What a huge, huge day! We had set the alarm for 5am to be ready for pickup at 5.45am in the foyer. We were down there just selecting some breakfast food from the cafe/shop when a man asked if we were heading off to Key West, right on 5.45am. So we followed him out to his van and drove us the half hour down to Miami to meet our coach. On the coach we drove around Miami for 90 minutes or so, picking up people from all different hotels, then finally we were off! We stopped along the way at a McDonalds for breakfast. We had eaten our chicken rolls from the hotel so we just got a caramel latte each - and that didn't require ANY sugar, that's for sure! We saw some roadside workers from a prison. The trip down to Key West included about 42 bridges, joining the myriad of islands. We even drove across Key Largo! And the Seven Mile Bridge from the movie True Lies. It was really interesting. We arrived down in Key West at about 11 am. We bought tickets for the all day trolley car tour and I wanted to get on that straight away but Tom said no, he wanted to see the Shipwreck Treasure Museum first. The trouble was that our coach parking was at stop #2, the museum was at #1 and it only goes in numerical order, never backwards. And it takes 90 minutes to do the whole circuit. So we walked for ages, and came across Kermit's Key Lime everything shop, which had been on my list to see. They have key lime shampoo, conditioner and moisturiser, as well as jelly beans and peanuts. They also had a cafe next to the shop with a lovely koi pond and a water feature so we stopped in for lunch. I had the most wonderful shrimp and lobster wrap, Tom had a chicken one. Mine was served with a coleslaw that had pineapple through it - it may have only been juice as there were no lumps, but the flavour was certainly there. Nice but I wouldn't have it again. We saw the chef, Kermit, wearing a green chef's shirt and hat! We continued on our way, and at about 2pm we finally reached stop #1 where Tom went through the museum. My knees were too sore to continue standing, and Tom said later that there were quite a few stairs within the museum, set up in an old house. He quite enjoyed it, learning the history of Key West. A lot of the local money was earned salvaging wrecked ships. After Tom's exploration of the museum we wandered over to the trolley stop and hopped on, started our tour of the island, with narration all the way around. We saw Ernest Hemmingway's house and the bar he favoured; Jimmy Buffet's recording studio; the enclosure where the presidential accommodation is; the old customs house which was built as per the government regulations with fireplaces, chimneys and snow-proof roofing - in a town that never even has frost. The guide said that just to show how things are he gets a drink with ice in it, throws it on the road and then takes a photo to show ice on the road, for his children who live in colder climes. We saw the cemetery where everyone is buried above ground because the coral that the island is built of is too hard to dig a grave in. The houses are really pretty, and they have lovely Christmas decorations. They have "eyebrow houses" where the eaves come down really low, almost covering the 1st floor windows. This is done so that in summer the rain doesn't get in and they can still have the windows open for a breeze, and to let the hot air out. The tour was really informative. We also saw the southernmost point of the USA, where it is only 90 miles to Cuba, and the end of the main highway that goes right up to Maine. We made it back to #2 and across the road was a little restaurant/diner type of thing. We were hot and tired and we had 40 minutes or so to spare so went went in and had a couple of beers and a plate of French fries (for there would be no dinner tonight). They also had an ATM that talked to our card so we got some more cash. We returned to the coach and we set off, repeating this morning's trip in reverse, and without the Maccas stop! All of the Christmas decorations on the way home were just lovely - all of the palm trees have lights wrapped around them. Tom and I were the last drop off, arriving back in our hotel room at about 10.45pm!!