Cruise day 3 (key west)

On Tuesday we arrived at Key West. Jon and I had bought a shore excursion on the boat to ride the "world famous Conch Train". It is basically a tram in the shape of a train that takes you all over the city of Key West while the driver gives a history rich tour. After we left the ship, we walked over to the main square to catch our train. We had time before the next train left to do a little shopping. We had forgotten sunglasses or hats and the sun was so bright we needed something so we both picked out hats at the gift shop outside of the train stop. Once we got on the train, we decided to ride the whole loop instead of hopping off and on, our tour guide was really good, interesting, funny and knowledgeable. He took us by all the important bits of the island including, Truman's little white house, Hemingway's house, the southernmost point of the USA, old Cuban cigar factories, the Flagler hotel and mile marker 0 of highway 1 which runs from Key west all the way to the Canadian border in Main! At one of our stops, Jon and I got a big cup of Key Lime-aide. It was really good much much better than Sonic's version. It was a really great tour. After our tour, we asked our guide where the best place to try some Conch, and some Key Lime pie would be. He suggested Conch fritters from anyplace, and the Key lime pie Factory. According to him, the Key Lime pie Factory is the only restaurant that makes their own Key lime pie. There was a fritters stand just around the corner so we went there first. They basically tasted like hush puppies with chewie bits in them. We couldn't' really taste the conch at all. They were good anyway though, especially with the mustard sauce they gave us. After our snack we headed over to the Pie place. It was a cute little store with everything Key Lime in it. The pie was AMAZING! Very tart and delicious. We asked a local where we could find some good conch Ceviche since Jon wanted to actually TASTE what conch was like and they suggested "Alonzo's oyster bar" we ordered the Ceviche and it was actually pretty good. Very chewy, with a light fishy flavor and nice spices. We spent the rest of the morning wandering the streets of Key West. We went for a closer look at Hemmingway's house, but didn't go in at $15 per person. I wanted to go to the Lighthouse, which ended up being very very far away and when we got there it was $10 per person just to climb up! So we stayed on the ground and took pictures from below. We did get to see a 100 year old Banyon tree that was HUGE it completely surrounded the house, going from the backyard to the front yard and even into neighbor's yards! This type of tree was all over the island and we both found them fascinating the way they drop roots from their branches and those roots turn into new trunks. They are very well supported trees. In many places you could see where the locals had tied the root feelers back onto themselves to prevent the trees from growing into the streets or sidewalks. After walking ALL OVER the city, we stopped for some Key Lime ice cream on our way back to the ship. We got back around 2:30 and after calling home to say hi to the kids we both fell fast asleep for several hours. We were so tired after all that walking! We finished our day with dinner in the dining room, and a little dancing in the lobby before heading to bed. It was a wonderful super fun day! Some interesting facts I learned about key West. The whole island is a wildlife sanctuary and it is illegal to kill the animals, including birds. Which is why they have chickens running around everywhere, they got loose at some point and have now populated the island! Many of the houses on the island are not painted because way back, if the house wasn't painted, it wasn't considered "finished" and so they didn't have to pay taxes on it! And, when standing at the southernmost point of the US, you are closer to Cuba, than you are to Wal*Mart.