Key West - We visit the lighthouse

The view from above - kinda scary

Today we got to see the lighthouse! 88 steps up and down (editor's note: he counted?!) and there is NO elevator! My feet still ake, REALLY ACHE, from scaling the lighthouse. Even when I bend my knees, my legs fall apart. There's this cool thing about the mirrors in the lens, where no matter which way the light is coming from, the light emitted goes in 1 direction. So when the lantern spins around in the lens, instead of spraying the light all around, it becomes two fixed beams that spin around, pretty neat. That was today's highlight (Get it, high LIGHT. Hehe. That was a horrible "joke."). We did some schoolwork, had a nice walk, that was really all. Bye! 

The Fresnel lenses were fascinating and very pretty

You can see that the excitement of the day was climbing the lighthouse. It was built on the highest point of land in Key West so it's a little inland now. The point of the Fresnel lens was to direct the light horizontally so a faraway boat could see it. All the lighthouses had them and the exhibit in this lighthouse was excellent in showing the advantages of the design.

The view straight down, a long way it seemed

We took the Duval Street free bus to the lighthouse. They have expanded the route to include the park by the Coast Guard boat which is also near the Eco-Discovery Center, a free exhibit that you don't want to miss while in Key West.

The kid has Saturday and Sunday off from schoolwork which he's looking forward to and for that matter, Ann too. The plan is still to finish up on the schoolwork on Monday and Tuesday so he's free to enjoy Key West with his parents on Tuesday afternoon and during their stay.