Post #136655 by Sabina on Fri, Jan 21, 2005 1:35 AM

Well, as promised I've brought back a few pictures of what was once another unique Route 1 Tiki Treasure. Unfortunately, while the buildings still stand, Evidence of Tikiness was lacking.

Doubly bad is the fact that the exposure on our camera was screwed for most of the pix we took.

You can find all of the pix, in the Album here- http://www.sevenpleasures.org/gallery/Islamorada

I gave it this description-

"Once upon a time, in the 50's that is, it's clear, Islamorada had a real Tiki vibe going. The Sunset Inn (alongside the very 50's but probably never Tiki, La Jolla), The Islander Resort, The Kon-Tiki resort, the Kona-Kai and even the Holiday Isle Tiki bar- where the rumrunner was created, all were part of an island community hinting at the Pacific not the Atlantic. What remains now seems shards without coherence. You will however, still find http://www.tikicompany.com/ carving and selling their Tikis along route 1 and plenty of cinderblock 50's leftovers waiting to be discovered."

Sabu says the Islander brochures didn't show much Tikiness even back in the day- just the fantastic sign- which still remains and a few pictures are included in the Album.

As I said, you can still find Tiki carvers in Islamorada, and the whole area is probably well worth a better expedition, but be prepared to do some real digging and some interviewing.

Going Southbound on route 1, on the right hand side the first thing you see is the spectacular sign- huge for the Keys- really lit at night.

Here's the one picture we have the shows most of the building all in one frame-

The hotel is mainly to the left of the frame, and very pink cinderblock with blue trim.

and here's kind of a close up of the place where the A-frame roof and round roof used to be-

It's very washed out (photography-wise), but you get the idea.

As I said, I've got a couple more on the gallery page, take a look.

[ Edited by: Sabina on 2005-01-21 01:37 ]

[ Edited by: Sabina on 2005-01-21 01:38 ]