Posted on Sunday, 07.20.08
Innside Report: Cabbage Key
INNSIDE REPORT: CABBAGE KEY
Want to live on the water? Me, too. Ah, to relax on a porch, blue water stretching to the sky, only steps away from a soft bed. Peaceful. Water lapping at the shore. Easy. A boat kept at the ready on a dock winding from the house.
It's a dream. I know, I know. With real estate prices what they are, there are at least a couple million impediments blocking my view.
Well I have a solution: Take a boat to Cabbage Key.
Trailer one, rent one or take the ferry from Pine Island. Then book a cabin, sit on the front porch, gaze out at the water -- relax.
When you get bored, rise from your comfy chair, walk a few short steps down your private dock, and speed away in search of tarpon, sunsets or seashells.
Named one of the Best Kept Secrets Around the World by Travel Holiday magazine, Cabbage Key Inn sits 38 feet above sea level on a mountain of shells piled by Calusa Indians on the 100-acre Cabbage Key in Pine Island Sound. It was built in the 1930s as a sprawling house. Many travelers have found their way here, including Katharine Hepburn, Robert and John F. Kennedy and Julia Roberts.
Cabins are clean and comfortable, not fancy. There's no key because there's no lock on the front door. One dubbed the ''honeymoon cottage'' is decorated with lovers' seashells inscribed with names, anniversary dates and sweet nothings.
Don't miss the hamburgers in the Cabbage Key restaurant, a favorite of boaters, who have left $70,000 in dollar bills with their names written on them taped to the ceiling and walls. The bills that fall to the floor -- about $10,000 a year -- are donated to charity.
To get there -- it's not accessible by car -- take the Island Girl ferry, which offers six 20-minute daily runs to Cabbage Key from Pine Island; www.islandgirlcharters.org; 239-633-8142; price varies but runs about $37 per person round-trip.
Toil and pine for waterfront property if you will, but in the meantime, spend $200 or so for a cabin at Cabbage Key and enjoy the fantasy now. You might even find one day that a rental cottage there beats owning the real thing: Leaving a tip for the maid is a pleasure compared with property taxes.
Cabbage Key in Pine Island Sound, 239-283-2278; www.cabbagekey.com. Six rooms, from $99; seven cabins, $160 to $389 per night; overnight dockage for boats up to 100 feet is $1.85 per foot.
-- AMY ROYSTER,
Palm Beach Post
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