Cabbage Key

Another favorite place to visit is the historic Cabbage Key.  During the heyday of Florida development folks bought entire islands between the peninsula and barrier islands.  One such was Cabbage Key.  It has changed hands over the years but the owners have remained committed to maintaining all the charm and ambiance of the original owners.  All water is collected in a huge cistern and pumped up into a water tower.  There are trails on one end and rental cottages on the other. Many of the workers live in cottages on the island rather than make the long commute via water taxi. There is a small marina with a beach for small boats and a restaurant with very tasty food.  The whole place is truly vintage with stories having been written with it as a center piece.  There is a tour boat bringing visitors from the mainland on a regular basis.  We arrived on the tail end of one such tour but by the time we had finished lunch, we had the trails to ourselves.

Our trusty dingy awaits our return.

The water tower was home to either an osprey family or heron family.
Both make very large nests

The bar in all its polished glory.

The dining area is covered in dollar bills signed by those who leave them.
They take them down to make space for new bills on occasion.

The entire building of the main lodge is full of original details such as
this scroll work.  It's lovely that these touches have been maintained over
the decades. 

These areas are set aside for the resident gopher tortoises.

The trail leading from the worker's cottages to the guest cottages.

This gorgeous vine covered this old arbor.  The weight of the plant
seemed to be taking it's toll on the wooden structure.

One of the worker cottages.  It seemed like several people shared the house.

This duck family was comfortably ensconced near the beach.

The grand lawn leading up to the main house.

Part of the nature trail.

Scary sign but we didn't see anything worse than spiders.

This is Useppa Island where we anchored.  It is also privately
owned and is now a resort with owner's summer cottages all around.