Day Trip in Marathon

Happy Valentine's Day!
Today we decided to get out and do a little exploring.  We rode our ebikes out the 7mile bridge to Pigeon Key.  

Mr Flagler (who built the original railroad to Key West).established a camp on this little island with 400 workers to help build this section of the railroad.  This railway (which later converted to highway) was entirely funded my one man with a dream.  

One man with a dream and 30% of the stock of Standard Oil.   Lol.  Apparently he was the bookkeeper/finance man for John D Rockefeller and John did right by his long time friend.   
We did a picnic lunch on the island on what turned out to be a picture perfect day.  We sat in the sun for lunch then went out on the pier by ourselves and read, napped and chatted for a couple of hours.  A stellar date activity.
Oh and we fed sharks and jacks and tarpon. 
in.what used to be the swimming pool on the island.   
We also sat in the rockers on the porch all by ourselves..  not many tourists today.   It made for a very enjoyable time.

As I often say - it didn't suck at all...
After a nice day on the island we rode our ebikes back to the marina and then got ready for dinner at Lazy Days South which is on the property in our marina.  
Forever my Valentine...
Katie had chicken and I had stuffed shrimp and it was excellent...

After dinner we hung out in the Adirondack chairs by the pool in the marina to watch the sunset.    It was perfect out today.  Gentle breeze and temps in the low 70s.  
We have a new neighbor tonight. The 105fr motor yacht Penja is docked across from our bow at the gas dock..  
She sold last in 2022 for $10,990,000 and appears to now be registered in Jamaica.  We didn't meet anyone on the boat but she sure is beautiful.    She just came up from Key West and is spending the night here....  

Marathon is a great place to be in the keys.  More laid back than the crazy of Key West but yet ample access to restaurants, stores and activities.     We are enjoying our time here waiting for parts and other Amazon shipments.   We will be out a bit over the next few weeks for a couple of trips we will be making but we will return to the boat each time for a few days before beginning our journey north in early March..    

This is truly one of my favorite places....  It's my first visit to the keys and Marathon is quite magical to me....

Especially when it's like this....
Yes, this really is the view from our marina....
And yes, this is really what the water looks like under our boat ..

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