FL Keys

Monday, September 22, 2014

Last weekend we celebrated (early) my in-laws' birthdays in Marathon, FL. After work on Thursday, we drove down to South Florida and stayed the night with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law.

Ready for our road trip

Stephen did good getting some road trip snacks!

It was great to spend time with my sibling-in-laws (is that even a real thing?) and we even got to spend some time with our fur-nephew Sunny!


Friday morning we woke up and headed down south to Marathon. We got there just in time for lunch at Sunset Grille. I thought it was so cool that the whole restaurant was open, although I'm not sure how they handle hurricanes. It was pricey for the amount of food you got but it was tasty and there was even a pool out back! 


Our lunch view - you can kind of see the pool

After we ate lunch we checked into our hotel, Banana Bay. I'm not going to sugar coat this hotel - it was rough... but we were going cheap and you get what you pay for and it got the job done. It did have tennis courts, a pool, a marina and an area to fish at. The company we were with made it worth while ;)

We changed and headed out to Bahia Honda for some beach fun. It was right over the 7 mile bridge, it was a great beach and wasn't crowded.

The fishing area/marina at the hotel

Saw this interesting passenger on the scooter

7 mile bridge

Bahia Honda Beach


After the beach we headed back to the hotel to clean up and go to dinner at Alma at the Hawks Cay Resort. Oh my was this place nice! It had an amazeballs pool, a lagoon and a dolphin area (real dolphins people!) I'm sure there were a lot of other cool things as well, but this was all we saw. 

Pool area

Cheesin' in front of the lagoon 

The dolphin area


The original Hirsts (minus one brother)

Dinner was DELICIOUS! Stephen got scallops and I split the rib-eye with my sister-in-law. The rib-eye was soooo tender and yummy! I'm very thankful that my sister-in-law and I wanted the same thing and wanted to split it. The portions were so large!

Scallop dinner and prime-rib


The Hirsts

Birthday dessert - delicious Key Lime Pie

The siblings (minus one brother)

Saturday morning was the big birthday fun day - renting a boat and snorkeling! My father-in-law picked out a fun boat and we were off! I had fun until we got out into the ocean and the sea became (slightly) angry... the boat was rocking and there were jellyfish all around where we stopped to snorkel. So naturally I panicked because I didn't want to get sea sick but I couldn't get into the water (and avoid sea sickness) because of the jelly fish. Everyone got in and ended up getting stung - not bad though - and I ended up feeling real sick. So unfortunately we went back in and they dropped Stephen and I off and they headed back out. I have to brag on my hubby for sticking with me and helping me out and he didn't complain once!  We enjoyed the pool (and hearing a drunk guy at 11am singing "It's 5 o'clock somewhere") and took a nap.

Nice and calm in the harbor

All smiles - this was before we were out at sea


My brother-in-law caught some lobsters! They'll be enjoying some yummy lobster tail this week ;)


For dinner we went to Barracuda Grill which was right next to our hotel - so convenient! This restaurant was delicious but not as good as Alma.


Creme Burle with a Barracuda drawing - delicious and clever

We finished up the night with some intense Catch Phrase (if you know us you'd know we're serious Catch Phrase players and we don't play around). Sunday morning we woke up and played some tennis then went to Island Fish Co. for lunch. This was another neat open air restaurant on the water but it wasn't pricey for what you got. 

Servin' it up!

View from the back of the hotel area


The restaurant was right on the water

We had fun spending time with family and celebrating another year the Lord has blessed them with! 

No Comments Yet, Leave Yours!