Our group of 16 intrepid travelers caravaned to Tampa the day before our ships's depature. Along the way we stopped at a local seafood restaurant in Crystal River for lunch and had a superb dinner at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City's historic district. The Columbia was founded in 1905 and is recognized as Florida's oldest restaurant. Unknown to us in advance, we were greeted by a Krewe of Lafitte welcome sign and our group dined in one of their private dining rooms.
The next day, we boarded the Empress of the Seas at the Tampa docks and traveled overnight to Key West, a favorite destination of ours. We were glad to see that Hurricane Irma had caused little noticeable damage to Key West, although Irma did so tremendous damage to the middle and upper keys. Having traveled to Key West many times before, we were surprised to see nearly empty streets as the tourists have yet to return. After a day visiting familiar sights and witnessing two new ladies in our group become BITCH Members, we again boarded our cruise ship for the overnight journey to Havana.
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