We originally scheduled this trip as a late-January getaway for Barb and Allie to get some sun. We chose the Keys as a domestic alternative to Aruba because we thought with Covid still around it was a safer option. Besides, I had a small hankering to visit old stomping grounds from my youth. We thought we would split the week between Key West and Marathon, but once I actually looked into places and got suggestions from Susanna, we decided that just staying five nights in Marathon at Tranquility Bay would be best. The Omicron variant flared badly in December-January so we decided to postpone the trip to early May, the next window that made sense for all our calendars. Here’s a link to my planning document with trip details.
Sunday, May 1 – To Marathon
Allie started her flight from Boston to Key West via Miami bright and early at 7:55am. After a lengthy layover and a rowdy commuter flight she arrived in Key West at 4pm, an 8-hour journey. Our flights from BWI via Charlotte were a little better, leaving at 10:30 and arriving in Key West at about 4:40pm but that still made for a 6-hour journey. We could have flown to Aruba or Punta Cana more easily.
We had a long wait for luggage and a car in Key West but finally got to Marathon a bit after 6pm. The Tranquility Bay Resort sits on the site of the old Buccaneer Lodge where my family stayed multiple times in Marathon. The resort looked great on the website and Susanna recommended it (she had worked in the restaurant when she moved back to Marathon for a time about a decade ago; Allie and I visited her when she was pregnant with Reef).
At check-in they upgraded us to a 3-bedroom condo and it turned out great with a spacious kitchen, dining and living room on the bottom level and three bedrooms upstairs. The master bedroom had a nice balcony deck but for whatever reason it was the only one in the resort that didn’t have a roof over the upper deck. That limited my use of the deck (too much sun for my pale self), but Allie enjoyed using it several afternoons.
We unloaded our stuff and headed out to dinner to catch the sunset. I selected Keys Fisheries based on Susanna’s recommendation and because it seemed like the most likely place to get stone crabs. I remembered eating there in earlier visits, ordering at the counter and dining at one of the picnic tables scattered about. We were disappointed that stone crabs were no longer in season (despite the sign saying the season went to May 15). Barb’s fried shrimp platter was very good; the conch salad Allie and I shared was so-so. After enjoying sunset we were treated to an impressive show as one of the kitchen staff fed scraps to the tarpon and nurse sharks that congregate in the marina.
After sunset we did a quick stop at the local Publix for supplies then adjourned to the room to get acquainted with our TV options. Barb was very happy we could get Murder She Wrote so she had something to fall asleep to.
Monday, May 2 – Marathon
We decided to keep things easy for breakfast and walked across the street to a Cuban place, Paradise Cafe. Actually getting across the street (two busy lanes of U.S. 1) was a bit of a challenge as there were no pedestrian crossings but a local gave us a hint to go a little further up the road where there was a bit of a median so we could cross one lane at a time. We made it alive. Allie and I ordered omelettes while Barb went for basic eggs and bacon. Each was accompanied by really good Cuban bread which I used to turn my omelette into a sandwich. The bread was the best thing about the meal, though Allie also enjoyed their coffee.
We got Barb set in lounge chairs on the beach before 10am. Allie and I returned to the room to play Scattergories with Sue, Laurie, Maggie, Sam, Susanna and Amila. While on the call, Susanna recommended we take a snorkel trip to Sombrero Light. Allie got excited by that idea so I booked it for the next day. After the game, Allie went to join Barb in the sun while I explored the resort. They’ve imported a lot of nice white sand to make the waterside areas very pretty and inviting, with a little beach area for swimming. There is a water sports area with kayaks, jet skis and other paraphernalia for rent. There’s also a small lagoon which was home to a large school of mullet swimming in lazy figure 8’s — it looked like maybe it was a mullet daycare center.
There are two swimming pools, the main one with lots of chairs and sunning areas, and a smaller adult one that was further away from our condo and not very inviting. Barb and Allie made good use of the larger pool in the afternoons.
I retreated to the room to read and work on my Music Trip posts. I decided to call for reservations at our restaurant choice for dinner that night, Frank’s Grill, and was glad I did. They had very few times available but we snagged a 6:30 seating.
In the afternoon I took a drive around Marathon to check out the sights and my memories. I went to Sombrero Beach, Key Colony Beach, Grassy Key and scouted restaurant locations for the rest of the week. Marathon had changed quite a lot since my visits as a kid, but not all that much from our last visit with Allie about 10 years earlier. I still recognized quite a few landmarks.
Dinner at Frank’s Grill was quite good: veal francaise for Barb, while Allie and I shared an appetizer of clam steamers and entree of grouper francaise. The steamers were particularly good and we had plenty of bread to sop up the garlicky sauce. We headed back to the room for an evening of TV and a jigsaw puzzle for Barb. Some of the reviews of places in Marathon complain that there’s nothing to do after sunset. For us, that was just fine.
Tuesday, May 3 – Marathon
Barb and I made a breakfast run to the Marathon Bagel Company. It was very busy with people getting all sorts of breakfast sandwiches or other orders for the day. We got ourselves a couple of bagels and some smoked fish salad to take back to the room.
The girls went back to the beach for the rest of the morning. At noon, Allie and I headed over early to Spirit Snorkeling for our 1pm trip to Sombrero Light. The trip was nice, the sea was reasonably calm, and there were tons of fish all around when we jumped in. Allie and I snorkeled around the boat, watching the various jacks, parrot fish, barracudas, and dozens of other fish we couldn’t identify. I couldn’t tell if the reef was particularly bleached or damaged; it looked reasonably healthy and there were certainly plenty of fish. We stayed in the water maybe 45 minutes and that was plenty. I wasn’t at all sure I wanted to snorkel but I’m glad I did, and glad for Allie to get the chance, too.
We had an early dinner at Fish Tales, another old-time Marathon place. We ate early because the place closes at 6:30pm which I didn’t really understand. The service was nice but the food was mediocre: blackened mahi for me, clam strips for Barb, fried snapper sandwich for Allie. The friendly waitress talked us into dessert. Allie’s Key lime pie was good but my turtle cheesecake less so. We got back to Tranquility Bay in time for sunset. Allie and I each got a drink from the beach bar which cost more than our dinners.
Another day done in the heart of the fabulous Florida Keys. We were already well in the groove.
Wednesday, May 4 – Marathon
We went for another Cuban-ish breakfast, this time at La Nina where I got a Cubano sandwich, half for breakfast, half I saved for lunch. Barb got eggs and bacon; Allie got a sort of huevos rancheros. All were pretty good but the bread was not as tasty as at Paradise Cafe.
We got Barb set up at the pool then Allie and I walked the Old Seven Mile Bridge. This rehabbed two-mile section of the old bridge just opened to walkers and bikers in January 2022 and quickly became one of the top activities in town. The first mile of the walk was over deeper water and there was not a lot to see other than fishing boats and jetskiers zipping under the bridge. The water got much shallower in the second mile and the viewing greatly improved. We saw a lot more wildlife than I expected: many large rays gliding about, a big school of enormous tarpon (more than 50…I honestly have never seen so many tarpon at one time. I wonder if they’re making a comeback in the Keys), an osprey – once just posing for us on the bridge and another time flying to its nest with a fish in its talons, a nurse shark, several turtles, other miscellaneous fish and birds, and a fisherman pulling in a fish almost to the boat until a shark took most of it. The four-mile round trip walk to Pigeon Key was a little longer than I really wanted but the sights were well worth it. I spent the rest of the day in the air conditioned room recuperating.
Dinner was a return to the Keys Fisheries because we enjoyed it the first night and I wasn’t ambitious enough to try anywhere else. It frankly wasn’t quite as good the second time, but it was an easy, low-key meal (no pun intended). We made it back to Tranquility Bay for sunset but this time I was the only one that went to watch.
Thursday, May 5 – Marathon
We had breakfast at The Wooden Spoon, the place we used to go to when I was a kid when it was called Ted ‘n’ Mary’s. We used to go with Dad and Tom Fitzgerald at ungodly early hours to get breakfast and boxed lunches for our fishing adventures. I still remember the boxed lunches fondly, but mostly I remember Ted cheerily answering every phone call with “It’s another beautiful day in the heart of the fabulous Florida Keys” no matter what the weather was doing outside.
Back at Tranquility Bay, Allie got it into her head that she wanted to try a water sport and paddle boarding caught her imagination. She rented a board for an hour and paddled in the Gulf, never too far from shore. It was a hot, still morning and it looked like a lot of work to me, but she seemed to have a good time and made it back alive.
The girls spent most of the rest of this final Marathon day at the pool while I chilled in the room. For dinner we went to the highly rated Florida Keys Steak and Lobster House, the one meal for which we got an Open Table reservation in advance. The restaurant was very busy and we were seated near a large table of loud businessmen having some sort of farewell dinner. Our various seafood meals were expensive and indifferently prepared. The meal wasn’t bad but not as nice as I’d hoped for our final night.
It’s worth mentioning that I deliberately passed over two other options for Marathon dinners. The Butterfly Cafe at our resort and the Hideaway Cafe on Grassy Key were both highly rated but after looking at their menus and prices I opted for less ambitious dining choices. I regretted that slightly after our meal at the Steak and Lobster House, but so be it. You makes your choices.
A random Marathon factoid gleaned in research: who knew that Clarence Clemons bought a home and hung out in Marathon toward the end of his life?
Friday, May 6 – Key West – Home
With our flights back home scheduled for a 5:15pm departure from Key West, we had a casual morning and checked out of our Tranquility Bay room by 11am before driving down to explore Key West. We toured the crowded downtown area for a while before finding our destination for brunch, the Ocean Grill & Bar. I have to admit I was enticed by the promise of bottomless Bloody Marys and Mimosas for brunch. Our meals there would have been fine but for the roosters that wandered inside and outside the restaurant. Barb was terrified and it made for a very tense meal despite the efforts of multiple people to shoo the birds away. The free-roaming roosters and chickens pretty much preclude us from ever returning to Key West, in case that had been a thought.
We killed a little more time walking by the Hemingway house where Barb and Allie spotted one of the six-toed cats. That was all they needed. We drove around a bit more before deciding to head to the airport. As we were getting gas to return the rental car we got notices that our flight was delayed due to weather in Charlotte. We ended up waiting an extra hour in the crowded Key West airport before finally departing. Barb and I were able to make our connection but Allie had further delays and ended up going standby on a different flight, putting her into Boston around 1am.
We had a discussion of the Keys vs. Aruba or Punta Cana. We had a good time in Marathon but we all agreed we’d sooner go back to the Caribbean islands for our winter getaways. Getting to Marathon was actually more of a pain than getting to Aruba or Punta Cana. It was nice to have a car in the Keys, but then again you actually need one to get around. Tranquility Bay was a very nice facility: the condo, beach and pool were all to our liking. The cumulative cost of our Marathon vacation was on a par with Aruba or Punta Cana; I thought it would be cheaper but Tranquility Bay was no bargain. We all agreed that, first and foremost Hawaii — either the Big Island or Maui — is by far our favorite beach vacation but for an easier winter break Aruba is at the top of our list with Punta Cana a close, all-inclusive second.
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