Lifes simple pleasures

Have you seen my girls? Sometimes I just can't believe they are mine.

Just look at them, do they not make you just get warm and fuzzy?

Today we took a quick drive to Key Biscayne and went to Bill Baggs State park. We have been there countless times before but today we went with the sole purpose of seeing the lighthouse and taking the tour.

The beautiful walkway leading to the lighthouse

Quite spectacular. It was renovated in 1996....and that is all the history we learnt. We had the option of a guided tour or just being able to climb the lighthouse steps, we opted for the second.

Some of the 109 steps 

We made it to the top

Amazing

We were even allowed to walk around the outside which I was surprised about since anything today which could possibly be hazardous is usually prohibited. The scenery was breathtaking.

Looking straight down

I took this from the Lighthouse Keepers garden.

Once the girls were finally finished investigating every single inch of the lighthouse we toured the lighthouse keepers house. I would love, LOVE, to live in that house. It is a bit tiny and doesn't have any indoor plumbing but the architecture is right up my alley. Both girls loved it too.

Windows must have been expensive

Look at the floors, just gorgeous

Hmmm, the crib wouldn't pass many safety tests any more.

The girls loved all the open railings. 

The rooms were all so tiny but it had 3 bedrooms and 2 rooms downstairs. And a lovely little outhouse! 

I steered clear of the beach as much as possible as Lily cannot get her cast wet and getting it filled with sand isn't going to feel very nice but we ventured on to it for a little bit.

I think they were debating whether to just run in.

lily wrote this in the sand and nobody would walk on it, everyone walked around it.

When we left the beach we headed back towards the entrance and decided to hike a nature trail. Rosie got scared and decided we were going to get eaten by bears??? It was so beautiful and we saw so much that normally in our hurried lives, we would miss.  I cut it short as Rosie was not having a very good time so we headed to the car. As we got closer to the main entrance we knew there was a another trail that we wanted to walk so we parked the car for the last time and headed off on foot. We had been in this area before when we went camping (hey I still say it was camping) so we knew what to expect on the trail.

The marina. As we pulled in we saw a police helicopter, the coast guard, FDLE, Parks and recreation, Metro and every other conceivable law enforcement agency. There must have been a boating mishap, nothing to serious with regard to injury but something else must have been a concern. It didn''t faze us and we went about our adventure. 

Poor old tree didn't survive a storm

It was windy today so I was surprised this sailboat wasn't sailing

Ding dong child felt safer crawling the sea wall as opposed to,walking it.

Lily was in heaven all day today. She loves being away from civilisation. 

As we drove back on to the Key traffic was gridlocked. Talk about a reality check. The Sony Ericsson Open Tennis Tournament is being played there and it is one road on and one road off. So we sat, and we sat. It didn't dampen our spirits at all and I knew that once we were passed the bridges we would be free and clear and we were, even rush hour traffic wasn't to awful today.

When we got home we sat down and read, The Lighthouse Keepers Daughter . Other than the fact that it was written in Maine and takes place during a harsh winter storm, the girls were able to relate to it more today than ever before. It's such a fabulous book and was a gift from their cousin Joan, in Maine.

Days like today really shouldn't end. Spring break is winding down and we really haven't done much at all. That ginormous cast put a damper on things so we are making up for lost time.
Life is good when you take the slower quieter route.