Upon turning 40-day 2

Day 2 - May 28, 2010 Heading Nowhere Fast
Reached Key West early at 7am. Got dressed and realized how small a room with 4 women and 2 plugs is. Had breakfast in the main dining room.

Headed out for our White Knuckle speedboat tour.  The tour operators were a family. They were from Minnesota. The had moved to Key West to find a new adventure. Their previous occupation was operating a nursing home for Alzheimer's patients. Sounds like they needed the change. The speedboat ride was fun. We definitely got wet. Good thing we wore swimsuits. The son drove the boat. The dad took our picture as we sped up to make our first spin. The picture shows the last time we were dry! The boat was specially made with a jet engine so that it had no propeller blades. This was to protect the wildlife from injury. It also allowed for tight turns and spins in very shallow water. It was as shallow as 2 feet in some places. Many times we could have gotten out and walked.

Everything was going great until...the boat sputtered and finally stopped dead in the water. We thought it was part of the tour to pretend we were stuck in the middle of the harbor and would have to get out and push. When our guide went to the back of the boat to check the engine and then fell into the water which he promptly stood up in we thought he was just trying to show is the depth of the water. However when he got back in and got on the radio to call his dad telling him we had engine trouble we got a little nervous. Knowing that the water is just chest deep is not that comforting if you think that you are going to have to be in it unexpectedly. Worse is that he informed us that sharks and rays are common in the shallows.  Luckily, a passing boat saw the distress and offered us a tow back to the dock. The trip was 15 mins short but it was fun while it lasted and we ended up with a good story to tell.

Next we dried off and headed back toward the pier and explored some of the shops and looked at the outdoor life like sculptures. I had my first Conch fritters, a local favorite. Very good! Dani and Dee split off from us and found some Key Lime pie.

Back on the ship we got cleaned up and then grabbed something to eat from the buffet. Did I mention the food was great yet? Once we were underway Dani, Dee, and I found deck chairs and took a nap!

Evening
Tonight is the formal dinner. Everyone had to wear cocktail attire or higher. It was fun dressing up for dinner. Our servers were Singh and Jordan. Both were Indian. The head waiter was Indian too. The night before these men had tried to sing me Happy Birthday. This is not a common song in India so despite practice (there were a lot of birthdays) they just couldn't sing it very well. It became funnier and funnier. That was just about the worst singing of Happy Birthday I ever heard. But at least they tried!

After dinner it was picture  night. They had a whole army of photographers with different backdrops taking pictures. We got a few nice shots which of course they charged extra to take home, but of course we had to buy a few!  Next we went to a Broadway style musical review in the theatre. It was well done with good singers and dancers.

Then we split up. Mom and I went to the casino and Dani and Dee went to the karaoke and piano bar again. I broke even. Mom won about 500 dollars! Not a bad was to end our second day at sea!