Sometimes, Key West IS Best ! – A Week on The High Seas With Las Tres Reinas (part I)

I have many circles of friends, kindred spirits that have gathered along the way and I am lucky enough to call sisters or brothers. Las Tres Reinas is a special triangle within one of these circles, comprised of my nearest and dearest friends; Queen Melila, who I met in college, and one of hers, Queen Oneca. It’s a beautiful thing when worlds come together seamlessly and we get along famously! Together, we planned our 2nd Carnival cruise for the end of August, 2008 to celebrate Melila’s 30th birthday in September.

Day1

We set sail on a hazy Sunday afternoon from Tampa’s port, originally headed for Grand Cayman. However, due to Hurricane Gustav’s activity in the Western Caribbean and Hannah’s antics in the east, they decided to redirect us to…Key West. Can’t say I was thrilled, since I’ve already passed through there once and more importantly, it is still on American soil, something we all were trying to escape. Nevertheless, a hurricane is not to be messed with and we were all glad the trip hadn’t been canceled.

Sunday afternoon and early evening was spent getting accustomed to the rocking motion, making last minute phone calls, changing our clothes, and dining at the late seating (8.15pm). We had a few drinks and checked out the jazz club (Satchmo’s) featuring a live funk band of mixed Asian ethnic descent. They were pretty good, especially their sassy and confident female lead singer.  They ended up holding us down most of the week, although I honestly don’t know how they can sing “We Are Family” as many times as they did without starting to pull out their hair or at least moon the audience. True professionalism…

Day 2

Monday morning began with a buffet style breakfast seated indoors, on the Lido deck (top deck without cabins). Had we gotten up earlier, we could have made the more formal dining room option, but at that point, we didn’t know about the hash browns and waffles. Plus, the buffet has more than enough options, even turkey bacon (turkey jerky), pancakes, eggs of all styles, fruit, cereal, danishes. You name it…

After eating we changed into swimsuits and threw on some beach appropriate layers and headed off the ship for our few remaining hours in Key West–the southern-most of a series of small islands connected to Florida by two-lane highways and small bridges. The most striking things I noticed about the town were the artwork and roosters; both were everywhere.

We stepped off the ship, walked past the traditional tourist traps on the docks and immediately noticed over-sized sculptures of naked females dancing around, underneath them, a Caucasian gentleman laid upon the ground, staring up at them. The piece is entitled, “Daydream.” Need I say more?

Right around the corner is an even larger standing sculpture of the husband and wife featured in the famous “American Gothic” portrait, with a suitcase that could fit one, maybe two families in it. Random, but interesting.

Duval Street is the main drag and while I suggest walking down it a bit to look at the gag gifts and trashy souvenirs, I also suggest walking off the path as soon as possible. This enabled us to see some of the early 20th century churches and their gorgeous stained glass windows, tucked away on side streets.  We also found vendors with much lower prices, (so I bought a hat), roosters, (who seem to inhabit quite a bit of the island), and by far our favorite, goats chomping away on a grassy knoll.

Another little secret we found was the Ernest Hemmingway House (www.hemingwayhome.com). Hidden behind draping foliage, there was a quiet allure, inviting you to come in and take a tour, or just a nice picture in front of if you’re strapped for time. We ended up at the Fort Zachary Taylor Park where we took a quick dip and some ”bathing beauties” pictures on the rock clusters of this free beach.  After that it was pretty much time to head right back to the ship.  We got caught in a terrible flash downpour, (typical floridian weather) but were already wet and didn’t mind so much.  Along the way we stopped at a local deli/convenience store to pick up some last minute American items we knew would be ridiculously expensive everywhere else we went.

Since we were in our bathing suits, we went back to the ship and hung out on deck till sunset. Shortly thereafter it was time to change for dinner. The only drawback about three women to a room is the getting ready part. Magically we were able to keep it to under an hour and still looked fabulous. That’s what I’m talking about!