I know I had said we wouldn't be going to Key West, but then we decided that if we were going to do the trip, it would have to be Tuesday/wed/Thursday of this week.
Monday night we decided to hit the road in the morning. Waz spent time that night, looking for an inexpensive Hotel/Motel, and found one on Hwy 1 South, just out of the township of Marathon.
Talk about 'Funky'! The Seashell Resort, as it is called, is on a bend in the road. It is also on the water, being the Atlantic Ocean side of the Key that is Boot Key.
I didn't get the opportunity to take photos of the front of the Motel, but I did take some of the inside. More on that later...
We arrived there just as the sun was setting (5.45pm..the office closes at 6pm), having spent an hour and a half with Kaye and Al on their boat in Islamorada. They are docked at a Marina there for the next few weeks. They love it there and appear relaxed and happy, both of them. It was good to see them and catch up with their plans, changes of plans and whats new.
The view out the back of Al and Kaye's boat. This boat apparently had a large crack in it when they took it out of the water. The workmen were busy painting the hull.
This is the lagoon dotted with anchor-out folks.
It was another half hour drive to Marathon from Islamorada. We did notice that the road side places got more and more touristy the closer we got to the 'Keys'. Once you leave the Mainland, as it were, you are very much on 'Island Time'.
Thank goodness for GPS, coz we had no trouble finding the motel. What did we do without them? Read maps?:)
Waz went to check in to the Motel while I waited in the car. One of the other motel occupants advised me to move the car because the coconuts are falling right now, and we don't want to put a dent in the vehicle!! Thanks!
Fortunately for us, the glass sliding door was unlocked, when we climbed the stairs to #7. The tide was out, when we arrived, but it was fun to watch the wading birds fishing and the Ibis behaving like cows...grazing in large groups, on the mudflats.
The rain cleared enough for me to take these photos from the balcony outside our room. To the right, the hammock looked inviting, and to the left, there were some kayaks on the beach...
The sun set as we headed out into Marathon to find some food for dinner. It was still raining at this stage, as you can see.
The odd thing about the curtains was that there is a support in the middle of the bar, but the curtain is one piece. Therefore you could never draw the curtain back past the first pane of the glass slider. It was ripped along the top where people had obviously tried to pull it further!
The beds were inner spring mattresses that squeaked horrendously. No hanky panky for us!1
Waz is 5ft 11", and his feet hung over the end of the bed.
The smoke alarm would have been really useful. Waz tried to make it work, but it just refused!
Getting there....
We left Port Charlotte at 8.40am, after a good breakfast, and putting all our stuff together in a hurry. What was I thinking when I just threw my Toilet bag in my overnighter without consulting the contents...no shampoo, no soap, no deodorant...etc. I did have loads of moisturizer, however:)
The photo below is of Alligator Alley, which is 120+/- miles long. It is one of the most boring stretches of road, by day, but at night one has to pay careful attention to the road because you are travelling in excess of 70mph. There is no road lighting of any kind, and the markings on the road are well worn for the most part. It would be very easy to fall asleep on this highway. It is the major road to take you across the Everglades and the Florida Peninsula (lower half) heading east/west.
There is only one loo stop on the way there or back...both sides of the road use this one...(other than the Seminole Indian gas station/bathroom stop, which isn't recommended...ever! The toilets are disgusting!). We stopped for a leg stretch and bathroom visit on the way down, and again on the way back (at night there is an armed guard presence!)
The parking lot was not full when we arrived on the way down, but the cars came and went frequently. This Grackle was looking for anything I might give it. Their colors are stunning!
There was a long stretch of road on the Florida Turnpike that had these bare sticks.
Now we are on the Florida Turnpike
..or so our GPS tells us!
We took the bypass around Ft Lauderdale and Miami, intending to spend a day in Miami on the return trip.
We stopped just off the Turnpike for some lunch, which ended up being Subway sandwiches, followed by a Latte from Panera, in an adjacent building. We needed to find a public loo, by then, and Panera cost us two latte's as a result of using their bathroom! Oh well. They weren't too bad.
The turnpike, just before we turned off to bypass Ft Lauderdale and Miami.
WATER!!! Just as we were leaving the mainland to enter the Keys.
Let me return to the Motel!
We returned to the motel from our dinner in Marathon township. Making a choice of where to eat was a bit of a challenge. We didn't want fast food...again, so we stopped opposite the public park at Bar and Grill. The waiters were dressed in black with white shirts, the tablecloths were real cloth and had cloth napkins, and the setting was a little more formal than we were dressed for...we initially thought. At least the first impressions were good!
The service started out ok, but there was no upselling on the water. We might have been tempted by some virgin cocktails, had they been offered. We were just asked if we wanted anything to drink!
We chose to share a fisherman's platter...This being seafood country. We also chose to have it fried. We do rather like a good fish fry!
We waited a suitable time and the food appeared. We both looked at the plate and then at each other.
It didn't taste any better than it looked. It would be hard to tell when they last changed the fryer oil, because the food was dark brown. Everything was dark brown. There was no salt in the batter/coating, so the scallops had no flavor. The conch fritter could not be identified by the waiter, even. It was rubbery and chewy as a result. The fish was overcooked, therefore dry. The lemon wedge was old, and we had to ask for tartar sauce which was presented to us in little plastic containers for takeout food. The white dishes were lovely, however, so why was the sauce not brought in a china bowl?
The waiter was keen to make amends and recommended we have the Key Lime pie for dessert. We shared this too. It was so sweet, and the small rosettes of cream were grossly inadequate and looked very unprofessional. We asked the waiter if this was supposed to be a fine dining experience, which he confirmed. We told him we thought it was put together by a Line Cook, not a chef. I also told him that he missed so many opportunities to upsell us...we would have liked a coffee with the dessert, but he didn't ask, and at that stage we were pissed off with the whole thing, so didn't bother asking.
WE did ask to speak to the manager, but she was too busy, even though our waiter asked her a couple of times. We voted with our feet, and walked out the door after paying. The platter with two pieces of fish, two prawns, two oysters (I think) and one conch fritter with half a dozen pieces of calamari was $28. You can see why we chose to share! The pie was $6!!!
We got back to the motel where there was no outside light to light our way up the stairs, which were now slick with rain.
Waz had had trouble locking the door when we left for dinner, and now he could not get the key to catch in the tumbler. It just freewheeled all the way around without doing anything. We were pissed off royally! We could not get into our room.
I knocked on the neighboring door to see if she had a telephone in the room. No. She did call the office number though and we left an urgent message to help us come and get into the room.
The neighbor told us she had the same problem earlier in the day and got her key out to see if it would open OUR door. It did! How about that. We had left our computer on the table in the room, when we left. Aieeee!
Not a good beginning to our couple of days away.
We were up relatively brightly and relatively early on Wednesday morning. I stepped outside to take sunrise photos just after 7am. Waz slept a little longer while I made a fresh fruit salad with all the fruit we had brought with us. We intended to go down to McDonalds for breakfast. At least we knew what to expect there!!!
Katie and Dean had arrived in Marathon at the Boot Key Marina, which is also known as the Town Marina. We wanted to connect with them before we left town, so gave them a call.
We agreed to meet down at the marina, where we parked and waited for them. In the meantime, Waz and I got talking to a woman on a lovely 75ft Fleming, parked right outside the office, on the concrete dock.
We had quite a long chat while waiting for the Calkins to dinghy in from their anchorage, way out past the mooring field.
Just as a note of interest, there are 280 buoys out in the mooring field at the Marina. That is a HUGE number of boats waiting out the weather and winter.
This is only one of the bike parks at the marina.
Dinghy heaven...hard ones on this side, and soft ones on the other side.
Val let me take photos of her mini poodles. The honey colored one is older, but the pup is only four months old. She is trying to toilet train it right now...some success, some failure, as we all know happens with puppies!
Their lovely Motor Yacht with tender on the starb'd side.
The third and oldest of the poodles.
Yes, they do have pirates in the Keys!:)...this is the dinghy dock looking out to the open water and the end of the pier.
We picked Katie and Dean up and took them to the Wooden Spoon for breakfast...well, brunch, really! The food looked fantastic! Katie ate all of her eggs benedict with gusto! Waz had two pancakes and I ate a bagel to keep them all company. Dean had pancakes, I believe.
Good to see these friends. They have hearts of gold and we always enjoy swapping stories with them. They also share their knowledge so freely.More photos of the marina and mooring fields.
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