It 'was only a three hour journey. The game plan was simple: take a short trip on Pine Island and the sound, grab a cheeseburger in paradise and take the boat back home. A 3 hour tour, maximum of five, only a small dose of local waterways, this is everything we wanted.
Across the Sanibel causeway, we drove to Captiva Island Marina McCarthy. Not a cloud in the sky. Traffic light and lush tropical greenery surrounded us. Insights on the sparklingBeaches and calm water hidden amongst the trees and in side streets and driveways.
Once you reach the marina, we visited the office of Captiva Cruises, clutching half-off coupons and discount to remind us, how nice to live there in our little corner of paradise in the low season. No crowds. No Line. Nothing blue and emerald green of Florida in any direction.
Tickets in hand relaxed, we are in the dock, absorb the quiet beauty. Birds were flying along the coast.A few stragglers were trying their luck at fishing contest major schools of snook silver flashing in the shallows beneath the docks. The apartments on the beach, empty and uninhabited, has invited our eyes and imagination. Those who can afford these houses, very rarely have the time to fill it. Those who take the love for them only very rarely the means to afford it. Capitalism and beauty seems to meet with a paradox.
The Lady Chadwick, Captiva Cruises' flagship,patiently waiting for us at the end of the pier. Two or three people have been rushed in its preparation for the day trip. When the time came to embark, at 10:00 clock were only a handful of others there, to take the journey with us.
The Lady Chadwick is a classic cruise ship 65-foot, air-conditioned cabin and a covered deck and open top. Both floors are carpeted. It has a full-service cocktail bar and spacious facilities for men and women. And 'was builtcarry passengers 148. There were only 12 others traveling with us on this special cruise. With a small group, it felt like a private charter.
Our boat was scheduled for the direction of the wind through the pine forest Iceland sound of its two ports. The first stage would Cabbage Key, an "old Florida" Iceland retreat with a restaurant and inn. The second was Useppe Iceland, a historic retreat and private club for the sake of doing in the area. Somewhere along the course of time, says Cruiseresult we were the only ones left out of the boat in Key cabbage. All the others had tickets to visit Useppe to ask whether we had made a tragic mistake in choosing our itinerary.
Two rounds of morning Bloody Mary ship well stocked bar with our fears to rest, as they glided over the sea smooth leaf and Upper Captiva Cayo Costa. Quirky spoken-word stories of local importance were given to us to play the lead. There were storiesdestructive hurricanes, creative artists and gave away free land on Sanibel Island.
We will take the last clock 02.00. If you're not on the boat since we are playing the horn, some rooms have large ... You can spend the night on the island.
It was not long before we approach the final in Key cabbage. A few small cottages and docks cheated the bank of 85 acres of mangrove islands. The fauna was dense palm cabbage (which give the island its name) andBougainville. A quiet harbor marina with a small white boat house, docks and weather that awaits us. The commander of the port that look like a hot and tired Hemingway led the Lady Chadwick in his temporary slip. The ramp has been extended, and we were escorted to the boat. Our cruise companions saluted as they pulled out and went to the island Useppe and leaves behind us.
The central point of the Cabbage Key is the restaurant that overlooks the harbor. The restaurant also serves as a board with sixRooms during the night. There are also six detached villas rentals. But is the restaurant that most of the 500 travelers who runs every day of the visit of the season for lunch. That said ... this is the off-season. High up on a giant Calusa Indian Shell Mound 38 m, restaurant and pub sits quietly surrounded the royal poinciana trees among the few.
Long said the local rumor locating this restaurant as inspiration for Jimmy Buffett's "Cheeseburger inParadise. "While visiting the Jimmy Buffett of this restaurant, and probably ate the cheeseburger, I must be a fear that the existence of this factoid is not proven easy to quit. Jimmy Buffett has repeatedly placed in the * *" Cheeseburger in Paradise "in a small bar in Road Town, Tortola. At Cabbage Key, there is still a cheeseburger, and it is still a paradise ... but this is the closest to the legend is always the truth.
Our appetites are dragged on the sidewalk on the veranda of the shellRestaurant. Classic Rock sang of external speakers. A young male workers offered us the use of seating indoors and outdoors.
"What do you recommend?"
"Our headquarters is located in an interesting experience ... the walls and ceiling are covered in thousands of dollars."
It was covered and dollars, there were over 50,000 of them, to be exact. Walking through the piano bar and dining room on the back porch screened is like entering a cave made of money. Wave dollar billsbreeze on the island, some yellowing, some are for one-dollar bills, and they all have two things in common: the name in black marker, and much, much tape written.
Built in 1938 by Mystery fiction writer Mary Roberts Rinehart and her son, the restaurant and watch as a tavern, just as they did nearly 70 years ago. Everything is still in its original condition, from raw wood flooring for rustic furniture. The notes were in orderthat can no longer day long. The first bill was signed and recorded by a fisherman in 1941, as a way to ensure he had the means to buy more alcohol on the return journey. The next time he came, he had money left over and the account has been suspended, where he was. Other customers soon followed. Now the 3,000 bills that regularly fall to Earth each year, all donated to charity.
Over the years, some remarkable statements, including the show signed by John FKennedy Jr., Julia Roberts, Bart Simpson's creator Matt Groening, former President Jimmy Carter, and a cheeseburger the same men, Mr. Jimmy Buffett (his was the first dollar bill still stuck on the plane, but now framed behind the counter). Walter Cronkite, Ted Koppel, Sean Connery, and Ernest Hemingway are among some of the many celebrities to have had the well-known penchant for cabbage are issued a key time.
Stained and wrinkled menu led us to our work to tropical cocktailsand cheeseburgers. Kohl Creepers sealed our fate, Pina Colada with a rum and Kahlua mixed floating. Two-a-piece of this mind-coconut oils and spontaneity was our destiny. The comments were the dangers of change and days. Peer pressure and the island-inspired sense of adventure has led to new plans.
"Imagine what would have to spend the night here."
This was enough to highlight our experience to the next level. Somewhere between the cheeseburger and Key Lime Pie, ofin the mist of the bustling coal shed Creepers flows in our veins, the idle thoughts slowly becoming a reality. Our waitress heard our conversation and sent more than one female managers. Minutes later she was giving us a tour of a cabin of two rooms, we could make sure that all agreements with Captiva Cruises, come to them, stopping to pick us up. He said he would have made the necessary phone calls picked up tomorrow. Are we really? And beforeWe knew that we were down to the house white wooden boat gift shop, vertigo and gave her our credit card payment in the cabin. I can not believe we do. It 'was a done deal.
If alcohol is low, we started to get quite found on a desert island with no paved roads and no grocery store. We escape the punishing humidity, which spread into the cabin of Stark, and thanked the man for the modern air-conditioning. The TV had three channels fuzzy. He had the radioa speaker broke. There were some random news magazines last year by their covers scream desperately. On a shelf was a bible. Our cabin had a large wraparound porch screen, the front Sound Pine Iceland and mangrove swamp back.
We trudged to the small gift shop near the port, provided that they have to sell mineral water. They sell T-shirts, Christmas ornaments, and novels by Randy Wayne White and John D. Mills. That's it. You will find the water orSnacks. The restaurant on the hill is the only game in town. There are, and they know it. Tropical alcoholic drinks always lead to dehydration, and our prize for the six 12-ounce bottles of water we had to bring our cabin was $ 15 before tipping the bartender.
It 'came to us at this time that there would be no change of clothes, hair products without care, without a toothbrush, no deodorant, has brought nothing but cameras and money. We were stuck with our dirty and sweatyAuto-clock to 02.00 the following day. Looking at the clock, I saw it was 13.30 clock ... leave only a little over 24 hours to go.
The oppressive heat of our limited entertainment options. Denial maintained into our minds, challenging must be somewhere, a couple of items and beverages were to acquire desires. If we had just prepared. She told us stories of how the next time we bring a cooler of water and soft drinks with us, extra clothes, hygiene products.
"Whatwe do now? "
"We could see that some of the Bible."
"We ... have a walk paths.
"They want to walk in this heat?"
"We just have to stay here for a while 'and take a walk when it cools down a bit'."
Cabbage Key has forced us to talk and think. We talked to each other across the landscape. Nature. Superfamily. About God We talked and thought in ways that have never left without being stranded on an island with no way it would be. We have addressed our appetite.We considered all the comforts of routine, we have granted in our daily lives, drawing lines between comfort and plenty of simple actions such actions, deliver us. Wear cool. A trip to the refrigerator. Our comfortable beds.
Calmed down after the Cabbage Key clock 17:00. Boat traffic has ended and the island's population was reduced to little information we have overnight guests and the staff (who all live there full time). A calm fell over the area sedative. A gopher tortoise greatCapturing the tourists were gone, wherever they come from and began patrolling the great lawn. A fish eagle in a tree near people who think what's going down. Dark clouds offered relief from the sun. Lightning in the distance near the eye candy offered. A low rumble of thunder filled the air. The storms ever faced.
We walked the nature trail into the depths of the island. Gumbo Limbo, Seagrape, oaks, mangroves, and others climbed the sides of the road,some cases provides a canopy of green. Filled the salty mud and organic decay, harmful air smell of low tide, death, rebirth and the food chain. Fiddler crabs and geckos slipping across the street, dodging through the undergrowth and the holes in the swamp as we approached. A wrong turn in the marked path led us in a very remote and covered, shell-strewn dead end.
Table reservations are accepted at check-in. The owners are expected to know a meal is a psychological balmthis setting. Our clock was for 7:30. We have in at 7:00 and went to the restaurant.
Dark and lit with small twinkling lights that evening scents of night blooming spread through the dining room shielded. The dinner menu is limited and a little 'expensive. Beverage refills are not free to Cabbage Key. Thick with atmosphere and the dull hum of a few other of us, we ordered our food. The meals were cooked to perfection. The gap in the armor was found in the restaurant our waiter.The service has not been adequately paid with either the atmosphere or prizes. Errors in the final were many, and a time problem. With only a handful of tables occupied, there was no reasonable justification.
Making the best, we have our dinner experience behind us and went to sit on the dock abandoned. The harbor master was sitting in a dark corner with a lively conversation on her cell phone about a tropical storm. Which before the atmosphericStorm here. These moments of film noir feel, with the film perfect island property around us, the soft light on the emerging restaurant, transforming the dark water of the sea at our feet, palms and tropical Key Largo in the form.
Back in the cabin, the conversation soon turned to ghost stories around Key cabbage. Printed on the Internet and in books hunter gathering, the legend often places the phenomenon in room number 3 of the main board. According to legend, host of the contract RhinehartTuberculosis in New York and stopped at the inn. Waiting for her to reach her family, died of complications of the disease. Now, who stays in this room are often aroused by a woman to enter the private terrace. You should have long hair and a dark skirt and a blue and white long sleeve shirt. Wandering in, we often look to those before the bed on the terrace again, without ever having to open the door.
Employees wereknown that other chilling tales of physical manifestations of spirits in the inn, the main story. Some contain objects that are significant distances with no one touching him. Other stories are more of a Calusa Indian burial ground at an angle to them. However, popular knowledge that the current owners do not want to tell the poignant stories, and deny, if requested. The information must be removed by the staff who work there, and only if the owner to be anywherebe seen.
Put the lights out at midnight, the darkness was darker than it is at home. A kick strong wind outside, and the cabin was a little 'influence on his stilts. Pictures of ghosts and shadows subtle smudges on the inside of our heads in mind-coated colors. I wish I had a night light. Spiders and crocodiles roamed the landscape imagined around our bed. Locks were tested in triplicate. This is the closest I've ever lived in the house andas far as I've ever heard.
When we grew up and forgotten dreams a new day, the sun streaming through the windows clean. It was blue sky and wispy clouds in the head as we took our traditional breakfast and cheap in the open verandah. Sun shines so as to increase our mood, and those of others around us who fear vegan family, romantic couple getaways. I wonder if his experience last night was like ours? The staff was bright-eyed andConversation.
Another idea, and a spontaneous phone call to customer service attentive Captiva Cruises has once again our adrenaline adventures. They decided to take, because they have fallen guests Cabbage Key. They would take us Useppi Island and then back at home, at no additional cost. Half-off tickets us pretty far down the road.
Before the boat came to Useppe book of short stories, and our amazing lunch at the Holiday Inn Collier to take us, we climbed theWater tower on the highest point of the hill on the key cabbage. From 60 feet, we took into account the bumps protruding into lots of green pine sound Iceland, small islands, which grow on plants and animals undisturbed, as it has ever given to men. We did not talk, but I'm pretty sure it was a strong sense in all of us in the village, an understanding that we would have learned more in the last 24 hours, when we realized that by fleeing our routine practice, weallows us to grow, to live and a lasting memory, which has always been even when we sat there with the sun late morning to make up our smiling faces.
