Southernmost

We awoke to clouds, though it is 70 degrees, and this view - the Carnival Ecstasy - in port until 2 o'clock this afternoon:

The view from Room 212 - sunrise Tuesday

Since it is a little windy today, we decided this would be the best day for a "driving tour" of the island. Our first stop was The Waffle House, a southern chain. We had a truly unremarkable breakfast at the Waffle House and cannot understand why it is so popular. Anarchy was ripe in the kitchen - a waitress left after a spat with the cook - and the cook took great pleasure in her absence. He delivered our food and refilled our coffee cups with a huge grin on his face.
 
We stopped at the Southernmost marker and I snapped a photo of Lisa. We also went by the cemetery, which is located at the highest point of the island, (by my guess: 15 ft. above sea level). The crypts are still all above ground. The cemetery covers 20 acres. Many sailors from the sinking of the USS Maine are buried here. One headstone reads "I told you I was sick". We drove around the entire island this morning - doesn't take long!

Our Southernmost Girl - 90 miles from Havana

After all that excitement, we decided to walk along the historic pier, and ended-up spending the entire afternoon exploring. We saw the beautiful ship, Liberty, visited an old turtle soup factory (so sad!) and saw Jimmy Buffett's recording studio! (Still no Buffett sighting.) Then we stopped in at the Key West Lime Shoppe and sampled a few things. Lisa bought a piece of chocolate-covered Key Lime Pie - on a stick! (The pie at the Blond Giraffe has been voted the best on the island, but Lisa is still taste-tasting - we will give you results at weeks-end.) We stopped in a few shops and had an enjoyable walk, in spite of the wind.

Here are a few photos of our afternoon on the wharf:

Warming up with coffees


Dave exploring his feminine side

We had planned to enjoy the sunset celebration and went up to the bar at our hotel for the big party only to find the bar CLOSED because it was SO COLD (60 degrees). The sunset was very boring tonight, because of a solid bank of clouds and only about 100 people had gathered to watch the show.

We took a taxi to Origami, a sushi restaurant and found three seats at the sushi bar. Dave and Lisa ordered two big plates of sushi, while I dined on "avocado sashimi" - Haas avocado with a light sesame dressing. It was just fabulous. Our sushi chef had recently returned from a vacation in Oregon and we chatted with several customers and had a very enjoyable time at Origami.
 
Instead of taking a taxi back to the hotel, we decided to walk until we found a taxi... well, we never did find a taxi, but we found a great shop with outrageous post cards and then stopped back in to the Hogs Breath for a night cap. The crowd was basically non-existent because of the cold, but the bouncer was quite taken with our daughter and entertained us with his tales of Fantasy Fest while we had a beer. We went back to our hotel and gathered in our room - Lisa had tea and we watched television - too cold to stay outside in the local al fresco establishments.
 
SIDE NOTE: While we were walking on the wharf this afternoon, Dave found a nickel. Lucky boy. Then, while we were walking back to our hotel this afternoon, Dave found a dollar bill. Wow - the big bucks! Well, that is NOTHING. Tonight, as we were walking into the Hogs Breath, Dave found a FIFTY DOLLAR BILL in the parking lot!!! $51.05 in unreported income already today!  (Please, do not contact the IRS.)