Once again we departed Burnt Store Marina, and we headed west about 10 miles to the IntraCoastal Waterway and then about 2 miles south to Cabbage Key. For the past week we have been touring around the northern part of Charlotte Harbor, which is formed and protected by a lot of barrier islands. The marina is small and mainly for transients for food and/or overnight. We departed about 8:30 and were docked at the marina a little over two hours later. 
The picture shows Lucky Us, the marina office and store (right) and the Dollar Bill Bar and Restaurant (center, background).
The walls, ceiling, posts, etc. of the Dollar Bill Restaurant and Bar are ALL covered with - you guessed it - Dollar Bills....
After a few minutes walking around, we looked up to see two passenger ferries arriving with visitors for lunch at the restaurant that opened at 11:00 am. Fortunately, we were well positioned to beat the rush for lunch...
Lunch was wonderful - a salad with grilled grouper for me and the Admiral had grilled Mahi Mahi on black beans and rice. Just to be perfectly sure that I would be sleepy after lunch, I had the most wonderful "Mud Pie" for dessert...
After my nap, we climbed the water tower for an excellent view of the nearby islands. The view in this picture is of the anchorage from two days ago when the generator failed to start. Cross your fingers as we are going to try anchoring there again tomorrow after lunch. There is also a (very) short nature trail where we saw many different types of palms, etc. One of the most interesting plants was this vine like cactus that covered some of the palm trees.
The only wildlife that we saw on the walk was several large (18 inches) turtles....and then after the walking tour, the Admiral announced that she was going to take a nap. This is amazing not only because she takes very few naps, and she "never" allows me to take a nap so late in the afternoon... However, I learned long ago to never to argue with an Admiral...
The most fun/amazing event of the day was these otters at lunch. There were about a dozen outboard boats that came into the marina for lunch. In the motor well in front of the engine, there are actually 4 otters who systematically boarded all boats with fish bait, actual fish and food in coolers. They were really good. They could open bait boxes, coolers, etc to get at the "goodies" inside. The Admiral made a short video and posted it here:
http://youtu.be/eQujD9TuTwc
We ended the day by going back to the restaurant for dinner. Fortunately for me, the "Catch of the Day" was grouper, and the Admiral had the highly recommended "tripple tail (fish)". After dinner, the Admiral commented that of the many really fine meals that we have had so far on our trip that this was the best. OK, so the bottom line is that we are delaying our departue tomorrow so that we can go back for lunch. The food here is really that good!
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