St. Augustine Lighthouse

This blog was almost abandoned, but I'm resurrecting it for now! In over two decades of living in Florida and countless visits to St. Augustine, starting with school field trips and then trips on my own, I had never been to the St. Augustine Lighthouse. Visible from downtown, the St. Augustine Light is located on Anastasia Island and was built in 1874.

One of the fascinating parts of lighthouses to me is always the design of the stairs leading to the top. There seems to be a lot of variation from lighthouse to lighthouse. Some, like the Ponce Inlet lighthouse have staircases that spiral around the walls of the building all the way to the top. Others like the Cape Florida Light in Key Biscayne have variations on the spiral staircases, only based around a central column rather than attached to the walls. On the St. Augustine Light, the stairs spiraled up around half the building, with landings on the other half. I don't ever remember being in a lighthouse with a staircase designed quite like this.

Once the stairs were all climbed, there was a nice view of the top of the lighthouse from the balcony just below.

There were rather impressive and decorative braces holding up the observation platform.

 

View of downtown St. Augustine.

The lighthouse made some nifty looking shadows on the beach.

I liked this house under the lighthouse!

Sombrero Key Lighthouse

I recently found these old pictures of the Sombrero Key Lighthouse that were taken back in 2002. I was so proud of my BIG 2.5 megapixel camera back then.

The Sombrero Key Lighthouse is located off the coast of Marathon in the Florida Keys and marks a reef that is now an attraction for snorkeling tours. I personally am amazed at the engineering behind these skeleton lighthouses. All those little metal trusses and cables fitting together into a structure that can survive hurricanes...

Light Show on the Vue

The Vue in Downtown Orlando has a rather interesting light show on what appears to be the building's stairs. I imagine this must get old quick if you live in one of the condos with windows next to the lights...

Beetle...

I found this beetle hanging out by a light. Cool insect...