We woke up to find out we were in Key West! We had breakfast with our friends in our new spot, which I will christen the Norwegian deck, as it is very simple with teak furniture and a big tarp over the whole area. No brass, no wallpaper, no upholstery, no fancy nothing. Just simple and nice. R. and I had lox for breakfast. No carbs, no sugar, no waffles no nothing. And, they have WF coffee machines (again, very German in a good way) that had great coffee (no key). So we had a nice time with simple fare under the big white tarp overlooking turquoise water with people parasailing over the beaches.
We had until 1:45 to see some sights as the ship left at 2 on our way to Cozumel for tomorrow’s activities. We walked around and found a post office for Judy taking in the neighborhoods and the local architecture when one leaves the proximity of the boat. The boat area is nice—but they are there for the quick buck that the boat folks want to spend.
We toured the John James Audubon house with original prints. It wasn’t really Audubon’s house, it was a wrecker, Mr. Geiger’s house—but was restored by the Mitchell Wolfson family (their son is the founder of the fabulous Wolfsonian Museum in Miami). The Wolfsons wanted to give their Audubon collection of prints and paintings a home and also wanted to commemorate Audubon’s time spent in the Florida Keys.
What is wrecker, you ask? Well. A wrecker is someone who watches the boats (in the 1800s) become grounded in the Key West area. He rescues the people—bringing them to shore—and salvages all the stuff on the boat and claims it as his own. You can imagine the line of trade and economy around this particular line of work.
Back to the house. Same era as the Camp House. Much of the same woodwork details but some nice southern inside>outside designs with large doors cut in half a la shutter doors, and some good colors. It had our exact banister and spindles. A weird bunch of antiques…but the dining room had placemats exactly like the ones my great grandmother made and used, and my mother still uses. It was terrific to see the context those cotton mats came from. They also had a lovely four-poster/canopy bed covered in a printed material a la April Cornell with a wide bolster in place of where the pillows go, and the canopy being extremely tailored and masculine in this same fabric. Really good looking.
The Audubon’s were inspiring, as you all know I am taken with him. The simpler the picture—even down to no background or anything, the better. Opened beaks are key. Pare back the detail. Stick to the gesture and feeling of the bird.
I am charged for more. Bring em on.
We walked down by the fishing boats with Steve and Judy as guides as they do quite a bit of this sort of thing. Saw a bunch of yellow-headed pelicans and massive tarpon fishes with their funny under bite and enormous size. Wished we could have seen more fish and birds. Drank some cool drinks and watched the chickens who free range the island walk in and out of this massive shed of a restaurant most of our amusement. Kitty sprinkled saltines so we could try to take pictures of them.
Back to the boat on time. We were offered water and cold towels upon our arrival. We set sail just as promised at 2. The Boat folks were crowding the pools a with competition on Prince and Princess of the Celebrity Cruise… Spanning the bridge between the pools were more carved watermelons and other fruit and 2 ice sculptures.
K and A were teening. R and I found ourselves back in on Norweigan Deck for salad and tea.
Formal night awaits. My camera is ready!