Caribbean Cruise 2002:
Day 7 - Key West, Florida

Friday, December 13, 2002: ... Debbie's 40th birthday! What better way to start a new decade than a morning of snorkeling and a leisurely ride on a catamaran in the beautiful Florida Keys.

Hey, there's a Key!

After the morning's water activities, we strolled through Key West. We had an open-air lunch at now defunct Papa's Restaurant featuring extremely strong tropical drinks and every form of deep fried seafood imaginable (Conch fritters! Calamari! Shrimp! Oh my!), then we came across an inn so beautiful we had to photograph it: the Curry Mansion Inn. Of course, we'll never stay there, because we're not the bed-and-breakfast type. (We saw it again in 2018 while visiting Key West.)

Do we look like tourists? We're guessing Key West has seen a tourist or two in her day. We did a lot of shopping and returned to the ship loaded down with key lime souvenirs and some birthday tanzanite earrings to match the ring we bought onboard. (We recreated this photo in 2018 too.)

This fellow was beautiful but shy. He was determined not to let us get a decently-cropped shot of him ...

... including when he tired of us and flew away.

A brief rainstorm hit in mid-afternoon, but the sun came out just before sail out.

Here's another shot of the harbor, featuring the catamaran we sailed in the morning.

It's a long-standing Debbie-and-Tom tradition dating all the way back to Russia in July 2002 that the birthday spouse is photographed on a cruise ship in a bathrobe. We think the tradition might die out after this year, though. (Wrong! See Mykonos 2004.)

During sail out, the massive ship churns up the shallow water in order to turn around. Math geeks might notice a resemblance to fractals, but we just think it's pretty.

Our butler (what was his name??) took this shot of us just before dinner. We'll never tire of referring to him as our butler. However, we suppose that he's butled for many other ship guests since our departure. We stayed on the same ship in the same suite 10 years later and were photographed in the same place.

This meal was so pretty we had to photograph it. It was the perfect birthday entree -- salmon, scallops and shrimp in a puff pastry. The vegetables are just there to look pretty.

After dinner, it was time for birthday cake. Our wait staff was kind enough to not sing "Happy Birthday," as that is verboten on Debbie's birthday.

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