Tomorrow Earl and I pack up and head north, so it’s the end of the road for our second annual stay in Marathon, Florida.
What are the highlights this year? I would say the food, not necessarily the quality or the quantity, but the typical-ness of it. The Florida Keys are known for fresh oysters, fish tacos, shrimp cocktail, and Margaritas. We visited more than one restaurant where these were featured.
After a while, the Tiki bar format becomes familiar, almost boring. At the same time, I had oysters whenever I could because we can’t get them back home this time of year.
We also visited a Dolphin Research Center which had twenty-two dolphins in residence for studying. I don’t mean the dolphins were studying; I mean researchers were studying them. We met one, Jax, that had been attacked by a shark and abandoned by its mother. Marine researchers discovered it and nursed it back to health. Now visitors can pay to swim in the water with Jax. One could argue this is a zoo-like existence, but the truth is Jax does not have the skills to survive in open waters.
We drove the sixty-one miles to Key West a couple times. It’s a new tradition to visit Sloppy Joe’s Bar there for the signature sandwich, which is sweet and gooey and not to be missed. The bar itself was originally made famous by Ernest Hemingway, who probably liked it more for the alcohol than the sloppy Joe’s.
And, yes, Earl played tourist and bought a T-shirt from another bar called Hog’s Breathe. I’m not sure if the name refers to the animal or to serious bikers. But its motto is, “Hog’s breathe is better than no breathe at all.”
In the telling of it, our vacation wasn’t marked by “WOW” moments; rather, it was more like a return to familiar surroundings that added to the memories of the year before. I suspect we’ll return.
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