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A Shining New Era is Tiptoeing Nearer for the TCD Gang


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Here's a photo that makes me smile.   The backstory on this is that one of Twin #2's roommates ended up being a "friend of" Stitch.  She told Twin #2 to come visit her in Tomorrowland one day, and the

Leia is definitely following you. At least it is the 1983 version following you and not the 2014 version.

I'm in...  page 5 ?    I need to stop working and spend more time here...   Thanks for the princess photos. 

So many comments...

 

I was kind of joking about boycotting the other Margaritavilles. We just seem to eat other places when we travel to areas that have them. 

 

Peyton Manning. Funny. 

 

I think that Navel ship is researching Fiends and following us. Watch out. 

 

50% off is NICE. I wish I wasn't in a partial loop, but I'm hoping my email means we'll be in the 1500 loop. 

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I went to Key West on a cruise.  I like that we got there about 1pm and stayed until 7am the next morning.  Of course, the best thing about watching them cast off at such an early hour was seeing the cops bring back a crew member who looked like he had spent the night in jail.  LOL

 

Have a great weekend!

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Any of you ever been to Marco Island, FL?  Oh one of my favorite places on this earth!!!  TCD's trip to Key West made me think of some good memories there.  We went to this place http://www.edisonfordwinterestates.org/ when I was about 12 and it was so fun!  I haven't been there since I was about 15 and so hope to go back some day!  
 

Our dream is to do some long 2 week camping road trips.  Number one is a trip from home (AL) to the Keys and camp all along the way.  So many places we love in Florida and we are pretty familiar with the roads so we think it will be a good first long camping trip.  Maybe in a few years.  :)  

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So many comments...

 

I was kind of joking about boycotting the other Margaritavilles. We just seem to eat other places when we travel to areas that have them. 

 

Peyton Manning. Funny. 

 

I think that Navel ship is researching Fiends and following us. Watch out. 

 

50% off is NICE. I wish I wasn't in a partial loop, but I'm hoping my email means we'll be in the 1500 loop. 

 

Well, now we know that you got the 1500 loop.

 

And a great site, too.

 

I went to Key West on a cruise.  I like that we got there about 1pm and stayed until 7am the next morning.  Of course, the best thing about watching them cast off at such an early hour was seeing the cops bring back a crew member who looked like he had spent the night in jail.  LOL

 

Have a great weekend!

 

I would love to visit KW on a cruise.  I'm not sure that any of the ships stay overnight like yours did anymore.  The one that we saw didn't even stick around for sunset.

 

50% off? Holy crap!

Looking forward to you have dueling trip reports!

 

Holy crap is right.  I didn't think she'd get that big of a discount, considering how chintzy Disney is with other discounts at the Fort.

 

I like the new era.

 

I'm happy that you got to see the Little White House and the museum inside.  We saw it on our visit there, but we didn't have time to go inside.  I think I would have really liked it.

 

Have fun at the Fort!

 

If you ever go back, you should make the effort to go.  It is a very low key affair, but it is really neat to actually be in a place and see the furniture that several of our presidents have stayed.

 

Have fun and enjoy your 50 off.

 

I did both.

 

 

Oh.  How did I manage to grow up in NJ and never hear this tune?

 

I was more of a fan of The Boss.

 

I remember that cat show from the last time I was in Key West  Circa 1990.  I hope he's using different felines......

 

Is it possible this same guy has been performing there all this time.  I don't remember him from our previous visits, but then I can't say I have spent much time at Mallory Square. 

 

We did go back to see the Cat Man- I have some photos and a funny story to tell about that in just a bit.

 

Any of you ever been to Marco Island, FL?  Oh one of my favorite places on this earth!!!  TCD's trip to Key West made me think of some good memories there.  We went to this place http://www.edisonfordwinterestates.org/ when I was about 12 and it was so fun!  I haven't been there since I was about 15 and so hope to go back some day!  

 

Our dream is to do some long 2 week camping road trips.  Number one is a trip from home (AL) to the Keys and camp all along the way.  So many places we love in Florida and we are pretty familiar with the roads so we think it will be a good first long camping trip.  Maybe in a few years.   :)

 

I've never been to Marco Island, but I have been to Ft. Myers and Naples many times.  I've never visited the Edison/Ford Estates, but I think I would like to.

 

That road trip sounds epic.  There are many places you could stop along the way.  Florida has some great old roadside attractions.

 

TCD

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It's now our second morning in Key West.  Today, we are going to take a boat six miles offshore and snorkel at a coral reef.  Nice.

 

I had some time early in the morning to take a walk around and see some things.

 

This house was across from ours- I guess it's a Bed and Breakfast. It looked kind of nice:

 

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This is another house across the street-I love the porch on this one:

 

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This house was at the corner.  I believe that it's an example of Key West style architecture- see the fancy woodwork and wrap around porch? :

 

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This is Bahamian style- no wrap around porch or fancy woodwork:

 

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Sunrise over Key West:

 

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Here's that Key West style house again- I love how the houses all have picket fences:

 

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I saw something interesting down the street:

 

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I posted these photos earlier on, but now they're in context.  A real hippie van:

 

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What I don't get is who this could belong to.  The houses around here go for $1 million and up.  Even the dumpy ones.  So, what's a guy who can afford to live here doing with a hippie van like that?  Do you think maybe Jerry Garcia is not really dead, and it's him?  Could be.

 

Even though I live in Florida, and I'm used to seeing flowering trees, the trees here in Key West are just spectacular.  It seems like there are flowers blooming everywhere:

 

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The tree with the orange flowers is called a Royal Poinciana.  They are everywhere from Miami south:

 

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I liked the looks of this house, so I took a picture of it:

 

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This big tree you see here is a gigantic rubber tree- the biggest one on the island according to our Conch Train Tour Guide.  And he did not ring the bell when he said that:

 

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This is the Key West version of the Meadow Trading Post.  I stopped by here several times to get ice or a newspaper or whatever:

 

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These next photos are of a Navy housing development which was just a couple of blocks north of where we were staying.  It looks pretty nice for military housing:

 

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Oops there goes another rubber tree plant:

 

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One big drawback of renting a house in this area is the parking situation.  Not good if you drive an Excursion:

 

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These painted bikes were locked to the fence of the house next door to us- I guess they're art:

 

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The sidewalks are nice to walk on because they're very shady:

 

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As I walked around that morning, I kept hearing a helicopter flying around.  Here he is making a run at me.  Look over there just above the roof of the house:

 

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I guess that explains that lack of bugs.  So far, I haven't died from being sprayed.

 

Even stranger than seeing that hippie van was seeing this bright red pick-up truck:

 

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Why would Mark Richt be in Key West?

 

That's all I have from the morning walk.

 

Next, we will switch to underwater camera mode and go see some fish.

 

TCD

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I've sailed on a couple of RCCL cruises that left Key West as the sun was setting.  I understand the price to overnight a cruise ship there is very steep.  I any event, I haven't seen a decent sunset there either time b/c there were no clouds.

 

Enjoying your pictures.  I love the architecture there.

 

Looking forward to your underwater pics!

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Marty, wasn't that a cruise a long time ago?  Or maybe the dock was at a different place than it is now.  They have a huge dock and square now where they have a lot of sunset activities, and they don't want a huge cruise ship blocking their sunset view.  At least that's what we were told when we were there.

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I've sailed on a couple of RCCL cruises that left Key West as the sun was setting.  I understand the price to overnight a cruise ship there is very steep.  I any event, I haven't seen a decent sunset there either time b/c there were no clouds.

 

Enjoying your pictures.  I love the architecture there.

 

Looking forward to your underwater pics!

 

I ended up liking Key West much more than I expected to.  My previous visits were just weekends.  And we stayed in a big hotel right on Duval Street. It was much nicer staying in the house, a bit away from the craziness.

 

I didn't realize that about the docking fees.  That explains a lot.

 

Pretty houses.  I think I like the Bahamian style over the Key West style. 

 

Before you commit to that, I have to warn you that I may have reversed the description of the two styles.

 

Do I count ??

 

Yes.

 

I can't imagine it was that expensive when we over-nighted at Key West because this was a very low budget cruise.  IIRC, we paid less than $500 each for a 4 night cruise.

 

I would guess that things have changed?  It seems that Key West has become more of a cruise port than it used to be.

 

The wrap around porches are awesome. I would love a house like that.

 

Me too.  These are old homes.  Pre-air-conditioning. They knew what they were doing.

 

TCD

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Marty, wasn't that a cruise a long time ago?  Or maybe the dock was at a different place than it is now.  They have a huge dock and square now where they have a lot of sunset activities, and they don't want a huge cruise ship blocking their sunset view.  At least that's what we were told when we were there.

My cruise was 1999.  It doesn't seem that long ago to me!  :lol:

 

I believe the dock was just where you described it.  We got off the ship and were right where they have the sunset party.

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Ok.  Well, either way, I like the one with less ornamentation. 

 

I agree with you then.

 

My cruise was 1999.  It doesn't seem that long ago to me!   :))

 

I believe the dock was just where you described it.  We got off the ship and were right where they have the sunset party.

 

I thought you cruised right after you graduated high school?  That couldn't have been in 1999.  You must have had at least half your kids by then.

 

TCD

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Well, let's get on with the snorkeling.

 

The boat we were going on was docked just a few blocks from our house, so we walked over.

 

Forrest was still cleaning the boat when we arrived:

 

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Then we boarded, and got our safety briefing.  Note the liquor bottles there behind the deck hand. They opened the bar on the way back to shore:

 

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This is most of the crew.  The girl in white to the far left is my oldest niece, that's her husband next to her on the right.  Next to him is the youngest cousin.  We've seen him.  Twin #1 is next to him.  Then the sister of the boy on the other side of Twin #1, and then the last one is a cousin who is a year younger than the twins.  She has appeared in previous TCD TR's.  She used to come to the Fort with us from time to time:

 

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Pulling away from the dock- there are restaurants all along the waterfront here:

 

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There's that mysterious Navy ship:

 

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Hey look, a rare Mrs. TCD photo.  That's her sister sitting there to the left, and her other sister is seated behind the first sister, with her back to us:

 

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The Spearhead, again:

 

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Saying goodbye to land.  Note the sunny weather.  We had rain yesterday, but no more rain for this whole trip.  Which is pretty remarkable this time of year:

 

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We traveled out six miles.  We couldn't see land from there.  And then we hopped in.  First,  let me take a selfie:

 

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I have to give myself props on that selfie.  That was taken in the water, as we bobbed up and down.

 

Now let's see some fish:

 

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A blue one:

 

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They must have had the same imagineers who worked on the 20,000 Leagues ride at WDW work on this reef- it's very pretty:

 

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This might be a parrot fish, but what do I know?:

 

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Whoa!  A mermaid!:

 

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Hah!  Fooled you.  That's just Twin #1.

 

More cool coral:

 

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Maybe these are sponges?:

 

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More fish:

 

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We soon found that by swimming further away from the boat, the fish viewing was better.

 

A shot of the boat as we got further away:

 

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Do you see how there are lines on that last photo?

 

I am sorry to say that our latest underwater camera went belly-up right after that photo was taken.  I couldn't take any more photos after that last one, and the camera has since refused to turn on, no matter what I try.

 

So, no barracuda or sea turtle photos for you to enjoy. Bummer.  That camera lasted us two summers, and this would have been the third.  We have bad luck with underwater cameras.  So, I buy the cheapest ones I can find.

 

We snorkeled a bit more after the camera died, and then headed back in.  This was a half-day excursion, and it was just right.  As we sailed back to land, they opened the bar, and provided free beer and wine.  Nice.

 

We got back, got cleaned up, and then it was off to our next adventure.  We crammed a lot in on this trip, which you'll see in the next update.

 

TCD

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