Traveling Marathon... by Car

The past week has been a fairly productive one.  Keith did a good bit of fishing and we have played some tennis.  My lame left leg is doing better.  It still gets pretty stiff after exercise, but is much better than last month.

We rented a car for 24 hours as we both had dental cleanings scheduled and the dentist was a bit of a ride up toward the top of Marathon.  Having the car also gave us the opportunity to ride around a little.  We had dinner with friends Rob and Kelly White.  They are at White Marlin Marina this winter which is also here in Marathon.  We met them last winter (2017-2018).  We were all in the same marina in Palm Coast.  They are Tar Heel fans and also like sushi.  So all 4 of us met at Castaway's for a great sushi dinner.

Keith and I had the Sushi Boat for two

The next morning before we returned the rental car, Keith and I drove north for brunch.  We stopped at this local place and it was quite the experience.  Apparently The Wooden Spoon is a Marathon landmark.

Wooden Spoon

Grill at the Wooden Spoon seasoned from years of use

The Chili, cheese omelet and best biscuit I've had since leaving NC

We also had to go into Marathon Bagels per recommendations from friends.  We took home breakfast for the next several days.

Marathon Bagel Company

Our boat neighbors Cindy and Peter Baurer are great people.  I had mentioned to Cindy how much I liked a shark tooth fossil necklace that she wears.  It turns out one of her friends, Ronda, makes them.  Cindy invited me to come over to meet Ronda when she was visiting.  I took one of my own shark's tooth and Ronda made a pendant I can put on a chain.  I am soooooooooo excited to have my own shark tooth necklace.  Now I feel like a really cool boater.

My Shark Tooth Pendant

I have also been doing a good bit of sewing on the side.  I made several small projects to leave with friends in Ocracoke for the fireman's auction in May.  I will try to get some pictures of the projects once the finishing touches have been put on them.

Jammin' with Friends

Last week Keith got a rental car and drove north to Stuart to visit his parents for a few days.  He was also able to see his older brother Bruce and Bruce's wife Debbie as they have a winter home in Stuart also.  After some quality family time he headed back south to the Miami boat show to meet up with Dave and Janet (our friends from NC).   They all spent a full day Thursday at the boat show and then Friday drove to Marathon.

Once Keith, Dave, and Janet arrived at Southern Style on Friday afternoon; the relaxation began.

Keith and Dave

 We tried to do a dinghy ride for them, but it was just a little too windy.  Instead we drove around a bit and eventually ended up at Sunset Grill for dinner.  After dinner back on Southern Style, Dave pulled out his guitar.  We also had our friends Sue and Tom from their boat "Belle" join us for a jam session.

Friday night Jam Session  (Keith and Tom who is on drums aka boat bucket).

Janet and Keith getting into the music

Dave and Gail trying to find the lyrics via iPhone

Sue and Dave and Pengi just a jammin'

Our other friends and neighbors Cindy and Peter heard the ruckus and decided if you can't beat 'em you might as well join 'em.  Pengi seem to be working his way closer to the bottle of  Patron XO Cafe'.  Should I be worried?

The singing lasted until around midnight when we decided to call it a night.  Everyone turned in for a much deserved night of sleep.

Saturday morning was a beauty

When everyone had a chance to get up and have coffee and a light breakfast, we took the car down across the 7 mile bridge to Bahia Honda State Park.  I had read on a travel blog that this was one of the best beaches in the United States.  Now I do not want to offend anyone who is a local, but it was not all that great for me personally.  The day certainly was beautiful and the water color a perfect blue, however the beach is very narrow with little sand and there was a lot of sea grass washed up which took away from what little sand there was and it smelled to high heavens.  We did check it out though because you don't know if you don't try it.  I for one am sticking to NC beaches for now.

Bahia Honda State Park

Lunch was at Lazy Days Grill in Marathon.

Lazy Days Grill

The view from the deck at Lazy Days was pretty nice.

These were our drinks.  My Mango Bango in the front was quite tasty.  Janet had the Bushwhacker (it has the whipped cream), Keith had an "Orange Crush" and Dave stuck with Corona.  Janet said her drink was like desert.

After lunch we did some more relaxing because we had worked so hard Saturday.

Dave, Keith and Gail chillin' on the Fly bridge (picture courtesy of Janet)

Janet and Dave in the driver's seats

Sunday was another challenging day of relaxing, driving around Marathon a bit to see the Marathon City Marina, Marathon Golf Course and checking out Burdine's  for french fries.  We also had to take in some pool time and Dave and Keith went fishing for just a little.  

Janet, Keith, and Dave coming back from a dinghy ride

While the boys were fishing, Janet (who is a personal trainer) was kind enough to give me some pointers and exercises for my knee injury ( probably a muscle pull from playing tennis).  She and I went to the work out room at the marina, and her exercises really seemed to help (thank you Janet, you are an angel).

Dave and Janet had to leave Monday morning and we were sorry to see them go.  Keith and I did our best to convince them to add a day or two to their trip, but to no avail.  After they left on Monday morning, Captain Keith and I took Southern Style out so she could burn some diesel.  It was a very pretty day.

View while taking Southern Style for a run.  7 Mile Bridge in the distance.

She ran quite well and we gave her a much deserved bath once we returned.  Overall it was a very productive day.

Crane Point

This past week Keith and I decided to explore Crane Point Museum and Nature Center.  This was about a 2 mile bike ride from the marina.  It is part of the city of Marathon on Vaca Key. (There are actually 7 small keys or islands that make up the city of Marathon.)  It turned out to be a really nice place with a guided tour that was very helpful in pulling together the history of the area around Marathon.

Crane Point consists of about 60 acres of habitat with many native trees and wildlife.  There are numerous trails and a natural history museum, interactive exhibits for both adults and kids, a reproduction cracker house (a style of house typical of early Key's settlers), and a wild bird rescue center.  There are also two other homes on the property (I will describe them as I explain some of the history).

Trail in Crane Point

Pengi along for the the adventure

It was hard to watch for snakes with all the tree roots over some of the trails (sandals may have been a rookie choice of footwear).

A Gumbo Limbo tree also called the "tourist tree" because of its reddish and peeling bark.  (get it? red and peeling---tourist tree).

The first people believed to have inhabited the area were native Americans.  Some artifacts have been found in the area and are on display in the museum.  But settlement was VERY sparse until the 1900's, and even then it was a very challenging place to live.  George Adderley was a Bahamian immigrant that came to the area in the 1890's and around 1900 purchased 30 acres at what is now Crane Point.  There he build his home, a Bahamian style tabby house ( walls made with a type of concrete of equal parts sand, lime, shells and water).  It is the oldest house in the keys outside of Key West.

George Adderley House (the roof would have originally been thatched but changed to a solid roof once the East Coast Railway came through with building supplies George could purchase)

The native hammock is so thick here it is hard to imagine the difficulty George Adderley must have had to clear land just to build his house.  A hammock is a stand of native hardwood trees that usually grow on land only several inches above sea level.  Just several inches difference can lead to ground that will not support hardwoods and instead mangroves and other similar vegetation will be found.

Palm Fronds were traditionally used for thatching roofs.  Our guide told us that many thatched roofs are now imitation (synthetic) palm fronds.  Harvesting the fronds can only be done by native Americans or their direct descendants and so a true palm thatched roof requires native American harvested palm.

Thatch Palms at Cranes Point

Adderley supported himself and his wife Olivia by harvesting sponges and turtles, and producing charcoal.  He would take his goods via his sailboat from his home in Marathon to Key West to sell and then bring back any needed supplies.  This round trip would take several days.  It was around 1908 when the Florida East Coast Railway (spearheaded by Henry Flagler) approached Adderley for a right-of-way across part of his property.  Adderley negotiated a life-time pass to ride the railway as well as having it make a stop at his property.  This allowed him to use the train, once it was completed, to ride back and forth to Key West instead of sailing.  This reduced his round trip substantially.  The train stop also eventually became important to the future growth of the town of Marathon.

Rachel Creek was used by George Adderley to take his boat from his house out into the Gulf of Mexico to hunt sponges and turtles.  The creek is salt water and tidal.  There is actually very little fresh water on the point.  Fresh water was a valued commodity.

Pengi at Rachel Creek

View of the Gulf of Mexico from the point

After living on his property for nearly a half century, George Adderley sold the property in the 1950's to Massachusetts couple Francis and Mary Crane.  The couple built a modern house on the point overlooking the Gulf of Mexico and spent their winters there.  They were avid conservationists and horticulturalists who worked to preserve the natural hammock of the property.  The Cranes sold the land in 1970 and luckily The Florida Land Trust eventually was able to step in and buy the land.  They made it into a nature preserve and educational site.  

A reproduction "cracker house" with exhibits inside is also on site.  A cracker house was a style used by many early Key's settlers.  It was a wooden house structure with a porch that often rapped around the entire house to provide shade for the windows and walls.

Porch on the "cracker house"

One of the raptors from the Wild Bird Rescue Center

He was puffing up for his picture

Our visit to Crane Point was a nice couple hours out and about.  This coming weekend we will have friends from North Carolina visiting.  So far the weather looks good and we are looking forward to their visit.

Pigeon Key

During this past week Captain Keith continued to fish and has taken a particular interest in fishing for the Black Tipped Sharks that are in the area.  He is finding new rigs, leaders, and better ways to have fewer of them snap the line for him.  Stay tuned for updates about the shark fishing in future posts.  We did have a very nice surf and turf dinner thanks to Keith's brother Scot Mackey who sent us NJ scallops for Christmas.

Our steak and scallop dinner

Our excursion for this week was a trip to Pigeon Key.  This is a small island just southwest of Marathon.  It is only about 5 acres, but it has several historic buildings as well as one that has been made onto a museum.  This small island was one of over 80 camps for workers that built the Florida East Coast Railway in the early 1900s.  This railway was a project financed by Henry Flagler (part owner of Standard Oil).  The railway when completed allowed train traffic from the mainland of Florida and east coast to connect all the way to Key West.  Many ships coming from Cuba as well as through the newly finished Panama Canal could on/off load freight to trains in Key West to be distributed to the rest of the United States.  The 7 mile bridge is located here at Pigeon Key.  It is the longest bridge of the project. At the time this bridge was called the "8th Wonder of the World".  During the period between 1908-1912 as many as 400 men were stationed at Pigeon Key working to build the railway.  Today along with the restored buildings and museum, school groups can come for several days at a time to study marine sciences.

View of Pigeon Key from the tour boat that took us over to the Island

The original 7 mile bridge is on the right and the new bridge completed in 1989 is to the left.  The original bridge was changed to auto traffic in the 1930's and was only 22 feet wide for two lanes of traffic.

Closer view of part of the old bridge

Ramp onto the old bridge is currently closed as repairs are made.  Normally the old 7 mile bridge is open to pedestrian and bicycle traffic, however repairs will not be completed until 2021. (Bummer)

The original concrete is still present.  They have added reinforcing belts to some of the pilings.

Some of the restored buildings on Pigeon Key

Our trip to Pigeon Key was very interesting.  Like many of the islands in the keys it has quite a colorful past.

The remainder of the week was uneventful aside from a visitor in our neighbors dinghy.  Tom and Sue had this cutie show up one morning. Guess he was looking for some faster transportation than his short lizard legs.