Florida Lighthouse Road Trip


T o break up  the winter in Cape May  this year my mother planned a trip to Florida to visit my uncle in Jacksonville a few weeks ago! It was a different kind of trip; in that we didn't stay in one place we explored to entire East Coast of Florida. We spent the weekend with my Uncle Chuck who moved down to Jacksonville a few years ago for work. He has been back up north quite a few times but this year it was time to repay the visit. We spent a total of ten days in  Florida and spent most of the time at his house with a road trip to Palm Beach and then onto
Key West in between.



One of the unexpected excursion of the trip was a detour to the  Fort Clinch located on the St. Mary's River..  They have character reenactments and other demonstrations. I took the scooter all over t he grounds and explored the different buildings! The weather wasn't the greatest but it didn't interfere with my pictures too much as you can see above


The major goal of the trip was taking pictures of as many lighthouses, mom and dad really were good sports about it!! St John's Lighthouse w hich is located inn Mayport on a military  installation, hence the barbed wire. I tried my best to avoid the fence but the picture above was the best shot I could get. We didn't stick around so I really couldn't get a better  angle but time was running out







Next up was the Amelia  Island Lighthouse. Definitely ten times easier to photograph. We parked right next to it so the shots were perfect!!  We were also the only people on the grounds so I really took my time. Even though I couldn't actually climb the lighthouse I still managed to snap a grand total of about fifty pictures.  My parents were walking around the grounds while  I   rushed around trying to  get all the angles possible



After a two day  ride from Jacksonville down the  East Coast to Key West. Although the other two lighthouses were wonderful it was great to actually CLIMB the 88 steps to the top of the Key West Lighthouse built in 1848!!! This was nothing compared to the 199 steps of the  Cape May Lighthouse.  

The view from the top of the Key West Lighthouse was so amazing, I tried to get a panoramic shot.  I was nervous I would drop my camera, even though the strap was securely around my neck. So the shot didn't  come out quite as I planned, but I can't complain. Also the camera was acting funny, I thought I had lost almost all my shots, so I didn't want to mess with perfection@!! ! 
Location: Florida, USA

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