The only thing I can think of is that the lighthouses in the South, while probably some of the most impressive and most well-preserved in America, are too far apart to organise any kind of side trips with a reasonable centre. Just plugging some random lights into Streets and Trips, with use of the Lighthouse Friends map, here are the travel times between the major Atlantic Coast Florida lights:

Ameilia Island (Fernandina Beach) to Mayport Lights: ~1h
Mayport-St Auggie: ~1h
St Auggie-Ponce: ~1h15
Ponce-Cape Canaveral: ~1h15
Canaveral-Jupiter: ~2h
Jupter-Hillsboro: ~1h
Hillsboro-Cape Florida: ~1h

Then the Keys, which could be a boat trip except you can't really see them all in a day except by plane.

Then the Gulf coast...

Miami-Sanibel: ~3h
Sanibel-Boca Grande: ~1.5h
Boca Grande-potential Ancelote/Egmont boat trip: ~1h30
There-Cedar Key: ~2h30
Cedar Key-St Marks: ~2h30
St Marks-Crooked River: ~1h
Crooked River-St George new home: ~30m
St George-Cape San Blas: ~1h
Cape San Blas-St Joseph: ~1h15
St Joseph-Pensacola: ~2h15

So. Every lighthouse in Florida, save a precious few, is at least an hour from its neighbour. Thus, to do any sort of real-lighthouse based activity around the reunion (tours, cruises, etc.), you'd have no logical centre, unless MAYBE you did it in Miami, where you're a bit in the middle of a few lights. There's no way to balance the weekend with a good amount of lighthousing, while still having time to do the usual reunion presentations and dinners and such.


The rest of the South is much the same -- I only spent time on Florida because that's the most common one brought up. Charleston, while a place that I'm DYING to go to, has much of the same issue. Morris Island, Sullivans Island...a trip down to Hilton Head...and maybe conjure something together with Cape Romain and Georgetown, which again are far away. And then you've put a lot of time in for not a lot of lights.

Look at the past locations. Rhode Island, Mackniac, Baltimore. All places with serious concentrations of lighthouses, where a boat tour or bus tour could be easily chartered at a time and cost effect. Lights in those areas are within miles of each other, and you can easily see five or so with special opportunities and such in an eight hour period, with time for a Bill breakfast and a dinner. In most Southern points, you'll still be on the bus, or maybe JetBlue.

Now, I don't speak one bit for anyone from HL, I'm just figuring this from logic. But the last reunion showed that the physical lighthouse was more of a component in today's reunion. And with the south, Tony may very well be alluding to my rather drawn out point, when he says that Florida is not practical.

To paraphrase some movie I've forgotten (or perhaps made up), it's all about the distance.