My wife and I went on a cruse out of Fort Lauderdale Florida. We saw Key West lighthouse as we passed on the tour tram and I took a quik picture. Our next stop was to the Grand Camens where we found a spoontiques of it and Saint Marks, so we bought both. At the end of the cruse we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale at 9:00am and our hotel wasn't available until 4 m. So we decided to see what was in the area. We kept seeing signs Lighthouse street, lighthouse diner, etc..so we figured there must be a lighthouse near. We searched and found Hillsboro. The search was fun so I stopped at a gas station and bought a map and asked if there were any other lighthouses near by. The man said there was one just up the highway. 2 hours later we found and climbed Jupiter Inlet. What a great experience. There was a picture in the gift shop of the lighthouse from the draw bridge with a thunderstorm coming in and a lightning bolt hitting not to far away. I had to have it. It is still one of the best photos I have ever seen, though Gary's sun piller is just about as impressive. The next day we went over to the gulf coast and found Boca Grande, Gasperilla Rear Range light and Sanibel. On the way back we saw Cape Florida. We were hooked. to date we have seen 75. in California, Washington, Indiana, Michigan, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. We also saw one in Cozumel Mexico. I have pictures of all but one of the key lights in Florida. When I saw it I thought it was an oil drilling rig. I think it was alligator key. All of our vacations have to be to the coast now and if we don't see at least one lighthouse, it just wasn't a vacation.

Dale