Youngs Take the Keys - Marathon to South Florida (Day 6)

Today might have ended up being our most “relaxing” day yet. We mostly drove and did small things along the way. The good news was that the down time spent in the car let Kenzie have some “rest time” sort of similar to what she might have at home and let Will actually nap.

We started our day waking up about 7:15. That is almost downright late for our kids. What was really funny was listening to them from our bed as they conspired how and when to wake us up for the day. We both were awake and could hear them having a conference about whether or not it was morning. One would say, “It is morning. Can’t you see the light coming in through the window?” or something of the sort and the other would suggest waking up Mommy and Daddy because it was daytime. We finally gave in and let them climb into bed with us for a few minutes before we started our day.

Breakfast went better today than it has any day on this trip so far. Except maybe when they went with Grandma and Grandaddy on our snorkeling day but we weren’t there for that. Kenzie actually requested eggs and told me that the hotel ones were better than what I make at home. Um… they probably aren't even real eggs, kid. There was also bacon which made both kids super happy as well as made for one happy Daddy. We took our time eating breakfast and then went back to the room to finish packing up. We took a few trips down to the car to get it loaded. There wasn’t a luggage cart available so we had to make it work by man power. The bonus to four people is that we have 8 hands between us to help carry things around. As we checked out we grabbed the kids each a cup of cheerios from the breakfast area to take in the car. Will fought me about taking “pink cheerios” aka fruit loops. He has never had them in his life but I guess the colors were exciting and he thought he needed them. One dad was cracking up as he and I argued about the lack of nutritional benefits from sugary cereal. Eventually I threatened to walk away with nothing and he decided cheerios were okay.

Once we checked out, we were on the road. The kids said goodbye to all the places we have been over the last few days as we drove by them. Then it was on to Islamorada. Our next stop was Robbie’s to feed the tarpon. This is a staple for a Keys trip. No visit down here is complete without throwing fish to the fish. The kids were too young to remember really the last time we did this. Will was certainly too young and Kenzie was bordering on it. She remembers minimal from our last trip here so this has been a super fun trip to watch both kids enjoy all things “new”. We initially thought one or both kids might be hesitant about feeding tarpon. It can be a little over stimulating and sometimes scary. Some of those fish are huge. Will went right for it. “Big fish!!” he told us and reached right into the bucket to grab some fish to throw to said big fish. Side note: His need to continually call tarpon "terpin" cracked me up. I love this age. Kenzie was a bit less sure but once Steven told her how to pick the fish up by the tails, she was set. Will was throwing fish gangbusters. Steven looked over at one point and realized he was down to his last fish. It wasn’t long before Kenzie was down to hers too. After we finished off our fish and washed hands, we walked around the dock more to watch others feeding the tarpon. One guy had a bloody hand because he was literally letting them try to grab the fish and trying to get a good picture. He didn’t give up though. We had someone take a photo of us on the dock in the exact same spot we did 2 years ago. And because I can’t resist a good comparison picture, I knew I wanted to put them together to see how our family has changed. We would have loved to have stopped for lunch at the Hungry Tarpon but it was a bit too early and way too hot. Maybe next time if we can find a cooler time. One day. 

Our next stop was World Wide Sportsman. At this point Will was super over excited because he was over tired which means that we ended up with hyperactive Will in the store. He was running all over and we had to reign him in. The kids really liked going on the boat in the middle of the store and seeing the fish tank. They were super excited to see more tarpon in the tank albeit smaller ones than they fed at Robbie’s. We managed to find a t-shirt for Will as he was still allotted his shirt from the trip. Kenzie tried to request something earlier at Robbie’s but we reminded her about the dress she chose and she was okay with that. This actually surprised us some because we thought we might have some buyer’s remorse with her later in the trip but she has been very good about it. After we looked at the stuff in the store and bought Will’s shirt we went outside to see the tarpon. A couple was feeding them shrimp and they shared some of their shrimp with the kids. The kids thought that was awesome and were super excited to be feeding the tarpon again. Again, we were surprised how quickly the kids both took to holding things like shrimp to feed the tarpon. Just like holding the fish, we weren’t so sure.

We knew we needed to get back on the road shortly after that though and headed farther North to stop to see Betsy the lobster. We have driven past the Artists’ Village here plenty of times but never stopped. I wish we had more time and money. I could have definitely found something we liked there. We took a few pictures with Betsy and decided to move on as it was nearing lunch and we wanted to be in Key Largo by then if possible.

We ended up stopping at McDonald's just outside of Key Largo. It was easy and we knew the kids would eat since meals become so iffy towards the end of a trip for them anyway. It was uneventful and then we were off again. We knew our next portion of the trip would be the longest straight drive of the day so we wanted Will to sleep. He made it almost halfway through Card Sound Road before he fell asleep. We took Card Sound as we had some extra time knowing we couldn't check into the hotel until 3pm and it would add some time to Will's potential nap. We ran into some rain along the way but it wasn't too bad. Normal afternoon in South Florida type stuff. About 20 minutes out from the hotel, Kenzie finally fell asleep too. At least she got a bit of a nap. While Will was napping initially she spent about 30 minutes coloring a picture. She has been so good with driving on this trip. They both have. That gives us hope that when we take a longer driving trip, they will do okay. We were hoping to avoid too much TV so we have done pretty well as they haven't even finished Moana. We discussed that next year we could totally drive back through from Marathon to home in one day with these kids unless something drastic changes. That might be a possibility on our next trip based on funds and time available to us as far as how long we can be gone from home but we will see when next summer rolls around.

We got checked into the hotel easily and the kids were excited to see our room was on the 5th floor which is the top floor of this particular hotel. More elevator buttons to push since we aren't on the first floor. Hell hath no fury like a toddler that doesn't get to push the elevator button. Kenzie is better about it at this age but Will flips out if Kenzie tries to push them both outside and inside. They both get sort of sad if other people are with us and they hit them first but (thankfully) neither of them have said anything about it. Our room is a suite so the kids knew that they would be on a pull out sofa again but as soon as we got into the room we wanted to get settled so we put on PBS Kids and the kiddos took over our bed. They were so cute laying there... until they got under our covers. They weren't dirty but they certainly had not been bathed since the night before. 

We then left to meet Mike, Sevi, and Reilly at their house because we had plans to go to dinner with them again while we were in town. The kids all played together for a bit and then we went to Carolina Ale House. It was super yummy. I had a pulled pork sandwich, Steven had a brisket burger, Kenzie acted like a normal human being and surprised us by asking for the sliders which she then actually ate most of, and Will had penne with marinara. Not too shabby for the end of a trip for these kids as they wanted normal food and actually ate most of it. They were pretty good during dinner too even though it wasn't a super quick one. It wasn't too long but it can still be hard for overtired kids to keep it together. Especially at the end of a trip when they haven't seen their own house for almost a week. Bonus: (And maybe TMI for a minute here) Will actually pooped in a potty. This is something we are STILL working on despite him being pee potty trained for almost a year now, almost ready to get rid of pull ups at naptime and starting to wake up mostly dry more days than he doesn't. Side note: If I ever end up doing a post about things we learned from doing this trip as far as traveling with two small children, the top thing will be to NOT teach your 2.5 year old how to pee standing up on a trip when he has only ever peed sitting down. I have wiped down more toilet seats because he has overshot the thing in the last week... Ugh. Anyway, we had a good dinner and then went back to Mike and Sevi's house for a while. The kids had a blast playing with Reilly and talking to Alexa. Seriously. The thing is like a kid magnet. Thank goodness there isn't one in our house. They would spend all day trying to talk to her. My favorite was Kenzie asking, "Alexa? Could you please play Love Shack?" Unfortunately, Alexa didn't get all that and tried to play some other song. Apparently Alexa doesn't care about being polite. When it seemed like we had stayed our welcome as Reilly wanted to go to sleep, we went back to the hotel. We are now watching an old football game on mute while the kids roll around in bed trying to calm down enough to actually sleep. (Random: Kenzie asked me today while in the bathroom at the restaurant that had a sports theme if football season was almost back yet. She was seriously disappointed when I told her not yet.) Tomorrow is our final day of the trip. We will check out of the hotel after breakfast, head to Bill Baggs State Park for a while and then turn around and drive home. It's going to be a long day but we are excited to fit in one more beach before we go.