Lighthouses

Amelia Island Light house is still in operation by the US Coast Guard

      We met up with my parents on Amelia Island just outside of Jacksonville, FL New Year's Day.  It's a charming coastal town with quaint little shops and some of the most amazing houses I've ever seen.  It's a place I hope we get back to someday because it's worth exploring.  It also boasts a lighthouse.

     For those of you who might not know I'm enamored with these oddly shaped edifices.  (I once made Dean and my mom-in-law spend way too much time and gas on a fruitless lighthouse expedition up and down the Massachusetts coast. )  Having never seen one up close and personal I was delighted to discover the island had one of it's own.  Unfortunately, it's oddly placed in the middle of a residential neighborhood and tourists are strictly prohibited unless you happen to arrive on the third Saturday of the month from 11-2p.m.

     This picture from behind the locked gate was as close as I could get to my first actual lighthouse...or so I thought...

     Fast forward two hours later, we had just finished lunch in Daytona Beach and I happened to notice a poster advertising another lighthouse, just down the road from the restaurant.

Ponce de Leon Lighthouse at Ponce Inlet, FL.  Florida's tallest lighthouse.

     Beautiful, right?  Two lighthouses in one day!!!  Doesn't it make you want to sing songs from Pete's Dragon?  I had to restrain myself from bursting into the chorus of "It's a Brazzle Dazzle Day" because I knew Dean would pretend not to know me. 

   Ready to start the 203 stair climb to the top.

The view from the top

(Alan was TERRIFIED!!!  He's usually the fearless one and we couldn't figure out this new found fear of heights until he filled Grandma in that the reason he was so scared, was because of the Dragon at the top.  We were all confused until we remembered we had been talking about Pete's Dragon in the car.  Funny Kid!)

     A quick break from the rain let us run dip our toes in the Atlantic so Ben could say he'd touched both Oceans.

"So rise, higher and higher, and glide above the clouds, 

Free! no one to catch us or slow us, even the birds are below us.......

A lifetime of joy in just a few hours."