Birthday Cruise: First stop- Key West, FL

On the third day of our cruise, we docked at Key West in Florida. We were excited to explore as we had never been here before (my parents had and were our helpful tour guides!). It was a fairly warm day and we first walked around to see the sites, stop in a few shops, and we took pictures with statues. :)

Then we headed down the main street, which is Duval Street. Mike wanted to visit Sloppy Joe's and Captain Tony's (which were hang outs of Ernest Hemmingway back in the day).  So we ate lunch at Sloppy Joe's and peeked into Captain Tony's.

Then we walked back to the main center and decided to take the Conch train on their tour around the city. It was an interesting tour with lots of good information and many things to see. The bad part was that I had to pee really bad and I think the first break was after about 40 minutes of the tour! I had tried looking for a bathroom with my Dad before the train set off but we couldn't find one and didn't want to miss the train leaving. So I think I felt just about every bump we went on during that first part of the tour. (The kids were also a bit bored by the tour and ended up writing on paper rather than looking around.) I think the things that stood out on the tour for me was the southernmost point, the Hemingway House (had thought we might do a tour but the logistics of it were just not in our favor), and the beautiful houses we saw all along the way (such lovely architecture!).

After the tour, we walked on to the docks to see if we could see any fish in the water. And sure enough, very large Tarpon were swimming all over in the shallow water off the docks. I guess they come in to eat all the fish guts that are cast off when the fishing boats come in to dock.

Next we went to eat a small snack. Bella had more raw oysters (she couldn't get enough!). I had some yummy steamed clams.

One interesting thing about Key West is that they have chickens running around here & there. The kids tried to sneak up on one but didn't catch it. ;o) We did feed them some bread. And we saw them roosting in the trees too!

We then headed off to where our ship was docked to see the street performers before boarding.

This is a Key West Christmas tree made out of fishing bobbers.

Street performer doing something with fire.

Bella and I split a fresh coconut from this guy (we drank it first and then brought it back to him & he hacked it open for us to eat the meat). 

And we left Key West with these little cuties holding hands. Awwwww!