2022: Jules Undersea Lodge

 9 February 2022

Yesterday when Sandy and I did our Tuesday shopping trip, we talked about a potential need for her to drive to Islamorada on Wednesday. I told her if she wanted company to give me a call. 

As it turned out, she did not need to go to Islamorada, but she decided that she wanted to go if we were available to spend the day out with her and her husband. The outing would include lunch and some sightseeing. Clark and I jumped at the chance to go. 

We planned to leave at 11:00. The day started out very dreary, but we hoped the weather would improve as the day progressed. I was the only one of the four of us that was optimistic enough to wear shorts! It even rained for a bit just before we left the boat. I decided to take a chance and leave my raincoat on the boat as opposed to lugging it around.

When we go out with Sandy, we never know where we will end up. As she drove, all I knew was that we were heading north / east on Route 1. Sandy's destination turned out to be a restaurant in Islamorada that offers covered / outdoor dining. That way we could eat out but not get rained on. Perfect!

On our way there we passed a unique statue / sculpture of a Lobster just before the Founder's Park in Islamorada.

Lobster Sculpture

Sandy chose the "World Famous Islamorada Fish Company" as our destination for lunch. As we walked towards the hostess for seating, we passed a basin that had many huge / humungous tarpon swimming around.  The pictures Clark took do not show the tarpon very well. 

As we stood watching the tarpon swim by, someone came out with a bucket of fish to feed the creatures in the basin. The pelicans came in to fight for the food being thrown. I am not sure if any of the food got to the tarpon or not.

Feeding Frenzy at the restaurant

We enjoyed a great lunch of fresh fish (Bill and Clark), coconut shrimp (Ev), and conch chowder (Sandy). As we strolled back to the car, Clark saw an old boat that caught his attention.

"Willy" Boat

The Spanish named Islamorada, "The Purple Island", due to the purple skies they saw there as well as the purple-flowering Bougainvillea plants.

Ev standing beside Purple Bougainvillea

Whether it be Key West, Marathon, or Islamorada, we see roosters roaming free. The two below decided to stand guard by Sandy's car as we planned to leave.

Roosters at the Islamorada Restaurant

As we drove out of the parking lot, Sandy took a detour down one of the lanes to get a closer look at a car parked there.  Wow! What a car it was! It looked like it would be quite a ride. The car looked so low to the ground that I wondered if I managed to get in, if I would ever be able to crawl out again.

Lamborghini

After lunch, instead of turning right to take us back to Marathon, Sandy turned left and continued our tour of Islamorada. She briefly stopped at the Postcard Inn which is supposedly the location behind the song "Kokomo" by the Beach Boys. I enjoyed two boat names for fishing charters docked there - "Yabba Dabba Doo!" and "Shake and Bait".

Continuing north / east we passed through Tavernier just enjoying the sights. As we talked, Bill mentioned an undersea hotel located in Key Largo. The draw was too irresistible. We found the address on Google  and set off to see this item of wonder. I looked it up on the internet and found that the place is called the "Jules Undersea Lodge". I learned that divers could stay here overnight in 2015 for $675 per person. 

I read an interesting article on the internet posted by someone who actually stayed in the hotel room with his friend. I found the description of the accommodations and the provisioning of the room interesting and shared the info with the folks in the car as we drove there.

Ominous greeting at the Undersea Lodge parking lot

Jules Undersea Lodge is named in 
honor of Jules Verne

Scuba Diver Crossing!

Shark Sculpture on the grounds

We were excited to see the area where we believed the undersea lodge sat below the water, and we speculated on how the divers made their way down to the hotel room.

Place where we expected the hotel was located

As we read the signage on the grounds, we discovered that we had missed our opportunity to stay in the undersea lodge as it was no longer underwater and was now a museum! Unfortunately closed today.

It turned out the large metal, cylindrical tank we could see on the grounds was actually the lodge room. The space measured 16 feet x 8 feet with a port hole / window at one end. I felt claustrophobic just looking at the outside. 

The "window" (3 foot observation port)
on the end is the only view of the outside

Signs at the lodge site said the museum was closed with hours on Wednesday from 9 until 2:00. We arrived at 2:30. Looking at the tree limb lying across the display though, I wondered if the facility was actually open at those times or if someone forgot to remove the sign.

As we left Key Largo and headed back towards Marathon, Clark let it be known that he would not be opposed to the idea of stopping for ice cream to complete our day. Sandy stopped at a shop along the way called "Mrs. G's Gourmet Ice Cream and Cafe Cuban". 

By the time Sandy dropped us off at Marlin Bay, we had been gone for six hours. That was one long lunch! What a great outing!!