Gill and I went to a Florida Lighthouse Association meeting yesterday. We meet 3 - 4 times a year. We joined several years ago, mainly as a way to see some of the lighthouses not usually opened to the public. We enjoy going to the meetings, meeting old friends and meeting new friends. They always have a guest speaker and yesterday, the curator at Ponce spoke about the restoration of the Fresnel lens which they have completed several restorations. Yesterday, we met in Daytona Beach for an afternoon meeting and then dinner before going to the lighthouse. Gill and I hurried down there so that we could capture a few pictures before it got too dark.
The top of the Lighthouse
Beautiful strong lady.
Gill climbed the 235 steps up, Ponce is the tallest lighthouse in Florida, second tallest in the US behind Hatteras. I have climbed Ponce before but I did not last night.
The sunset view from the top
Gill at the top with the third order Fresnel lens, this was special for the FLA members, normally it costs $50 to get to the lens room and it was free for us.
Ponce has a wonderful museum and grounds available to tour through. It has 3 keeper buildings, pump room, oil storage and they bulit a lens building to house the lenses they have restored. In this picture from left to right are the following lenes: Ponce Inlet First Order Fixed Fresnel Lens; Fourth Order Bivalve Fresnel Lens; Replica 6th order Fresnel Lens; Cape Canaveral Lighthouse First Order Rotating Fresnel Lens; Chance Brothers Lens.
Thank you to all the staff at Ponce for making this all available to us. I did not say but the Lighthouse and grounds was only open for the members of FLA at the meeting.
Last fall, our meeting was up in the panhandle, we got to climb the St. George Lighthouse which was just rebuilt and our speaker told us all about that enormous feat. We also visited Crooked River and Cape San Blas lighthouses.
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