Day 6 Friday November 21st.
This was a whole day at sea, and because we weren't going to the Great Stirrup Cay the ship was moving very slow, which was nice. Key West is a lot closer than Great Stirrup Cay. I didn't get too sea sick this week, I did get a bit queasy when we were moving faster. When the ship is moving faster you can feel the waves hit the ship more, and the worst place to be was the front, you could feel it a lot more there.
This was the one day we could sleep in and I couldn't sleep pass 9, and I didn't want to wake Randy up, so I quietly got ready & left him a note to where I would be, went and ate breakfast and then headed for the theater for the Behind the scenes Digital Photo Tour. The Captain and the Chief Engineer did a presentation on what goes on around the ship. It was cool, the only thing better would have been a tour. Jon and Laura were there and neither of us had known that there was Viewing Room of the Bridge, so we headed to find it. It was cool to watch the crew steer the boat. After we were done we ate lunch. Randy meet up with us by then. He went and played Texas Hold em and I went to the towel folding demonstration.
Then I went and took the Juggling work shop with Sharkbait. Juggling really isn't that hard once you learn the technique, but there's no way I will becoming a juggler any time soon.
After I met back up with Randy we went and had a snack. Then we went to the International Crew show, Some of the acts were lame but others were really good. The CNN act was funny when you could understand what he was saying, the best act was from the Cruise Director and his staff. They were fountains spitting water on each other, performed to an Enya song. Randy and I were laughing so hard I thought I would pee my pants.
We missed the show this night which was the South Beach Rave, I wasn't a fan of the group, So I didn't mind, because we sat in the hot tub which was so nice. No one was there we had the whole hot tub to ourselves. We met up with Jon and Laura and caught The Perfect Couple Game Show. It was hilarious. They had 4 couples, the first thing they had to do was: the guy stood on a chair and the girl took a lemon and then had to start at the bottom of his pants and with her hands move the lemon up on side of the pant leg across the front and down the other leg, each couple was timed to see who could do it faster. Some guys had loose Sunday pants on while others had jeans it was very funny. 2nd task: the guy had a roll of toilet paper in between his legs and the girls were blindfolded and then had a stick in between her legs, the girl had to but the stick in the hole. 3rd task: was a relay race with balloons, the guy sat on a chair and the girl would put the balloon between her legs run over to the guy and put the balloon in is lap and then sit on the balloon to pop-it,run back over put a balloon between her legs run over to him and pop-it between there chest, run back over get another balloon put it between her legs run over to the guy this time he was bending over a chair and she had to put the balloon on his bum and her tummy and pop-it, run back get another balloon and put it between her legs this time he was laying on the floor, she had to put it on his chest and sit on him to pop-it, it isn't something I would feel comfortable doing, but it was a really funny show.
Then it was off to the Chocoholic Buffet. There were so many thing to see and eat so I just about took one of everything. Took a bite of everything I got but only ate what I liked.
Then we headed to The Lairs Club with the Cruise Director, Jeff Harms and Sharkbait. They give you a word and then they each give you a definition and you guess which definition is true. So the the definitions were funny and most of the time we were wrong, tons of fun. The we all headed off to eat again. Laura wanted to go to
Ship n' Males so I went with her. When I got there it was standing room only. So we went to the front and sat on the floor. A good place to sit if you want to be involved, bad place to sit if you don't. Well they started the show and then each guy came out one at a time and stripped down to his underwear, will stripping down the would give some ladies lap dances. This is where I said sitting in the front could be good or bad. I got three lap dances. It was very awkward. Don't think I will ever do that again. Neither Laura or I had been to anything like that before. As you can see on my face I don't know what to think, to enjoy it, or be embarrassed by it. It couldn't believe how guys were there with there wives and encouraging them to participate. They had there hands all over the guys it was very sad to see.
Saturday November 22nd, day 7.
Key West, Florida.
We had to be up at 6:30 so we could go through U.S Custom and Border Protection Inspection. "In Key West, Florida in a port back into the United States of America , everyone was required to go through a "face to face" document inspection." Then it was off to breakfast and then we left the ship for Key West. They had this Statue which I thought was cool.
Then we started walking around Key West. Found the Sandal shop but it wasn't open yet so we would try and come back. We got a map and found out where the Butterfly Conservatory was and headed in that direction. There were a lot of shops that had tee shirts that had some funny sayings on them. Sometimes we would have to stop and read what was on them. We finally made it to the Butterfly Conservatory and went in. This is by far one of the coolest things I have seen. You first start out in a room that has a video that tells all about butterflies, there are also caterpillars in viewing boxes along with frogs. Did you know that a Butterfly only lives for 12 days in the wild. I never knew that. Then we went into the Atrium where the Butterflies fly all around you. They are so beautiful. They also have birds, fish and turtles. Butterflies that live in Butterfly farms and Atruims live 2 weeks longer than they do in the wild. At the end they Have a viewing wing of them in the metamorphose phase. Their was the Blue Butterfly that kept flying around me but would never land, I was telling Randy that I really like it and couldn't get a picture of it he said their was one sitting on the railing so I went over and it was still there. This was my favorite one.
When we were done there we walked around the gift shop and they had a gallery that had preserved Butterflies in display cases all in different arrangements. They were gorgeous, I really wanted to get one but didn't want to pay the price they were asking. But while we were there they were putting up the Christmas display and had a butterfly in an ornament, which wasn't as much. I was going to get it but Randy thought that if we were going to pay that price we might as well buy one that we can always have on display and not just once in a while. This was our most expensive souvenir, but people pay this much for a piece of art work, and this is art work. Everytime I see it I remember our time here. The Butterflies in here are: The cw/lavender, lt. green & white markings is Weiskei for New Guinea, the Iridescent green, orange with black and white tails is a Riphaeus from Madagascar, the Deep metallic blue with black outline is a Menelaus from Guyana. You can check out their website at www.keywestbutterfly.com.
When we were done we weren't that far from the beach and had worn our suits hoping to get in. But it was a little chilly and windy so we just looked. There was this sign that said we were at the southern most tip of the United States. Which was cool to think we couldn't go any farther than this and not be in the USA.
By now we were hungry and I remember seeing this crepe place, and I love crepes. So I wanted to try it out so we walked back the way we came and found it. The crepes their were so good. We had a meat one and a dessert one. Yum! Yum! This places was so small it had 3 stools at the bar. Most people got it to go. She made the meat one with a buckwheat crepe, which sound not so good but was great. I wish we had something like this around here.
Then I wanted to go and see the Old Civil War Fort, but before we got there we saw this old was ship The U.S.S Mohawk so we took the tour. It used to be an old coast guard boat, but when World War 2 happened they needed small ships to accompany the Battleship that dropped depth charges to sink subs. It was a cool piece of history. They had over 150 men on board, they only had 1 shower and 3 urinals and one toilet to share. Can you image having to share that bathroom with 150 other people. I can't.
While on the Mohawk there were these fisherman and one had caught a Sting Ray we watched him trying to pull it up onto the pier but the line snapped and it dropped back into the ocean.
Then we headed over to the Civil War Fort. But by the time we got to the entrance, we didn't realize we still had to walk about another mile to get to the fort. We didn't have that much time left so We head off to the Florida Keys Eco-discovery Center.
After we were done there we walked by to the KINO store to get sandals. On our walk back we came across some cool looking trees. The first tree would be cool to build a tree house in. The second tree was so neat. The branchs would grow out and then down and re plant them selves back in the ground and it had these red berries on it. I have never seen a tree like this in my life.
After we got done with buying sandals for us and our parents we had just enough time to walk through the Mel Fishers Treasure Museum. This guy had found this ship wreck off the Florida Keys and has over 100,000 artifacts. Randy really wanted to take the tour but my legs and feet were hurting so bad, plus I was getting a migraine. I was just going to sit and wait for him to get done. But I really wanted to see it too. It was really neat to see things from the 17th cenutry. We even got to hold a GOLD bar. I was really heavy. I think I would have had enjoyed it more if I hadn't been in so much pain.
When we got done there I had had enough it was time to take a pain pill and lay down. So thats what we did for 1 1/2 before we meet with Jon and Laura for Dinner.
Pictures of Key west. There is a law that all cruise ships have to be out of port before the sunset, a lot of people come down to the pier to watch Key West famous Sunsets.
The Sunset before dinner.
We ate dinner at the Lotus Garden. This was the best meal we had all week. I'm glad we saved the best for last.
Wasabe Peas
Salad Randy and I had
Shrimp Egg Rolls Jon and Laura had
I had the Sweet and Sour Chicken and this
Randy had this
Jon had this he also had this
Luara had this
Laura had this dessert
Randy had banana pancakes
Jon and I had the Rice pudding which was the best.
I had to take a picture of the 2 story t.v. which I thought the boys would like to see.
Then we went and saw the last show of the week which was a variety show with Sharkbait and Jeff Harms. It was fantastic. Then we caught the Quest Game Show. IT had been a long day so we went back to our room I ordered Room Service and packed our bags that had to be outside the door before 2am and than we crashed.
Sunday November 23, 2008
Miami Florida
We got up early, got ready, finished backing our carry-on bags and had breakfast, went back and got our suitcase and meet up for our tour to the Everglades.
The Everglade bus ride was about an hour. We fanally made it to the Everglade tour place. Got on the Airboat and headed into the Everglades. Did you know that it isn't a swamp, because it is a river that flows about 2 inches a day, because the water moves it isn't a swamp, and it doesn't smell. we saw 4-5 alligators and some birds, turtles on the Islands in the middle of the swamp will eventually move together to make on piece of land, there were Indians that lived there until 1970, until they moved more Miami. When we were done with the Airboat ride we went to the snake exhibit. Their was a mouse in this one snakes cage and I was watching it and was able to get a picture of the snake catching the mouse. Then we went to the Alligator show, were they talked about the difference of alligators and crocodiles. Then we could pay 3 dollars to take a picture with Snappy the alligator. I wanted to say that I had an Alligator. Then we walked around the park. We came across the pine tree that we had see in Belize while on the bus (my picture of it didn't turn out in Belize) so we took a picture of it. It is a type of pine tree we have never seen before, it is really cool. While walking around the grounds we came across an Alligator right in the middle of the path. There was a couple behind us so they took our picture with it and we took on of them. THey had gotten so close that it started to hiss at them. We of course had to turn around and go back the other way. Then we went to the gift shop and to the cafe and tried Alligator bites, which were pretty good.
Then it was back on to the bus. They dropped those off who were flying out of Miami airport and then they took those who were left which was us to the Ft. Lauderdale airport. We had three hours to kill before we left for the Dallas Ft. Worth Airport to catch our flight to Salt Lake city. So we had Lunch and then sat and read Beisingr. Randy read it I listen to it on my I-pod.
When we landed in Dallas We had an 1 1/2 before our flight left so we wanted to get dinner. The place Randy wanted to eat at was closed and so we ate at Fuddruckers. So while Randy was getting our dinner I wanted a shake and when we walk by it, it was still open, but by the time I walked back to it it was closed. So instead of walking back to Randy I sat and waited there for him. Earlier we had called the boys and Randy had kept my cell phone and he had his to, so after waiting a 1/2 hour for him I started walking back to him. I was so upset that it had taken so long. Come to find out that he sat and ate his half of the hamburger because he didn't have enough hands to carry his suitcase the hamburger and fries. We couldn't communicate because he had both phones I was so upset because I didn't have time to eat before boarding the plane, so I had to eat cold fries and a hamburger. Before we landed in Salt Lake I had cooled off. My parents picked us up at 11:30 and we got back to their house at 1:00am. So we just crashed there since we were both so tired. Then we got up went to the Chiropractor and out to breakfast and then headed home. Thanks Jim and Leah for taking such good care of our boys while we were gone. When the boys got home from school they were really excited to see us, as much as we were to see them.
It was such a nice vacation. Ever since we have been home I keep having cruise dreams. I told Randy that if we had the money and could just take the boys and go on another one I would go in a heartbeat, Randy wants to wait a while. As you can see we had so much fun and I can't wait to go on another one. The next one will be to Alaska.
