March 22, 2010 Monday Morning


An Osprey guards the walkway to the..
Sanibel Lighthouse

The Osprey's mate in their nest and their two chicks..

March 22, 2010 Monday Afternoon

Boca Grande Lighthouses


You come to the range light first, it looks like it could use a little tender loving care..


The buildings on the grounds of the Boca Grande Lights however are in wonderful condition after a recent makeover.

There were quite a few visitors to the lighthouse on the day that we visited.. This speaks well for all of their hard work of restoring the buildings to probably better than their original state.


They have some really nice hands on exhibits and a lot great area history inside the lighthouse and of course for Sue's sake a very nice gift shop with some unique items for sale..

It that eucalyptus? I've only ever seen it in craft stores.

March 23, 2010 Tuesday Morning

How to make a morning PERFECT!!


Spend it at a lighthouse you thought you would never ever get to see....and with GREAT friends...

Front row, left to right: Sue, Derith (Pixie) & Linda
Back row, left to right: WackoPaul, LI Bob & Gary




Back to the beginning of our trip.

We meet up in Cedar Key and get ready to board the boat to make our way to the Island..

Derith (Pixie) taking a picture of me taking a picture her outside the lantern room..


The light is being used as a dormitory by the University of Florida students.


This is one of two kitchens in the lighthouse, it has to be a great place for the students who spend a couple of weeks at a time on the Island..


The Pixie leading the group back down the hill towards the dock..

Seahorse Key Marine Laboratory of the University of Florida.




A flock of White Pelicans..




An osprey after a successful dive for his lunch..


We had a great local brunch after getting back to the mainland..

Is What a eucalyptus?

March 23, 2010 Tuesday Afternoon


Amelia Lighthouse with a closed gate restricting the angle..


Catch of the day... If only it was real!


View from the restaurant we had dinner at tonight..


Very friendly pelican..

Thanks for the memory, Paul and Sue.
A little chilly on the water but great day for photos.
Derith

I don't see any seahorses on the cedar Keys pictured above. Shouldn't there be about 10 of them? (ha ha)

Nice silhouette of the shark with the sunset!

I looked with Paul! :p

March 24, 2010 Wednesday Morning


St. Simon is still under wraps getting a face lift..

March 24, 2010 Wednesday Afternoon


Sea Pines Light..


We lucked out and found the last parking spot near the tower, parking spots are at a premium back near the Marina..

March 24, 2010 Wednesday Afternoon


Hilton Head Range Light..
If you just follow the great travel instructions given at this website, you will find the people very helpful in giving you a pass and instructions back to the light..
Hilton Head Range Light


The tower is located in the middle of a golf course in a gated community..








There is the old cistern located close to the twoer..

Isn't Sea Pines made out of plywood?

Sea Pines is a skeletal tower... that has been covered on the outside with plywood.

Great pics Paul !!!

So many pics to enjoy all at once !!!

Mombo,
Are you referring to the sea grape leaves? The ones you asked about are smaller.

March 25, 2010 Thursday Morning

Sue and I had a very special visit to a lighthouse today with a couple of special friends... I will post more images in a day or so on our trip home. This is the last light we are visiting on this trip, it is now just the 2 day drive home..

Up close and personal with Morris Island. That's nice.

Paul, I think that is the BEST picture of Morris Island that I've ever seen! GOOD JOB!

We followed some local fishermen out through the channel.. It would have taken a lot longer without them as it is almost like a maze knowing which one to take to the ocean.


That is Morris Island in the foreground, from this angle it looks as though the light is still sitting on it.




This is shot from the other side and shows how much of the Island has been eaten away.. It was shot at low tide which up until a few years ago would have shown sand all of the way to the light..


As you can see there is a pronounce lean to the tower which they hope to stabilize with Phase Two of Save the Light.




To our surprise we found some people at the light, after getting close we found that they were workers either applying finishing touches to Phase One or preparing the light for Phase Two of restoration..


The closer we got the more damage we could see to the tower..

A couple of them were unloading parts of a scaffold from their boat while one talked on his cell phone, probably wondering who we were..




We head across the bay and head towards..


Fort Sumter


The Fort from the opposite side, the Fort was originally three stories high until after the Union armies bombardment leveled the top two stories..


We had a picnic lunch while anchored to Morris Island..
Morris Island was the location of a famous battle of the Civil War which was shown in the film Glory

I believe this is Fort Johnson in the Charleston Harbor.. I should have listened better to Walt of captain and Betty's cousin better when he was giving us a great tour and history of the harbor.




This is the O'Brien's beautiful home as seen from the water..


John looks on at the carrier Yorktown, which is a Museum in the harbor.


Our captain took us right next to the carrier and insisted that we all touch the Yorktown, I am glad he did..




We then went down a channel where a lot of the shrimp boats are harbored and a lot of great restaurants are located..


Back to the view from the other side of Morris Island as we head back to where we embarked fro..

The trip back wasn't without incident as we didn't have any locals to follow back and we took a wrong channel and got hung up a few times but due to the efforts of our fearless captain and of course some great piloting from me in the bow we made it back to the boat ramp, all in all a fantastic day!!

Sue and I will be home in Indy tomorrow afternoon just in time to get ready to go to a retirement party for two guys that I worked with for over 45 years..

Below are the links to the other 2 threads of images from our Florida Trip!!

Florida via Outer Banks

HLC Florida Gatherings...

Our friend Betty O'Brien is a board member of Save the Light, the organization that as the name suggests is saving the Morris Island Light.. She is also in charge of raising funds for Phase Two of saving the light. Phase One is complete and they will need around one and a half million additional dollars to complete Phase Two.

By the way if you don't have a spare $1,500,000.00 laying around they can use donations of any size..

The following is a link to their website..

Save the Light

Betty and her husband John are also charter members of the Hoosier Lighthousing Club..

I added some captions to the thread.. I now will work on the trip down to Florida thread captions..

Paul, another great travel log and great pictures.
The only thing better than seeing them on the forums would be being there with you & Sue and our lighthouse friends. Love your beard guy!

Thanks Ruthie, and we wish you were there with us, also..


I thought I would post an image of HL189 Then Morris Island Lighthouse which was a set of then and now HL sculptures, just in case some didn't know what Morris Island Light used to look like years ago..

Great shots Paul!
That was a great experience you guys had at Morris Island. We enjoyed you and Sue sharing another at Cedar Key.

Is it time for the Reveal yet?

My thoughts about Morris Island changed when we were at Amelia Island earlier in the month. Our host there was the daughter of an Amelia Island keeper. When she told us that several of her father's family were born at Morris Island, I suddenly thought of it as it was "in it's day" rather than how it is now. Makes me so glad that there is a great effort to restore her.

They are having a Silent Auction and Gala on Thursday, April 29, from 6:30 - 9:30 pm at the Folly Beach Holiday Inn. Folly Beach is the beach town that you go through to see Morris Island Light from land the best. The always have great items available in the auction so if anyone is in the area they might want to stop by and bid.

I am sending Betty a set of the HL189 and HL190 then and now Morris Island Lighthouses, they are both AP's and have been boxed up sitting in a closet, ever since I got them in 2001. Hopefully they will bring in some money for the Save the Light Organization's fine work!

Thanks Derith, grape leaves they be.

I always thought that the whole of Morris Island was gone but apparently that's not so, just some of it, where the lighthouse is located. A long time ago I had found some historical photos or drawings on the web that showed the lighthouse and all the buildings (about 15 including a schoolhouse) but can't seem to locate them now. From those photos I thought the lighthouse and buildings were all that was on the island but that's not right either. Lots of Civil War stuff was there too, including a battlefield it seems.

Historical Image of Morris Island Lighthouse

2nd Historical Image of Morris Island Lighthouse

Another angle of Historical Morris Island Lighthouse

Here's some more in this article:

http://www.lighthousedepot.com/lite_digest.asp?action=get_article&sk=443&bhcd2=1269916061

Need some HELP!

The first 9 photos came up fine but starting with the Monday afternoon photos, all I get is lots of boxes with red X's in them, even when I wait many minutes for something to happen.

I have dial up service and Vista on my Toshiba Satellite A215-S745 computer.

Max

Sounds like your computer may be loading a cache version of the thread, Max, try holding down the shift key and reloading the thread page.