The forth and final port of call… Key West, Florida. It is on the very tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is a US Island city and home to a naval base. It is part of the Florida keys archipelago. It is Florida’s southernmost point, lying 90 miles north of Cuba. Famed for it’s pastel-hued conch-style houses. ( and key lime pie and roosters)
This is a new port for us, we have never been to Key West even in our childhood travels to Florida. The first thing the list of “what to do” for this port was…I’ve got to have Key Lime Pie!!!! Definitely!!
But, did you know … Hailed as “the Conch Republic,” Key West has the distinction of having one of the lowest rates of depression in the United States. -And what does that have to do with conch? Just about everything! Conch is part of the local diet attributed to this population’s overall low “non-depressive mode.” You’ll find conch in fritters and in salads, and on the local high school’s marquee…The football team is the “Fighting Conchs. BUT honestly, with sunshine and warm weather like this, how could anyone be depressed?
So…a walking tour of Key west to make sure we see the Southernmost point in the Continental USA
and enjoy some key lime pie and conch…just so we don’t get depressed. After all, today is our last day and it’s back to Miami in the morning and home. We also enjoyed a Butterfly Sanctuary and seeing all the roosters that make Key West their home…they are everywhere!!!!!
Good Morning Key West!
Meet Petar from Macedonia. He was always at breakfast each morning with a smile. We enjoyed our conversations with him.
Transportation off the pier by trolly. No walking allowed because the pier belongs to the US Navy and is a restricted area.
The Navy is celebrating their 150th Anniversary this year, so this statue was placed in front of the Customs house.
Chocolate covered frozen key lime pie!!! YUMMY!!!!
Butterfly Sanctuary
Southernmost Point in USA
Can you see Cuba? lol
“The Little White House”
About 25 years ago, Kermit Carpenter began selling smoothies from a small stand in front of Papa’s Restaurant in Key West during his tenure as Papa’s bookkeeper. When the head chef suddenly drove off into the proverbial sunset one night, Kermit was left looking for a new adventure. Having been brainstorming with his sister Anita and her husband John, they decided that whatever they decided to do, it needed to be high quality and say “Key West”… gourmet food and Key Lime fit the bill, and so began Kermit’s Key West Key Lime Shoppe. 
Meet Kermit 🙂
One piece just wouldn’t do…YES we bought a whole pie and YES we finished it!!!!
The starting point!!!
Roosters EVERYWHERE!!!!
I just had to have conch! ( to fight the depression that our cruise week is just about over)
Farewell Key West! It was a lovely day…
The last port of call and the last night on board the beautiful pearl. The sunset tonight was gorgeous!!!! How I will miss this!
Our last dinner…
And the show tonight was a mix of the week’s entertainment. No pics except for the tribute to the crew which we were allowed to film.
Our room steward Abel from the Philippines did an awesome job all week keeping everything in order in our stateroom. We had fresh towels all the time and each night he made a new towel animal. Very cool!
Just An East Coast Girl 
Ok I am writing one biggggg comment for your cruise posts- you are KILLING me with these bitmojis. This is the best! I love them! I’ve never gone on a Norweigan cruise (only Caribbean and Royal), but it looks super nice. Have you gone on others to compare?
The foooood looks phenomenal and so do you! Your outfit choices were SPOT on! Glad you took a full blown suitcase? Hehe. The coffee in the mornings is always one of my favorite parts of cruisin’, especially after a run on the track (that’s awesome you guys got out there too)! I felt like the mornings were SO calming because no one was really up yet and we would see the most gorgeous sunrises. And the breakfast buffets…. Mmmmmm mmmm…….. The fruit always tasted so fresh!
David seriously had guts holding that snake- sheesh!! I don’t know if I could work up the nerve! Jamaica looked like such fun, and I actually did not know that Grand Cayman had that nickname. Makes so much sense though!
Also- did you guys get super close to your waiter on the ship? We always developed such close bonds with them and legitimately missed them when the cruise was over! Hahaha.
That’s nuts that they had the coast guard come in for a medical emergency- thank goodness they have those, but wowza, that’s scary for something like that to happen while your on a ship! I wonder if they need nurses? Hmmmmm thoughts for the future!
Ya’ll certainly saw your fair share of wildlife too!
Lastly, I just love that you dive into the place you are and have to try the most authentic, famous food of that location (like the key lime pie and conch in Key west!). I’m the exact same way and DJ picks on me for getting SOOO excited about ideas like that, but come on- it really does make it all more fun! Also- I just tried conch for the first time last year and LOVED it!!!! I had no idea it had anti-depressive effects, but makes sense! It is super tasty. Thanks for sharing this awesome vacation with us. It felt like I went on a mini one myself ☺ (Oooops this is like a novel, I’m sorry! Haha)
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Ahhh…MacKenzie…again I say I LOVE cruising. It’s just such a relaxing vacation!!!PLUS, you get to do REALLY fun stuff all day and then dress up nice at night, enjoy a lovely dinner and show…( David teased me about all the clothes I was taking and wanted him to take..lol)
We have only cruised NCL. When we started cruising back in 2009, it was the cruise line our friends did. We did our first cruise with them and loved it! We loved the freestyle. And as you know the more cruises you do with a particular cruise line the more incentives there are. The same friends did a Carnival cruise one year when we were in China and didn’t care for it. They went back to Norwegian. We might try a different line someday…
Yes…coffee in the morning on my balcony!!!!!Ahh…I love that!!! I miss it especially since my back deck at home has been freezing in the mornings lol I can’t wait for summer!
The crew on cruise ships are always so wonderful. Because Norwegian is freestyle and you have different dinning areas and times and never are assigned to sit with the same people, you don’t have a specified waiter. We did see “certain” waiters and maitre d’s at different meals. Very special people. And you do develop a closeness to them through the week. I had one sweet server from Nicaragua at lunch that saw me sitting alone waiting for David and came to chat because she thought I was all by myself and she didn’t want me to be lonely…she kept me company til David arrived. We chatted a lot through the week.Some were very special and it is easy to get attached!!
Yes, I LOVE food!!! Different food. I think it’s part of what makes a place unique. I usually google places and the TOP 10 of what to see/do/eat and make my list from there. I find if I do a bit of research before hand of the places I am traveling I enjoy the experience so much more. The few times I did’t I found out things later that I regretted we didn’t experience, knowing we wouldn’t get back there. There are just too many places on my bucket list to not experience as much as I can when I go to a place. That’s why I am usually exhausted when I come home. And that’s why cruising is great because it slows me down…just a bit.
MacKenzie, thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment on my posts. You are so very thoughtful, so sweet.
Ps- I don’t think I ate enough conch in Key West…this week has been so cold and snowy and more forecasted for their weekend!! It’s a little depressing after such a gorgeous week lol
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Thanks for taking the time to reply, Anna!!! I didn’t know all that about NCL- but it’s SO good to know. I love that you don’t have the assigned dining and there is more freedom in that for sure!!!! I have heard great things about it, so maybe next time we go (please Lord let it be in the next few years haha), I will have to look into it! And that is such a great idea to look up what is a must to try in each place- I’ll do that next time too. But ohhh nooo (about the weather) I have heard the snow is BAD in the East and North lately. Maybe you can find a Key Lime pie nearby to suffice? 😉 Stay warm ❤ ❤
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