St. Augustine Lighthouse

A few weeks ago Ken and I visited the lighthouse at St. Augustine, Fl..

It was built around 1834 and completed around 1898.

It has 219 steps and eight landings. I walked them all while Ken waited for me below.

The lighthouse had a keeper until 1955 when the automatic light was adopted. Prior to this time during the WWII, the lighthouse keeper witnessed a German U-boat firing on an American ship. the ship sank. He could see the lights from the shots that were fired up close to South Carolina border.

The lighthouse is no longer ocean front. During the past 85 years a sandbar developed into what is now populated with trees.

St. Augustine will be celebrating its 450th anniversary this year!



A Tribute to Mom

Mother taught me a lot of things. I guess the one thing she taught me that really stands out is "When the going gets tough, the tough gets going."


Some of the ways she taught me this was through sheer perseverance on her part, because I could be a very stubborn child.


For instance, I hated washing dishes. I'm ashamed to say we would have some very heated discussions about why it was my turn to wash dishes, again.


Would you believe the first job I got was as a dishwasher? Not putting them in a dishwasher, I mean washing by hand.
But she prepared me for it and I was able to do it well.


Mother worked and had a garden and Dad was gone most of the time driving a truck.


We would hoe, pick, clean and wash the vegetables. I didn't even like vegetables!
But I do now. Thanks Mom.


I learned to live without getting everything I wanted. She proved it could be done. When you have six kids they can't all have everything they want (unless you're a millionaire, which we weren't)


So I didn't get to go to camp. I didn't get to go to concerts or even have my own car.
But I did learn to deal with it.
She gave me the basis for making the best decisions possible, (not that I always did.)
She helped me recover from when those decisions didn't work out.


She gave me faith in God.


I hope I am able to pass that along to my children.


Love you Mom!