This house had everything! Beds, amenities, very clean and up-to-date. It was very easy for us get acclimated and relax. In just a short 10-minute drive we had access to beaches, restaurants and all the Marathon attractions. Our guests consisted of the following ages: 14, 15, 42, 42 , and 70. We stayed Saturday to Saturday. Flew in from Miami and drove. That particular day took 2.5 hours and the driving scenery was amazing (we're from the frozen tundra of Michigan).
For general grocery shopping, I would recommend signing up for a free Win Dixie account to receive all of their discounts (a really easy way to save a little money). It looked like the Win Dixie was recently updated making it very easy to shop.
Restaurants were overall okay. We really didn't know what to expect. We ate out a few times. A lot of overpriced fried food and drinks. We really liked Barracuda's. It was pricey, but well worth it. A lot more culinary effort went into their menu (if that's your thing).
We did visit the Aquarium in Marathon. Great for kids of all ages. You can feed fish and pet a few stingrays. We also visited the Dolphin Rescue place. The kids liked that, you can purchase a close encounter with dolphins (which I found to be overrated.) We didn't make it to the Turtle Hospital, but that will be on our list next time.
We did two day trips to Key West. First day we had lunch at the brewery, which was excellent. Our main activity was a sunset dinner cruise, that too was excellent. Appetizers and drinks were plenty. Parking in the ramp was $32 per/day. It takes roughly 2-hours to drive there. Our second day was shopping and sight seeing. We purchased a day-long trolley pass, well worth it. We visited the Maritime Museum , which focused on recovered treasure; visited the Southernmost Point (plan to wait 20-minutes in line for a photo); the Hemingway House and not to mention just people watching.
We threw in a few beach days. We really liked Bahia Honda State Park. It has two sides to the beach area. Plan to bring a mask and snorkel.
Didn't get a chance to do any major snorkeling, but it would definitely be something on the list for next time.
Our 7-days in the keys was a perfect amount of time to relax, do some fun activities and sightseeing and overall make some great family memories.