you this. See that little house boat floating way out there off
the coast? You can rent it out! Obviously you have to have some sort of
water transportation to get back and forth, but how cool is that? Our
instructor was telling us about it on the way back to port. He made it
sound like heaven.
We got to cruise right up the our ship when we got back to port. It felt even bigger from our tiny little boat.
Once we were back aboard the ship we all changed and headed straight to
dinner. As we were pulling back out of the port we caught a view of this
tiny little island right of the coast of Key West. I later found out
it's called Sunset Key and it's a privately held residential
neighborhood that's only accessible by ferry (or jet skis as you can
see). There are only 48 homes on the island and the cheapest one is $1.5
million. Apparently you can rent out a cottage through Westin hotels if
you really want to see what it would be like to live on a private
island. This was the one and only time on the whole cruise that I wish I
had brought binoculars.
Luckily I had a giant strawberry margarita in which to drown my sorrows...
After dinner we caught the most amazing sunset I've ever seen in my
whole life. Then we changed and headed out for the evening. We hit up
the arcade on board, where we played a few very intense rounds of air
hockey before we headed over to the bar to shoot some pool and play
darts. We rounded out the evening with a little people watching at the
'club' before we finally crashed somewhere around 2:30 in the morning.
I know these vacation recaps are pretty long so I decided to post twice
today. I had a great time and I want to share everything. A little later
this afternoon I'll be showing you day 4 and then I'll finish up on
Wednesday with the last of the trip.
Key West, you were a pretty-dang-cool little city. I can't wait to come
back and see you again. Have you ever been to The Keys? Did you love it?
Would you ever try SNUBA diving? I know I made it seem hard, but it
really was worth it.
*All of the underwater photos were taken by Andrew Freeman at Adventure Imaging. We booked our snuba excursion through Royal Caribbean but if you're ever in Key West, check out the guys at Snuba of Key West. They will show you a great time.
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