A FULL DAY OF SIGHT SEEING

Well the first thing we did Friday morning is go to The St Augustine Lighthouse and Museum.  It's 140 feet above the city and affords quite a view.  It was built in 1870 and their was a wonderful keeper's house next to it.  It became unoccupied in 1955 because it became fully automated, then a fire broke out in 1970 but the Junior Service League of St Augustine signed a 99 year lease for the house in 1980 and restored it as a museum.  It is really neat inside.  Has three floors. and in the basement has a cistern that holds up to 6000 gallons of fresh rain water.  I remember when we had a cistern in the basement of our farm.  I remember the stairs and dirt floor going down it.  Always full of spiders.  Enough about that.
The wonderful lighthouse was finished in 1874 and has 219 steps and the beacon could be seen for up to 25 miles away.  We climbed the steps, a lot of steps, what was surprising is the size inside.  It's huge inside, it is not the island's first lighthouse.  the first one built in 1737 was made out of coquina (a product of cement and shells, extremely strong) and Spanish wood, you could only see the beacon for about 3 miles and was build so close to the ocean it finally fell in to it due to beach erosion.  The beach kept changing due to hurricanes and tides.

It really is quite spectacular.  Your legs felt rubbery after the climb let me tell you.

The wind sure whipped around like crazy at the top.  Lots to see and of course the sea.

 

The restoration job is just beautiful.

As you can see theere were lots of stairs but also several places where you could take a break.  Thank goodness because if you had to lift the oil pails that kept it lit in the early years and carry them up the stairs I never would have made it, I barely made it the way it was and there was Jim just sprinting up.  He always has had good legs.

 

This is a photo of a right whale, they hang around the coast and actually have two blow holes.  Weird huh.

 

I needed him to take a picture of this picture because I just thought it was so beautifully done.

Inside the keepers house.  So cosy, Alexis has a oval marble table just like this one.  I'll just bet they got it at Sear's like I did.