The former train and highway bridge at Bahia Honda State Park

Although we departed the Keys on Jan 31, I still have a few more (can you stand it?) posts to share with y’all. During our first couple of boat cruising years we spent time on four or five occasions hanging out in Boot Key Harbor at the Marathon City Marina. Long time followers with good memories may recall some of the fun times and visitors we enjoyed.

We only drove up to Marathon twice but managed to fill our days well, especially our stops at Sparky’s Landing. Our friends Chris and Tracy of (now for sale officially) sv Sanuk had a bulkhead spot at the City Marina that they expertly squeezed themselves into when it became available.  We get a good chuckle about them being at the marina because during their first visit in Feb 2011 they gave it a big thumbs down. Maybe due in part to running aground in the tight anchorage area, but still we knew the place had what they would need in the coming years. 🙂

Here’s a mostly pictorial post of our Marathon jaunts via land.

Looking down from the old bridge at Bahia Honda

The park offers camping, great beaches, a nature center and a small marina basin with snack bar. You enter the basin immediately past the rock jetty you see sticking out. The narrow channel entrance is about 5.5 ft deep but once inside the basin is deeper. Remember this fact.

We walked by this Green Heron twice. Was he scared stiff or loved to pose?

The relatively new Aquarium Encounters in Marathon was interesting but since we’d seen much of the inhabitants close-up and personal the visit was “OK”.

We did get a kick out of the red light corner; heat, what else?
Sparky’s Landing was just a few miles north of the Aquarium and boy we were glad we opted to eat here rather than the cute snack stand on site. Extensive and yummy appetizer menu; just my thing. The artichoke/crab dip clogged my arteries just gazing at it, but I survived to tell you how delicious it was. Drinks- awesome too. We sat ringside overlooking the small and quite obviously shallow bay. A narrow, marked channel  brought boats to the dock next to Sparky’s (mostly charter) but how one would go in further, we weren’t sure.

Sparky’s proclaimed they had the best Happy Hour in Marathon- great wait staff for sure!

A perfect table at Sparky’s with a view of bird and boat activity

We watched this boat go aground as he opted not to use the channel- at high tide yet.

Saw the scene unfold, knew the outcome, still aground when we left. Several boats passed by but finally the sailboat let the power try to work him free. Going to be a long night if you are stuck at high tide.

As we left Sparky’s, hardly able to tear ourselves away from a scene we hadn’t witnessed in many months, a server pointed out this gal drinking manatee nectar; fresh water. Our best close-up to a manatee ever. Ok, one benefit to land cruising. 🙂

The day before leaving the Keys Chris and Tracy joined us for lunch at Sparky’s and this time the food, drinks and service was just as great, but lacked on-water excitement. Funny thing was we were taking about power cats (Tracy desires) and then a blue-hulled Lagoon power cat (4oft) comes along from the inner basin, right over the same spot where the sailboat ran aground a month before, and even at low tide, just glides on by. Cats rule ‘cuz running aground is cruel.

Does this really look like our kind of place?

During our drives into Key West we often drove past a shadowed restaurant on the corner of Truman and Simonton. Never open during the daytime hours, it looked “shady” and with a name of “Better than Sex” well, we wondered. However, TripAdvisor is our go-to source for dining everywhere and while looking for the top dining spots in Key West, Russ ran across this place. Firmly planted in the top 20 of over 350; this was intriguing. So now how do we combine Key West activities and end up here? Well, the alternating #1/#2 dining in Key West is Garbo’s Grill (a taco/burger cart), located on Caroline Street ( where women go crazy) behind Grunt’s Bar. Gosh, but this wasn’t sounding very classy to me. We’d walked the “other end” of Caroline but not yet toward the Whitehead St end.

As we drove south down the Overseas Highway the sky ahead loomed full of dark and menacing clouds. “Honey, did you do a weather check before we left?”

Rain clouds cross our path but light is on the other side

Nope, not this time. A line of serious rain was crossing our path but all looked well toward Key West.  Memories of being drenched a few weeks ago at the fort kept popping up.

Meters are located on each block. Cost is approx. $3/hr

In our excitement over snagging a great parking spot near Garbo’s we left the umbrella in the car. We found the spot under a light canopy of trees on Caroline, looking very inviting.

Garbo’s Grill delivers

Was pure coincidence that the other night we watched  “Chef” about a guy who finds fabulous success with a Cubanos food truck. We joked about that with the crew and held them to high expectations. Huge portions and mouth-watering delicious; we gave Garbo’s 5 stars.

Mahi tacos for me and a not-your-usual Bacon Cheeseburger for Russ- note the Brioche roll

The One Star weather killed sunset at Mallory Square (a must-do in Key West) so we headed toward Bonny and stopped at Kelly’s Caribbean for a happy hour libation and to check one more place off our list. From there we would walk many blocks for dessert because we didn’t want to mess around with re-parking. Sigh.

Taken when the rain was not paying us a visit

If you can’t read this- Kelly is none other than Kelly McGillis

Inside Kelly’s at the Crash Bar

Kelly’s history is that it’s the former original Pan Am office.   Of course by the time we had to leave for our dessert reservation, you can guess what was occurring outside. Rain. So we grabbed the umbrella on the way by (I used it) and we walked quickly to BTS.  Very lovely, dark and classy, we used an iPad for the first time.

Lori’s dessert choice was the day’s One Night Stand (get it?)

Tacos for dinner and dessert! Who would dream?

Russ made this selection. Note the cute tag you get on your plate.

Menu overview

The restaurant also offered wines by the bottle, by the glass and specialty selections. I chose a red wine with a dark chocolate dipped rim that covered way more than the rim.

The waitress asked if we were celebrating any occasion and we weren’t quick enough with a clever reply. Not just couples, but small groups and families all enjoyed “Better Than Sex”. Not going to find one in your favorite small town, but others like this must exist. It’s so popular that on weekends, if you don’t book in advance you will be able to eat dessert first!