Florida: Marathon - Seafood Festival

Day 245

Seafood Festival Banner

Some days while we have been here in Marathon it is impossible to find anything worthy of a blog entry. Even I do not want to read about laundry and grocery shopping or even a quick dip in the pool - all of which I have done in the past two days. Today, however, the annual Marathon Seafood Festival provided material for my blog.

Even though the distance to the Seafood Festival was close to two miles, folks from five boats here at Faro Blanco decided to walk there together -- Corkscrew (Phyllis & Sonny), Act III (Susan & Jeff), Sandrobber (Sandy & Rob), Sea Moss (Ev & Clark), and Jammin Jane (Jane & Ben). We agreed we would meet at 11:00.

Before our trek to the festival Ben decided that his dog Crockett was bored with the marina and really needed some excitement in his life. He took him for a dinghy ride.

Crockett's Dinghy Ride with Ben

As soon as Ben got back and put his dinghy "to bed", we set out for the festival. Since it was in the right direction, Clark brought some papers with him to mail at the post office. As we made our way down Route 1 towards the festival, I told Clark that he should leave us and go on ahead as the post office could well close before he got there. He quickly moved out ahead of us and disappeared from sight. I later learned that he ended up running part of the way because it looked like he would not make it into the post office in time to fill out the return receipt paperwork and get the papers on their way.

When we all left the marina, we had some concern that it might rain because the sky was full of gray, thick clouds. By the time we got to the festival, however, that cloud cover was gone and it felt downright hot.

When the seafood festival began in 1976, a number of local fishermen decided to get together and celebrate their industry. Today the festival provides a variety of edible seafood options (lobster, oysters, shrimp, stone crab, fish, clams) plus a whole lot more. Several small boats were on display at the entrance as a sort of petite 'boat show' followed by an art show with a selection of artwork available for purchase, and then finally the main entrance to the "festival" area.

Crowds at the Seafood Festival

The Seafood Festival is a major two-day event in Marathon and draws up to 20,000 people each year. Fortunately they did not all appear to be there while we were there. The festival is held within a fenced-off section of the Marathon City Park.

No sooner did we get into the event than we quickly lost track of our walking companions. I stayed with Ben and Jane from Jammin Jane. The others seemed to almost evaporate as I never saw them again once we were inside  the fence. Ben, Jane and I decided to hit the food vendors first. Ben got Stone Crab claws, I got 'peel and eat' shrimp, and Jane got a Cuban Sandwich (pork, ham, cheese and miscellaneous other items on a roll). We found a tent with tables where we could stand up to eat our food (the tent with chairs was too full to find seats).

We demolished that food in a hurry and decided to go back for more. Ben's first choice of a seafood dinner did not happen due to the length of the line to place an order. Instead Ben and I got hamburgers, which I thought were absolutely delicious. I felt like I should be eating seafood at a seafood festival, but I thoroughly enjoyed that burger!

By 12:15 we had already consumed two rounds of food with still no signs of Clark. Through a series of text messages and phone calls I determined that Clark was still "on his way". While waiting for him to appear, Ben, Jane, and I toured the vendor booths. The Crane Point Museum had a booth with a quite nice display including a pelican named Betsy who modeled for us.

"Betsy" the Pelican at the Crane Point Exhibit

Turtle Pool

Tucked over in a corner in the shade we found a pen with a tortoise inside. At only 13 years old he has a potentially long life ahead of him. The crowd around his pen seemed to be more impressed with the size of his excrement that he deposited while we watched than they were with him.

13-year old Tortoise who may live to be as old as 150 years old

Stingray Petting Pool
(barbs are removed from stingrays to make them harmless)

We hung out in this area until Clark finally made his appearance. I later learned, from hearing a bit of information at a time, that he took a long time getting to the festival from the post office because he 1) ran into Alois (Lewy) from Trillium and talked for a while and 2) stopped for ice cream, air conditioning, and a restroom break along the way.  After running in the sun to get to the post office, he said he needed the ice cream to cool down for the walk back to the festival.

Based on the pictures on his phone, he must have stopped at least twice more in order to take pictures along the way.

Road Sign to Local Seafood

Mural depicting Florida Keys bridge across the top of the picture
with all the various sea creatures swimming below.

As we toured the grounds, we came across some folks we knew. We saw Dave from Fryedaze with his brother Dale and Deb and Brent from Haley's Comet as well as Devon and Selena from the marina staff.

Ben and Jane left us shortly after 1:00 to return to the marina. Other than his ice cream treat Clark had not eaten any lunch, so we went off to the seafood stations to find him some food. We ended up in the longest line so he could get a seafood dinner platter. He had decided on the fish dinner, but the local fisherman in front of us in line convinced him he had to get lobster. Clark decided to get them both via the lobster & fish dinner choice. I decided to get a clam boat.

Lobster & Fish Dinner with Clam Boat on the Side

After finishing our lunch (I ate Clark's hush puppies and some of his cole slaw in exchange for some of my clams), we decided to visit the booths around the perimeter of the show. I could feel blisters forming on my poor aching feet, but I limped around after Clark to the booths he wanted to visit.

He stopped to examine sun glasses, deck furniture for our house, and window tinting for our boat windows. The one that I liked best, however, was the sand sculpture booth though I have nowhere I could put the artwork.

Small sand sculptures across top
Large rectangular moon scene across bottom 

In addition to the food and all the vendors, several bands performed throughout the day. Some were clearly better than others.

Band Performing on Stage at Seafood Festival

As we exited the festival we got our hands stamped in case we decided to come back (to avoid repaying the $5.00 entrance fee).  I honestly could not imagine coming back again today given how badly my feet ached, but hey, better safe than sorry.

Quick picture of Clark before leaving the festival

That almost two-mile walk along Route 1 highway back to the marina seemed to take forever in the blistering sun. It felt so hot that as we walked along I started thinking about what it would be like to be out in a desert in the heat. I decided I would never survive such an ordeal. Apparently Clark was feeling the heat too. About two-thirds of the way back to the marina he stepped off the trail and led me into the shade. It felt so good we just stood there to cool off for several minutes before continuing on our way.

Sadly for us a wedding at the marina meant that the marina pool was closed for the afternoon and evening. It would have been the perfect time to jump into the pool. Later, as we stood by our boat talking to Jo and Jim from Namaste, we saw first the guests and then the wedding party go past the end of our boat on their way to the "chapel on the beach".

Namaste plans to leave here tomorrow. During our conversation we learned that they are having trouble with their VHF radio system. Clark spent the rest of the night after dinner working with Jim to troubleshoot the problems.