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The words “you can’t get there by car” scream a challenge to me.

Cabbage Key is a little, 100-acre island located off the southwest coast of Florida, and the only way to get there is by boat. You should also be aware this resort doesn’t come with turndown service… or a pool… or any visible staff for that matter.

It’s more of a word-of-mouth place, rather than a buy-a-T-shirt place. Could there be anything better???

There are only a few cottages for rent on Cabbage Key, and having your own dock means even less of a chance of running into neighbors.

Depending on the time of day, the Cabbage Key Restaurant (its only eatery) is as packed with day-trippers off their boats for lunch as it is with dollar bills. Or, as is shown in this image, it is as quiet as the island, with only a few customers left for the night.

Best day job ever…

Legend holds that Jimmy Buffett cut his teeth playing in the restaurant’s bar, even inspiring “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” But what’s even cooler is the fact the restaurant isÂ perched atop an ancient Calusa Indian shell mound, making it the highest point in the area. This confirms that the Indians wanted us to fall on our drunk asses as we left the restaurant that would one day be perched atop their hard work… I kid… if you fall, it is probably the fault of the Cabbage Creepers. The restaurant’s signature drink makes you wobbly.

Royal poinciana flowers cover the paths, not roads, providing beautiful, canopied paths around the island.

Take a kayak from the key to “The Tunnel” and end at Cayo Costa Beach.

When you sadly leave the island, your boat and your buzz, drive through Matlacha It will cheer you up.

ALL PHOTOS SHOT WITH PANASONIC DMC-LX5

Written & photographed by Molly Dempsey and edited by Pamela Staik.

Best way to start this blog is to say farewell to a Florida legend, Chalet Suzanne. After more than 83 years, the creation by the eccentric matriarch, Bertha Hinshaw, is closing its doors. Originally opened in 1931, multiple generations of the Hinshaw family worked to keep the one of a kind experience.

We last stayed at Chalet Suzanne over New Year’s 2010.Â Our sleep, eat and repeat regimin worked well given its remote location in the middle of Central Florida’s citrus country.

So like I said, if we weren’t sleeping, we were eating. Nate ordered the roast chicken 3 times in our two night stay… And if you took one bite of the restaurant’s soups, you too would bring some to the moon as the Apollo missions were equipped to do. This. Is. TRULY. FLORIDA.

Oh and we also imbibed. We had to, the Swedish Wine Bar was like getting lit at Willy Wonka’s! When you needed another, you rang a bell and a waiter would literally climb through a tiny door from the kitchen into the back of the bar to serve.

Being the freak for architecture that I am, we spent a ton of time ogling over the tile detail and incredibly wacky scale of the structures on the property. Only a person with a totally unique vision and amazing imagination could create these fantastical cottages. Definitely reminded me of one of my favorite visionaries, the Austrian artist Hundertwasser.

The Hinshaw family has decided to retire and sell the operation as of July 2014. We hope this is a brief “vacation” for this amazing place.Â Until then, we thank Chalet Suzanne for being TRULY an inspiration.

ALL PHOTOS SHOT WITH PANASONIC DMC-LX5

Category: hotels

Cabbage Key – no shirt, no shoes, no car… just paradise

Farewell to a Legend

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