Cabbage Key....Exploring

After sleeping wonderfully and while still being lazy we heard a helicopter...uh yep, it was landing right behind our cabin...

That was too cool.........

The pilot stayed in there but this guy got out and walked down the trail..on his way back I asked if I could have a ride....um...no, but thought I'd ask. They were there to spary for mosquitos...good idea. It was a little chilly...but was awesome in the sun, and i'd rather this weather than too hot and full of bugs...we had no bug issues at all.

Thanks guys....see ya later... 

We don't like moving too early so we'd brought some simple stuff to have a little breakfast in the cabin. They stopped serving at 930a....too early for us on vaca!!

After a bite, it was time to explore. We'd been here before for lunch but never stayed on the island and there's a nature trail we wanted to walk, so off we went. This trails were nice, they are used by the employees with golf carts....

 But as you got deeper the trail got a little worse, but not too bad....might have been better except there had been a good bit of rain, but we made it.

This tree reminded us of Medusa!!

We didn't ever really see the mound, but this was interesting.

This duck was loving it, but we wondered just what else might be in that swamp!!

Yes, the island is named for the Cabbage Palm...there are lots here.

We stopped at the restaurant for some soup and grilled cheese  and then headed back to our dock....
But took a few pictures of the building and grounds along the way.

The restaurant, with a large patio and some rooms sitting on the hill....

These ducks have taken up living here....not a bad place to land!!!

This is a cabin called the Dollhouse...it was originally built as a "play house" for the owners children. It has its own dock too...my playhouse was cool too, but didn't have a dock...but I remember spending many hours in it....thanks Daddy!!

We made our way back to our cabin....

Right next to us was the only house and land on the island not owned by the Wells family.

Nice house and nice gazebo, appeared no one was home....we heard that don't come out here often.

There was a white fence between us ....suppose I was on their side for just a minute!!

Then it was back to our dock....bird and boat watching...

More beggers....they were funny. They would even run each other off.

This boat was named Fiesta Forever.....yep, hummed that song the rest of the day!!!

Garbage boat.....it had to go somewhere....

Beautiful boat....

Then it was time to head up for dinner....not a bad view. The island in the distance is Useppa. A private "club member only" island....very interesting.

We had another delightful dinner and walked back "home". We decided to watch a movie we had on our IPAD...was a good action flik...then off to sleep. There was an amazing storm that night...lightening and thunder woke us up and the rain on our tin roof, but it was rather cool to watch. The next morning it was calm....and beautiful, but we had to leave. 

But we thought it would be very nice to have our devotion on the dock...

Once again the boat picked us up at out dock and off we went. The boat was headed to North Captiva Island....we were glad since we had never been there.

So long Cabbage Key...we'll be back...

That's the house on the end that is not owned by The Wells....and was next to us.

We have been to Sanibel and Captiva many times and really love it....but never to North Captiva. It was a gorgeous day and a perfect ride. This cool old shack was at the entrance to the cove.

Someone was staying in this place...right on the end.....how cool

North Captiva has 3 restaurants and few other things, but not much. You have to be happy to enjoy the sun and beach and quiet.

Some houses and condos...it is much bigger than Cabbage Key.

These houses were just built out in middle of the water, not attached to anything...humm....maybe not for me.....

The ride back was great....back where we started....

We gathered our things, got the car and headed to find a lunch spot....this place looked popular so we stopped, it was on the water and had some local music going. We did have a good lunch but the interesting part to us was how busy this little town was. It was literally a one street city...Matlacha, FL. The street in front of the restaurant was bumper-to-bumper...and it was a Tuesday....are you kidding. She said this was "snow bird season". And we thought Sarasota was bad. It is, but since it's bigger, it spreads them out. She said what usually takes 5-7 min to get to the city center, now takes 45-55 min...oh my...I will try not to complain.

After lunch we headed north and come home with some daylight left....

It had been a wonderful and peaceful few days.....Happy Valentine's to Us!!!

Next outing.....Tampa Downs...........