Hemingway House

We went to the Hemingway House tour. Omar wasn't interested so he stayed in the car. The tour was about 45 minutes long and was really interesting. His home in the Keys he lived in for a while but when he divorced the wife who owned it he never returned to the Keys. That wife left it to him when he died and when Hemingway passed he left it to his sons who then sold it. The person who owns it now made it to the tourist destination it is.

When we got to the location I had to go to the bathroom really badly. I was pointed to where it was somewhere in the garden. There was a boys stall and a girl's stall. One person was in front of me at the girl's stall and I would have been willing to go to the boy's stall, I had to go so badly, if  there had been a free time. The woman in the stall that we were waiting on took over 15 minutes!!! Seriously. Every time a guy would go into their stall, right then another guy would walk up to go next so it was never not free. Over 10 guys went into the bathroom before the lady came out. It was ridiculous. I kept asking the lady in front of me if she was sure someone was in there (the person in the stall was in there prior to me showing up in line). She said she was sure. When I finally went to the bathroom, the stall was huge and so nice - no wonder she was in there so long. There was a whole sitting area. I bet she was just sitting in that nice comfy sofa chair laughing that we were waiting to to go to the bathroom.

We learned about the Hemingway cats and how Hemingway was very accident prone. Merchant ships thought that 6-toed cats were good luck. Hemingway's son found a 6 toed cat and kept it. The cats multiplied and the cats there, about 30 of them or something are the descendants of the original. Each female is allowed 2 litters and then is fixed. Only 2 males are not fixed. One of the oldest cats died the day of our tour and all the workers were mourning. He was 14 years old. We asked what they do with the cats when they die, they said that they don't go to the Vet, the Vet comes to them. There is a special burial place in the garden. There are outside cats that try to get in, but the Hemingway cats won't allow them. They can go anywhere they want in the house or on the grounds.

Garden

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway man cave where he did a lot of his writing

Hemingway's 4 wives

His cats

Hemingway cat drinking from the fountain

banana tree

garden fountain - the bottom part is a urinal from Sloppy Joe's

Duval Street: Florida Keys

Our first whole day in the keys we spent near Duval Street. My mom and I went shopping taking our time through the shops.

I found this really cute KW bracelette, which stands for Key West, but since it was my maiden name initials & I really wanted it, so splurged and bought it.

I loved this painted tiles - they were set in wood frames made from real lobster traps. I think for a future nursery I would want something like this in it and do an ocean or sea theme 

these purses were so cool - made out old hard-bound books

I love this sea collage made from the traps again 

thought something like painting my own fish could be cute for a nursery too

My dad and Omar we sent off on their own as they were getting bored at our speed. We met up for lunch and then walked back to the car and saw some of the shops that each group liked and wanted to show each other. We went and got our wetsuits for Dry Tortugas and walked around the marina and found a seafood restaurant and ate appetizers for dinner.

interesting - i can only imagine

There were some really cool pelicans

Sunset

We had fun in the hammock store. My mom loved the one she was in. Omar and I ended up buying 2 hammocks - not shown here. They are hanging on our porch and we love them - thinking about buying 2 more so others can join us.

Florida Keys - Driving down to Key West

At the first Key we stopped at the Visitors Center to use the bathroom and to get an idea of what we needed to be sure to see on the way down. We wouldn't have time to stop on the way back up because we had booked snorkeling on one of the keys and would be gone from 9am-3pm.

I went up to the lady that worked there and asked her and she pulled a map out and started drawing lines at mile markers and she started spewing out what I could see on the way down. She told me 5 different things and was going so fast I couldn't keep up with her. I told her she was going really fast and she said, "I know honey its fast, just keep up." I was shocked. She would then stop in the middle of our conversation to make sure that every person that walked in signed her visitors book. I think she cared more about the book than anything.

She told us that we should stop at a turtle nursery, see Hemingway's boat, some nature trail place, and then to go to No Name Pub to see the million dollars on the walls. I asked if all the things were free and she guaranteed they were. 

First stop was at Sportsmans where Hemingways boat was located. We looked around outside at the Marina and didn't see anything. We did see a menu for a restaurant there and were all shocked that dolphin was all over the menu. Later when we saw dolphin on all the menus in the Keys we asked a waitress about it and she said that was what they call "Mahi Mahi". We had never heard that before. 

We had to ask someone where the boat was and was told it was literally INSIDE the Sportsmans store (a retail chain selling outdoors stuff). So we walked around the ship inside the store. 

I commented how funny that Omar can't hold on to his glasses for a month and yet we still have Hemingway's glasses when he is already dead! 

Our next stop was the sea turtle nursery which actually cost money for an hour and a half tour, unlike what the lady told us. We didn't really want to do that so we then went to the nature trail place which also cost money and so we left there too. 

The main thing that she told me that we should see was the Key Deer. She put a line on the map and opened another booklet which was the Key Deer Preservation area. She pointed at a picture of Key Deer in the water and said you will see the deer here. I said "You just go to the mile marker and you see the deer?" She then got all crazy and was like, "Yes! You just see them like the one in this picture with the water, they are everywhere!" I was thinking that maybe it was like a petting farm or something. Key Deer are miniature deer and are endangered species. We drove to where she said and couldn't find anything. We drove around looking at the houses and looking for Key Deer. We saw some in someone's yard. They are so cute and it was sad becuase we saw a sign that over 200 of them were killed last year!

Love all the unique mailboxes

We were pretty much ready to get to the our condo and decided to skip the No Name Pub. We got to our condo a few minutes after 5pm and they closed at 5pm so they put an envelope with our key in it. The condo was nice and was not but a 5-10 minute drive from the main strip Duval Street. 

That evening we went and ate at a Cuban Restaurant El Siboney. It was pretty good.

We then went and walked around Duval Street some and then bought a pie at the Key Lime Pie Factory and went back to the condo. 

This was a crazy bike this guy was riding

Omar and I didn't sleep well any of the nights we were there. Starting at about midnight the roosters would start crowing every 1-2 minutes, literally!!! Everytime I would start to fall asleep, the rooster would crow again. It was horrible. Roosters are all over the island. I think I could live in the keys if they didn't have roosters.

Sea Days & Debarkation

There was only 2 sea days on this cruise. Last cruise we participated in a ton of activities on board. This time, I just wanted to relax a lot of the time. I think I was just exhausted from working so much the previous year. I really wanted Omar to participate in the Hairy-est man contest but he chickened out at the last minute. He told me later that he thought it would have been weird because there would be other girls rubbing his chest and back to feel how hairy he was. He told me he would do it next time if I wanted him. We shall see.

I spent part of the time basking in the sun on deck. I couldn't find a lounger that wasn't taken so found a stack of them and told people to move there loungers over so I could place another one down. Honestly, so many people just put their stuff on a lounger and never even use it which is frustrating to those that actually want to use one. 

There was a trivia game that I got chosen to be a participant. Lets just say that I lost. But it was still fun

There are 2 cruise elegant nights. I realized in Miami that I forgot to pack dress shoes for Omar. I told him he could just use his special water shoes instead of us buying some dress shoes. It was funny when people would notice it, they would give him a weird look and then they would say, "That's so cool!"

Inside the cruise ship is freezing - I was thankful for Omar's suit coat

Don't you love Omar's dress shoes? 

From our balcony

We sat at the same table every single night except for the last. We really liked our waiter

Rarely could I stay up late. After we started stopping at ports, Omar would normal take a nap, but I would not be tired. By the time we ate, and would go to the early show time at around 8:30pm, I would be falling asleep in the show! Omar even had to take me back one night because I fell dead asleep at the beginning of the show. I really liked 2 of the shows - one was this juggler/comedian. He was HILARIOUS - actually more comical than the first set of comedians that came on the ship for the Comedy Show. This other was a hard core magic show, Las Vegas Style. We did go to the comedy shows on board - the second set of comedians that came on the ship were really funny. Late at night there was a card magic trick guy and we liked going to that and he would even come to our dinner table and do tricks just for us too.

Last time Omar got the $40 soda pass that allowed him to get unlimited sodas while on the ship. This time Omar said he would give it up and not drink soda on the trip if I would give him $50 to play at the casino. I thought why not, he wanted some entertainment and all he would play is the $50, once it was gone it was gone. We would have spent at least that on soda, so no loss. He would go at night when I was sleeping usually and watch people play. He learned how to play Roulette and actually won $400! That paid for our excursions and stuff. Hopefully I don't have a gambler on my hands now.

We decided to do the same thing as we did last time when we were leaving the ship, to not put our bags in the early pick-up the night before. We would just handle all of our bags on our own. Our deck, Upper Deck, was pretty much the last deck called. We had no problem getting off the ship.

We later met my parents and Jeff and Erica Foster at Omar's Honduras restaurant he found last time we were in Miami - Adelita's Cafe for breakfast. Following breakfast which ended up being more like lunch we drove their car to a parking lot near the airport and the four of us (my parents and us) drove down in our car to the Keys.