Cabbage Key- Cheeseburger in Paradise

You can't tell from the picture below that the small marina was packed when we arrived. Boats of all sizes (even a sea plane) were docked as we tried to squeeze into the slip you see Second Wave backed into below. Ferry boats and pleasure boats descend on the small island's restaurant marina every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner and then vanish afterward. Once inside the tight marina, we spun the boat and danced between the others to bring her to rest.

Cabbage Key is an unspoiled island (only accessible by boat) that offers many opportunities for observing nature in all its forms.  We went on a nature trail and saw ducks, gopher tortoise, and a variety of trees, shrubs, plants, and bird life and unfortunately chiggers that are still with me as I type a couple days later. 

These guys are everywhere. They burrow beneath the tree roots in the sand and return to the same nests each evening. The staff has named them and customized nameplates now hang above each nest.

The nature trail winds along behind the restaurant.

The restaurant on this island is famous for their Cheeseburgers. It is supposedly the inspiration behind Jimmy Buffet's song Cheeseburger in Paradise. Buffet visited the island many times in the 70's but hasn't been seen on Cabbage Key since the late 80's according to the owners. On any given day about 700 burgers are sold to people being ferried over from Pine Island.

Another tradition began a long time ago by fisherman to guarantee a cold beer on their return trip. They started posting signed dollar bills on the Old House Bar walls. The tradition continues today and any bill that falls is supposedly donated to charity. We're told that about $20K worth of bills falls each year. We noticed that most of the bills we saw were personalized with notes and signed by customers with dates from 2017 and 2018.

So we had to get a cheeseburger!! But, honestly, Whataburger is better.

View from the front patio of the restaurant.

This is our view from the aft deck of the boat of the boathouse at the marina (looking toward the restaurant). Inside the boathouse there is a gift shop and bathrooms/showers for the marina tenants. The site also has individual bungalows for rent. 

On our way to Cabbage Key we had some of the most friendly dolphins we have met thus far.  They would stick with us for such a long time and this is by far my best dolphin pic. As you can see he/she is turned sideways as it jumped out of the water. When they come up for air or jump they always turn sideways to, I assume, see where they are at in reference to the boat.  It's really crazy to watch.

We travelled through some very swanky areas on our way to Cabbage Key, too.

Our next stop is Fort Myers (Legacy Harbor Marina) where we will have some downtime while making our plans to cruise through Lake Okeechobee across Florida to the east coast.