DAY 10: Up EARLY. I woke up around 5 and couldn't get back to sleep. Went up to the Windjammer and had a couple cups of coffee until about 6:30, then went back to the room to see if Terry was up yet. Nope, but in my fumbling around in the room, I woke her up. We ordered coffee brought to the room, but room service said there'd be over an hour wait. So, we went upstairs to the Windjammer and had a light breakfast, then back down to the room.
We'd planned on a lazy day, so we went ahead and ordered the coffee anyway (only a 40 minute wait this time), and sat on the balcony reading. After the coffee had arrived and been downed, we got bored again so we went up to poolside and got a few drinks. It was still windy as hell, so we tried to find a place out of the wind where we could sit, drink, smoke, and watch the water go by. I looked up and saw people with drinks in the Viking Crown Lounge, so I thought the bar was open there. Went up there, and found out that the bar was closed. So, I went back down poolside and got us two more drinks, then headed up to join her.
We didn't stay up there long. Terry got bored, and we went back to the room. I sat out back on the balcony, reading, while she napped. I was sorely tempted to join her, but I didn't want to miss coming into port. After Terry's nap, we went back to the casino (it was still open until we hit the US territorial limit), where the quarter slots ate my $20 with absolutely NO mercy. I was grumpy (I like to at least play a LITTLE while on $20), so we went back to the room and stayed there until the ship arrived at Key West.
Pulling into Key West was interesting. As we were coming in, the Monarch of the Seas was pulling out. The thing that got a chuckle out of me was that when we were close enough, everyone pulled out their cell phones and all pretty much said the same thing: "Guess where I'm at???". I looked across the balconies, and I could see at least 3 people on their phones, but by the time I got the camera out, all but one of them had walked back into their cabins.
We got off the ship around 4:00 PM. The announcement before we docked requested that we not loiter around the exit, and that they would make an announcement when we could depart. Unfortunately, they forgot to make the announcement, and when we headed down there, there were quite a few people already getting off the ship. I had originally planned on taking the PT Boat excursion, but changed my mind at almost the last minute. I did get to see it pull away from the dock, though.
We tried to find the Hemingway House before it closed, but no luck - even though the sign said "Closed at 5:00", we were still on Central time. Our watch said 4:30, but the local time was actually 5:30. We kept walking down to the "Southernmost Point in the Continental United States", took the obligatory pictures, then tried to make it back to Mallory Square for the sunset.
We were slightly confused with all the military that was out and about as we were walking around. Wasn't until we ran into the parade that we realized that it was Veteran's Day. Cool. I even found a Huey (I was a Huey Crewchief for 15 years in the Army) and Terry took a pic of me by it.
That was a helluva walk. I'm not too badly out of shape, but I was sweating and breathing a bit hard when we realized that we weren't going to make it to Mallory Square by sunset. Fortunately, there was a Hard Rock Caf right at our exhaustion point, and we collect Hard Rock beer glasses (Got a nice collection going--about 15 so far). So, we had dinner (burgers) and drinks (Beer for me, for the glass; Long Beach Ice Teas and Purple Rain for Terry. "Purple Rain" is a Long Island Ice Team with a splash of chambord, a raspberry liquor instead of coke).
After dinner, we shopped. Picked up some nice gifts for the kids, including some manatee stuff for Tiff, and a Del Sol t-shirt for Timmy. I even got a Del Sol t-shirt. We stopped at a little bar for another drink...$20.50 for two double bourbon-and-cokes. Ouch.
We finished our drinks on the way back to the ship, and reboarded about 7:30 - 8:00. Back up to the room where Terry took a bath and I finished the book I was reading. Ordered room service (nachos for her, ham and cheese sandwiches for me), and hit the sack.