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River Of Data.com |
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Wednesday, 14 January, Fort Lauderdale and Key West, Florida We were awakened about 600 by a security announcement over the public address system. We found out later that unauthorized persons and vehicles were near the ship, and since the ship practices security as tight as that by the TSA in airports, they apparently were letting all staff know so they could respond appropriately. It was sort of like a "code blue" in a hospital or an alert at a military base. We had breakfast and met our tour group so that we could all leave the ship and go through customs more or less together. After leaving the ship we were directed to the area where we found our bags, grabbed them and dragged them all to customs. We had never seen such relaxed customs procedures in our lives. We gave the officer our declaration of the several hundred dollars of things we were bringing into the country (well under the limit for even one of us), gave him our passports, which he glanced at briefly, and we were on our way. They weren't even set up with areas to go through bags, which really surprised us. Perhaps it is because of so many leaving the ship, and perhaps because the ship practices such tight security that it would be particularly difficult for us to smuggle in illicit materials. We quickly boarded our bus for the Everglades tour, and while on the way the guide described the ecology of Florida, how the water flows from the Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades at one mile per day, and how various projects have hurt the ecology in the Everglades and elsewhere in Florida. We arrived at the park for the airboat ride, and found it completely empty, which wasn't surprising considering it was a cold and windy day in the middle of the week during a particularly poor tourist season. We rode around on the airboat for about half an hour, and did actually find an alligator, which was a surprise because it was so cold. I was even able to get some pictures of him. We also had a chance to see an "alligator show" for a few minutes, where a young man showed how they could be controlled, and of all the things we should never do. It was pretty interesting. After being dropped at the airport, we got our rental car pretty quickly and loaded up all of our bags. We headed south for Key West, and after a quick lunch stop for fast food, we got through the traffic on the freeway and the two lane road through the keys, and got to the Westin in Key West about 530. They upgraded us up to an ocean front room on the first floor. As soon as we got to our room we opened the door and realized that the nightly "sunset celebration" in Key West was basically outside our door. We went on out and watched the sunset with a few hundred others, and also enjoyed the drummers and other street performers who show up for the occasion. We then had a nice dinner in the hotel's outdoor restaurant and went to bed tired and happy. Back to itinerary (trip home page)
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