Marathon Key:  Memorial Dive Weekend 2004

On the July 4^th of 2001  I took my daughter on a trip to Marathon Key so she can finish her open water dive certification.  It was just the two of us trying to share a nice experience over a long weekend.   This time I went with another family, their 3 kids, my wife, my son and his friend. (our daughter who decided SCUBA diving was not for her visited a friend in NJ)    Our mission for the weekend was to get 3 boys to complete their certification and have some fun.      We flew Song Airlines for about $275 round trip from JFK to Ft Lauderdale on Thursday night.  The reason we left Thursday was to get a jump on the day and be at the Discount Divers around lunch.

And now the details.

May 27^th,Thursday Afternoon:  Leave on Song Airlines JFK to FLL (airport code for Ft Lauderdale) on a pleasant flight with their multi-channel  TV’s.  Before checking in we hit the Delta Club for some cheese, crackers, pate, soda and cocktails.  This is a nice club with good service and a good mandarin martini recipe.

The flight was uneventful as one should be.  One funny thing is that Song has 24 channels  of TV and I found  nothing really interesting to watch.   Discovery had what seemed to be another show about making a motorcycle and A&E  had some murder investigation (again).   I am not a ESPN junkie so those stations were out. Believe it or not I watched a show on TLC about plane crashes.  (I learned two things.   It takes a person  has to fly 21000 years one  random flight per day to get into a crash. The other this is that airline windows are round after they found multiple jets crashing in the late 50’s due to a structural defect around square windows. What better place to watch a show on plane wrecks than a plane?

We arrived on at FLL early.  (I love the way they brag about arriving early when the 25 minutes of built in delays do not happen)

After allowing the car rental person to talk me into the new Chrysler Pacifica for $20 more per day we headed to our Ramada Inn internet special of $44.95 for the night.  The Ramada Airport had seen better days but for a rate of $44.95 per night the shower was good and the bed clean.  They are doing a renovation to the lobby and bar / disco area as well as some rooms.  I would hope they update the floor AC units because of the noise they make.

Friday:  After breakfast we were off and on the way to Marathon.  It was a pleasant enough ride with a stop for desert before lunch.  Manny and Issa’s on Islamorada at mile marker 81.6.  Manny and Issa’s have been here for many years as a Cuban style restaurant.  They are famous for their own in house Key Lime Pies that are supposedly made with their own key limes.  Got two pies to go and had them on the bench outside.  The pies were $14. They gave us forks and knifes but charges us $.10 per cup for water and wanted to charge us a quarter per plate.  We elected to eat them out of napkins.  (for the record, if you sit down and do table service, you get the water, plates and napkins but it is $3.50 per slice.  The way we did it was more fun as snarfed up  an entire pie in 90 seconds!  (Sort of the way sharks act with blood in the water)  Their pies are tangy with a light meringue topping.  Next we headed to a place called the Quay for lunch.  We told the kids it really is OK to have desert before lunch now and then.  Here we met Capt. Ed from Eco Divers Discount for lunch.  The Quay is at  54.  There are actually two places here. One is the fancy sit down on linen formal place. The other is in the back with out any signs and is a part open air fish house / tiki-type bar.    Three years ago I remember eating the largest and best price fried grouper and grilled mahi-mahi (dolphin) sandwiches along with good drinks and conch fritters.  I happy to say the place has not changed.  The fritters were pretty good, the fish sandwiches fell out of the rolls, the fried clams were tasty. The burgers were big, fat and juicy for non seafood fans  ( we liked the place  so much we went back for lunch on Sunday).

After Lunch we checked into the Coco Plum Beach and Tennis Club on Marathon.  This is a group of tightly spaced multi-level villas. The first floor we called the “stem” and had the laundry machines and garbage can.  The stairs takes you to the front door where there is a large screened in deck  with a small kitchen and dinning area.  Going up the spiral staircase you get to a living area and two bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. There is a TV and bathroom in the master bedroom and a TV in the living area.  The accommodations were very nice.  The property had a pool, Jacuzzi and a  sandy beach.  This is nice family place but it is not handicap accessible from what I saw.

We had to head up to Key West after a quick dip in the ocean and pool to pick up the remaining member of our party who was flying in that night.  Our goal was to see the famous Key West sunset on Mallory Square.  My first experience here was in February of 1982. At that time things were more informal and it was like going to a big party.  Now they have people selling trinkets and crafts along the back. There are what seemed to be scheduled acts with performers roping off areas and doing their bit one at a time.  We saw the end of an act off the square where the guy juggled on a 4 foot unicycle.  Another act that was disappointing was a guy how got hung upside down by members of the audience and got himself out of a straight jacket covered with chains and locks by shaking himself.  He was very boisterous when he did not get all the tips he thought he should have gotten. (I think he should have never come out with that act.)  Sunset at 7:55 was pleasant but  not as nice as if over the water.  This time of the year the sun sets directly over the island opposite Mallory Square.  In February when we were here it was over the water with the ships near the horizon making a stunning scene.

From the sunset and show it was off to Half Shell for dinner on the “historic docks”

Back in 1982 you actually had a few warehouses and shrimp boats in front of the place. Now you have shops, boutiques yachts on the dock.  The food we found pretty good. Dishes included grilled shrimp, fish and chips  fried shrimp, stuffed shrimp, steamed clams, oysters and ribs for the non fish eater. One person in our group had the key lime for desert and found it “OK” To feed 9 people the price was $200.  The only minor complaint was the over greasy and not so flavored conch fritters.   To get here leave Mallory Square and go to Front Street taking the new boardwalk past various bars and eating establishments.  (things really change in 20+  years”

Had more time allowed I would have taken the kids on the Conch Train. Yes it is tacky looking and the a typical tourist thing to do, but it tells you about Key West and shows you the place in an easy fashion.

The reason we were on Marathon was to get the 3 13 year old boys dive certified.  While we signed up with Capt Ed at Eco Divers, plans got changed around a bit and we used multi shops to get the job done.  Halls Dive shop was where we left from using their boat. They took us to Sombrero Reed for the boys to finish their open water lessons and the rest of us to dive. One adult was sick and could not dive so he snorkeled with  10 year old daughter.  Sombrero is a great place for beginning divers because it is shallow and because you can snorkel it.  Halls took is to Delta Shoals after the first dive as we were doing two per day. 

For lunch it was off to Miami Subs takeout and then a rare  afternoon nap on the beach for me.  

For dinner we asked the dive boat captain for a Cuban place.  The kids would have rebelled for seafood and Cuban places are not found too easy on Long Island (except for the new one in Port Washington that rates only a “good”.)  At 7PM we headed to Don Pedro’s.  We found the sangria bland but the food very good. Appetizers included Garlic fried yucca bights and a small ham and chicken croquet. Main courses include Nicaraguan steaks, Grilled yellowtail mutton, oxtail stew, Braised beef,  broiled chicken and two pork dishes.  Side dishes included black beans, yellow rice and sweet plantains.  We all liked the food and would say this is a good alternative if you do not want to eat at one of the many seafood places on Marathon. 

The next day it was up and off to Halls for our second day of diving.  The nice thing about Coco Plum is that we did not have to have breakfast out.  We all filed into suite 7 of our friends and self served a continental breakfast to ourselves.  Doing this was a definite plus.  Today we were disappointed with Halls as they took us to the same reef after telling us they would pick another place.  I guess because they added 9 more people snorkeling  to the boat it made it easier for them to do.   After a stop at Sombrero it was off again to Delta Shoals.   With so many places to dive going to the same place two days in a row was not excusable.  On the plus side their mates were great.  They very helpful with the needs of my group.  One bonus was have a pod of female purposes chase and jump off our wake.  We knew they were females when I showed the dive instructor a picture of two jumping in the air of my digital camera and see saw one purpose as a mother and the other her baby.  She said males and females do not travel together like this.

Today it was a late lunch. The younger kids opted for a Chinese buffet place to go while the 15 year old and the adults headed back to the Quay.  The rest of the afternoon was napping and resting.  Dinner was kept simple with Papa John’s Pizza delivered (I would find another place in the future to get pizza from)  along with leftovers from the night before.

Monday AM. After sleeping late and packing it was off to villa 7 for breakfast of donuts, watermelon ice cream and any leftovers anyone wanted followed by 45 minutes at the beach.  We thought leaving noon was acceptable for a 5:30 flight even after some of the locals said that would work. Our plan was to stop at Robbie’s at mm77.5 to feed the tarpon and then the discount dive place for dive booties on the mainland while somewhere squeezing in lunch.  None of this worked out. A few miles down the road we hit traffic. So much that it stopped dead.  I flagged down a car coming in the opposite direction only to be told this was the traffic all the way on Route 1!  With the exception of a few minor breaks and 10 minutes on Key Largo traffic was so that stopping for anything but gas would have caused us to miss our flight.  We were lucky that the one lane road leaving Key Largo and connecting to the Turnpike was moving at a good speed and we arrived that the airport 4:15 after being on the road for about 4 ½ hours.  This was 2 hours more than going to Marathon.  For some reason there was no line at security. This gave us time to go to Miami Subs at the terminal,  the Delta club for a drink, pretzels and 10 minutes to relax before going to the gate.

Thoughts On the Trip:

Our mission was simple.  Find a place with warm clear water so that three 13 old boys can get their diving licenses.  We picked Marathon because I knew the place. Also because this was a holiday weekend other Caribbean destinations were not going to be priced as well.   If it not been for our schedule  I would have spent a little more time in Key West looking at the old homes and shops. The kids would have like the Conch Train tour. With another couple of days we would have  would have rented wave runners or gone on the mini self drive speed boat safari that is offered..  Also we would have taken the kids fishing for a few hours on one of the many fishing boats around.   Marathon does not have many of the “tourist” things you see in Key West. There is not central area for shops and bars one is used to looking for. This is an outdoorsy vacation area for fishing, boating, kayaking, diving and eating seafood.  Anyway, the boys did great on their dive passing their tests with the help of Kayla their dive instructor.   On a personal note, I am looking forward to Capt. Ed of Eco Divers putting his boat back into service.  I was on it when he ran the concession at Biscayne Bay National Park 14 years ago.  His boat is unique in size, ride and construction.  When this happens he will be a good all around one stop  dive shop.  Capt Ed wrote a book he self published. Half of it deals with his Top Gun days when he flew his F4 for 200 missions in Vietnam.  The other half is stories about he and his friends. (I have not read the book at time of this writing.  A signed copy of the book is available at the dive shop.

Hotel: Coco Plum gets a thumbs up

Diving:  Halls Gets a thumbs down.  Nice people, but no excuse to take the same core group to the same place the next day. With the added people it was pretty crowded

Honorable Mention:  Capt Ed at Eco Divers Discount.  I look forward to him having his boat up and running. Check out the store when you are there.

Dollar Car Rental:  Regarding the car rental.  I would definitely pass on the Pacifica.  It is not a mini-van as the seats in the back are way to crammed and there is room for a tissue box behind it when the seats are up.  It is not a station wagon as you do not have the visibility of one.  It is also far from a SUV.  It is also boring to drive with plain basic pick up and handling.  Visibility was fair. You were looking out of a tunnel in the rear window. The side visibility was poor out of the rear quarter panel windows.

Food: Don Pedro’s for Cuban food:  Good place if you do not want to leave  

          Marathon

          Manny & Issa’s: did not try the food but the pie was very good

          Half Shelf Raw Bar:  Still consistently good at a nice location

          The Quay:  We did lunch twice in the back on the water. Simple, cheap and

           good.  This would be a good place for sunset happy hour too.