So, we’re in central Florida on the east coast for a few days as we make our way back to Dallas. I’ve been feeling much better this week which is very encouraging.
We spent our first night in a pretty nice hotel for a much better price of cheaper hotels in Texas, so I’m happy with that. We barely got to stay there for all of 16 hours, but even so, we enjoyed the sound of the waves, a walk on the beach, a dip in the pool and hot tub, a lovely sunrise, and air conditioning that made us forget that it is August in Florida with temps in the mid-90s and humidity around 200%. “La Florida” is a Spanish name because as we all know (or should know) the Spaniards were the first Europeans to show up here. This Spanish word was aptly chosen by those intrepid explorers because “florida” originally meant “long lines of tourists.” I have to admit, those Spaniards were quite forward-looking.
After checking out of the hotel, we visited the old and beautiful Ponce de Leon lighthouse at Ponce Inlet. It majestically stands 175 feet high (the tallest in Florida). I took photos of it from the outside, the inside, from the top and from the bottom, as well as pictures of the grounds, and some of the exhibits. There are pictures of lenses (some of them either used in this lighthouse at some point in history or were similar to the; others weren’t used here but are representative of the historical development of the lenses). There is a picture of a couple of Cuban refugee rafts (taken from the top of the lighthouse) that refugees built and used once to flee the troubled island. The Daytona Speedway is barely visible on the horizon above the treeline in one of the pictures.
Knowing Your ABCDs 