Key West Monday

Sunday night ended with us going back to our stateroom and there were bathrobes and flowers in our room. Monday morning we woke up with breakfast delivered to our room with champagne. The champagne helped out greatly with my blood alcohol level getting dangerously low after sleeping for 7 hours.

We got dressed, walked off the boat and had one of those pictures made with the life saver thingy. It ended up being a pretty cute picture of us so we bought it. We wandered towards the shops and met this local guy in his shop and he told us the places we HAD to hit. The places where most of the tourists don’t venture, a little off the beaten path (if you can get off the beaten path on a 2x4 mile island). The first stop was the Bahama Village. Bohemians were the first settlers on the island and they had a little village where they sold goods. We started down the street and found ourselves in a run down area. We found out that most of the Bohemians have been forced to move and close up their shops because of the hurricanes and outrageous housing costs. It made me sad because I feel like they should still be able to live there and afford it without the rich people driving up the costs. We headed back up towards Duval street and stopped in a little café/bar for a drink and bathroom break. Chris got an orange juice and I ordered a diet coke and the lady asked if we were going to be ordering breakfast. I looked at my watch and it was only 11:00 a.m.! I told her I was debating on having some rum with my coke and she said that it was never too early to drink in Key West. I also figured that my alcohol level might be dipping dangerously low again so I had her add some Malibu to my coke. It was great!

Our next little place to find was The Chicken Store . The Store is just what it sounds like, a store full of chicken things, except this store loved to do word play with cocks (as in roosters). It was a lot of fun to see the local artwork being so dirty yet innocent at the same time. I got a magnet for my friend that says I love cocks and it has a picture of a rooster on it. Heehee. The story behind the chicken store is that roosters and chickens were brought to Key West for cock fighting and now they breed and live much like stray cats in the city. Seriously, there are chickens and roosters wandering around everywhere! I tried to get a picture of one crossing the road, but wasn’t quick enough with the camera. The Chicken Store is set up to take in orphaned chickens and the like. Check out the link above to see just what they are all about. One side of the store is stuff to buy and the other side is chickens and roosters that you can see, feed and pet. It was very interesting.

We continued down Duval Street where we visited multiple little shops and enjoyed lunch at BO’s Fishwagon , the fried fish was so light and yummy that I could have eaten for dinner too.

After lunch we went to the Pirate Soul Museum which was fun and interesting, but I could have done without it. Again, there was a picture taken and again we bought it. We’re suckers for good pics of ourselves. This is a recurring theme in our vacation.

Wow, this has been a long day and it’s only 4:00 and we’re just getting back on the boat. Chris went running and I snoozed on the deck as we pulled out of port. Dinner was formal and we looked hot and got more pictures taken (which we bought) and there was the whole not being able to remember the names of the other people at our table so we just made them up which is when Martin named Mr. and Mrs. Miagi. After dinner was more karaoke and Chris sang Fun, Fun, Fun by the Beach Boys with Martin. We hit the casino for a hot second and played some slots and roulette for about 30 minutes and then went to bed. This first night in the casino was not good and was not our last.