Labor Day Weekend in Jupiter

We got to Jupiter late on Saturday morning. Our room at the Jupiter Beach Resort wasn’t ready yet, but the front desk gave us wrist bands for the pool and beach amenities and wrote down our phone number to call us when we could check in. We took a quick tour of the hotel grounds and then headed off to lunch. We ate at Guanabanas, an open-air restaurant on one of the canals leading to the Loxahatchee River with tropical gardens, brightly painted Adirondack chairs and fresh food. We watched the paddleboarders paddling up and down the canal while we ate.

Guanabanas

After lunch we drove a few miles north to Blowing Rocks Preserve on Jupiter Island. The preserve is a one-mile stretch of beach with the largest outcropping of coquina rock on the Atlantic coast. We got there at the perfect time – it was high tide and windy and the waves were crashing up and over the unique rock formations that had been carved out by the ocean. A few brave people were climbing out onto the rocks and getting soaked. Ron and I stayed on the edges of the cliffs but managed to get sprayed anyway. It reminded me a lot of the Nakalele Blowhole on Maui only it was MUCH easier to get to. :-)  Very cool!

Blowing Rocks Preserve

Coral Cove Park

We spent the rest of the afternoon settling in at the hotel. Jupiter Beach Resort was in a great location, on a quiet section of Jupiter Beach between DuBois Park and Carlin Park. There was a pool, a hot tub with a rock waterfall, a pool bar and plenty of lounge chairs. There was also a “hammock garden” but unfortunately, the hammocks had been removed for a wedding and were never put back up while we were there. Oh well. We cooled off with some drinks and guacamole at the bar and then took a walk on the beach. Along the walk, we saw lots of wooden stakes marking the nests of sea turtles. The area around Jupiter Beach has more sea turtle nests per mile than anywhere else in the United States, with over 19,000 nests in 2017. Each morning from May 1st to October 1st, volunteers walk the beach to mark any new nests. Although the GPS coordinates of all nests are recorded, only about 10% are marked with stakes. Otherwise there would be stakes every three to four feet!

Dinner was at the Dive Bar at the Jupiter Yacht Club. It was a neat indoor/outdoor restaurant with a nautical theme, a giant saltwater fish tank and good sushi and seafood. We opted to eat at one of the outdoor tables since the weather was so pleasant. I had the fish dip and Ron and I shared a bowl of crab chowder, then we walked around the docks ogling the beautiful boats before calling it a night.

Jupiter Beach Resort

view from our partial oceanview room

the Dive Bar

Since we’d gone to bed so early, we were up early Sunday morning. We picked up coffee from the lobby and went down to the beach to watch the sunrise. It was a pretty sunrise despite some clouds coming in off the ocean. A few fishermen were casting their lines from shore. Farther up the beach towards DuBois Park we saw that the turtle watch volunteer had stopped her ATV and was digging in the sand. We decided to go over and see if she was excavating a nest that had hatched the night before. It turned out that she was digging up a leatherback turtle nest that hadn’t hatched. Leatherback eggs will hatch within 80 days so if that time passes with no signs of hatchlings, the volunteers will dig up the nest, count and remove the eggs. The volunteer told us that the nest was too close to the shoreline so most likely water had gotten into it during a storm. I had never seen leatherback eggs before and was surprised how large they were! They were much larger than loggerhead eggs, which are about the size of a ping pong ball. It was interesting, but I was sorry that the eggs hadn’t made it. Sea turtles have the odds against them.

leatherback turtle eggs

While we were having breakfast at the Lazy Loggerhead Café (next door at Carlin Park), the clouds gave way to drizzling rain and lightning. Rats! We’d planned to visit the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse that morning, but the weather wasn’t cooperating so instead we drove down to Juno Beach to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center, an educational, research and rehabilitation facility for sea turtles. The center had ten turtle patients, including one that had just been brought in that week after being hit by a boat. We walked around the turtle tanks and talked to several of the staff who were available to answer questions. One of the tanks held a little white loggerhead hatchling. The staffer told us that despite its abnormal coloring, the hatchling didn’t seem to be having problems with sunburn so they should be able to release it.

Loggerhead Marinelife Center

hatchlings

replica of Archelon, the largest documented sea turtle species

Juno Beach Pier

By the time we’d explored the center and had lunch, the weather was clearing up. I was ready for some lighthouse climbing! Since our last visit, they had made a lot of improvements to the lighthouse property, including a memorial brick walkway lined with firecracker plants to attract butterflies. There was also a pioneer home from 1892 that had been moved onsite and restored. Only 24 people are allowed inside the lighthouse at a time so we had to wait a few minutes for the previous group to come back down. Then it was up the 34 steps to the base of the lighthouse and 105 steps to the gallery. From the top of the lighthouse, we could see the Indian River, the Loxahatchee River and Jupiter Inlet where the Loxahatchee flowed out to the Atlantic. There were lots of boats out on the waterways, taking advantage of the holiday weekend. Once we were back on the ground, we walked around the Tindall pioneer house and then stopped at the gift shop so I could pick up my “I Survived the Climb” certificate. :-)

Tindall Pioneer House

That night we had dinner at the Dive Bar again. Ok, we’re not very original but we know what we like. :-)  This time I tried one of the sushi rolls while Ron ordered the gigantic hogfish sandwich, then we stopped for ice cream before heading back to the hotel. In the morning, Tropical Storm Gordon was making its way across South Florida but the downpours held off until we got home.