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Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse

This adventure was inspired by our friend Elisabeth!.  She has written about visits to lighthouses near her home in Nova Scotia.  I started thinking… “I live on the coast- I wonder if there are any lighthouses near me?”

A quick google search revealed that there is a notable lighthouse in Jupiter, Florida, which is about an hour away from me.  In case you’re wondering where the heck Jupiter, Florida is, here you go:

Last week my daughter had an all-day rehearsal in Jupiter, and rather than drive there and back twice, I opted to spend the day in Jupiter- I knew exactly what I wanted to do!

The Jupiter lighthouse is located at the juxtaposition of the Atlantic Ocean, Indian River, and Loxahatchee River.  For $12, you can climb to the top of the lighthouse and visit the lighthouse museum.

First, the climb to the top- they warned that it’s 105 steps.  No problemo!  I’ve been working out. What I didn’t anticipate was climbing that narrow spiral staircase was kind of… scary.  I never thought I was scared of heights before, but there was something about it that made me anxious- maybe that the steps were a metal grid, so if you looked down (eep) you could see all the way to the bottom… anyway, I made it to the top and was rewarded with this view:

I was definitely glad I went up, but the climb down was even more scary.  I made it though, and made my way to the lighthouse museum.  This was a small exhibit on the history of the lighthouse, which I loved.  It was built in the 1860s, and one of the displays showed a timeline of the history of the lighthouse along with what was going on in the U.S. at the time.  I like this little tidbit:

For all you Packers fans!

It was fascinating, reading about the lives of the lighthouse keepers and their families.  This was a rugged and isolated area in the late 1800s, and their lives were hard.  Every once in a while there was a shipwreck, and it was their job to rescue what they could of the crew and cargo.

In addition to the museum, the “Tindall Pioneer Homestead.” is located on this property.  Built in 1892, it’s one of the oldest houses in Palm Beach County, and it was relocated to this area so that visitors to the lighthouse can tour the house on the same visit.

The Tindalls raised TEN KIDS in this tiny house!  I loved hearing stories of their life.  They cooked their meals over an open fire.  The “noon meal” was the cooked meal- dinner- and anything left over was eaten for supper.  There was no refrigeration, of course, so they only cooked what they could eat each day.

There was also information about the Native Americans of this area:

I loved reading about it, but I can’t imagine living in South Florida without air conditioning! These people were tough.

Near the lighthouse is a protected natural area:

I followed the path to a little beach.

I sat here for a while watching the boats go past.  It was so peaceful!  Visiting this area was so out of my normal routine, it was just what I needed to jolt me out of my post-holiday funk.

A few days later, my husband was working up in Jupiter and sent me this photo of the lighthouse at night:

Hey, I’ve been there!

Now I want to visit more lighthouses in Florida.  Some of them are too far away, and some are accessible only by boat (ooooh…). Future adventures await!

Have you ever visited a lighthouse?  Would you climb to the top?  Are there any lighthouses near you?

 

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Weekly Rundown- That Was Weird…

What a week!  We thought we were getting a hurricane, and ended up with tornadoes.  Because the hurricane itself didn’t hit us that badly, most people in our area had little to no damage- except for those in the path of the tornadoes, where there was utter destruction.  Luckily we were in the first category, but everyone is left with the feeling, “What just happened?”  But of course… there were still workouts.  Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting.  Here we go… Monday It was a rainy day.  In the morning I did Caroline Girvan’s deadbug workout, and saved my run for later in the day.  I thought I might go to the gym and run on the treadmill, but there was no thunder or lightning, so I ran 3 miles outside. Tuesday I started the day with this 30 Minute Pilates Core Workout..  OUCH.  It was hard!  Followed it up with hip stability exercises, and that was it for the morning.  Later in the day we got news that schools would be closed Wednesday-Thursday because of Milton. Wednesday Hmmm!  I had a 10 mile run planned.  But there’s a hurricane coming.  Should I run on the treadmill?  Milton is still out in the Gulf of Mexico and isn’t due to make landfall on the west coast of Florida till night.  The weather seemed fine, so I decided to run outside.  Instead of going to my nearby trail (which is on the edge of the Everglades) I decided to stick to streets closer to home.  I was thinking it would be safer, in case of lightning. Once again, I was a little dismayed how hard 10 miles felt.  I thought about cutting it short, but instead did my trick of running 30 seconds/walking 30 seconds until I felt better, and ended up doing the whole distance. I went inside, took a shower and when I got out we had a tornado warning.  WHAT?   We turned on the TV and saw that a tornado was passing just to the west of us (you know, like where my Everglades trail is!) It was moving north, so didn’t affect us directly.  But several tornadoes went through our county and wreaked havoc, as tornadoes do. Lesson learned- take the weather seriously.  The outer bands of Milton spawned around 20 tornadoes throughout the state that day. Thursday Milton moved through overnight, causing some gusty winds but not much else.  We awoke to a beautiful, breezy Thursday!  Since we all thought the weather was going to be terrible, work was canceled for the day and I slept in.  But later in the day I decided to go for a run.  I had new shoes! I just ran 2 miles, then did a MadFit standing core workout.  Then we got word that schools would be closed AGAIN on Friday.  So many people in our county lost power in the tornadoes, and they were still going through every school to make sure there was no damage. Friday Okay, I’m so confused.  What day is it, anyway?  My daughter was home, but I had work (side note- it’s SUCH A RELIEF when your kids are old enough to stay home alone.  When they’re little, these school closures are brutal.). I went to the gym for leg day! Saturday 4 mile run before work.  I don’t know what’s up with this hazy photo.  It was a beautiful day!  Milton blew in some cooler, dryer air.  Not actually cool or dry- but coolER and dryER.  The end is in sight. Sunday On tap- sleeping in and watching the Chicago Marathon!  Then in the afternoon I’m hoping to put up my outdoor Halloween decorations.  I’m cautiously optimistic that we will have no more storms, so it’s time for outdoor decs! These storms are always scary.  Luckily everyone in our Florida blogging community made it through unscathed.  Our real life friends are all fine, although my daughter’s band director had a tornado go through his neighborhood!  He had damage to his house, but it’s still standing and, most important, he and his family are all fine.  PHEW. Did you have a “normal” week?- I’m trying to remember what that feels like. Are you getting fall weather?

Milton!

Hi there!  Usually I do a coffee date post on Fridays, but I’m all discombobulated this week.  It IS Friday, right?  We’ve had an eventful couple of days here… but we’re fine, our house is fine, and our friends are fine.  We’re VERY lucky. But, we had a tornado!  Actually a couple tornadoes went through our county.  We got a tornado warning, turned on the TV, and they were showing the tornado live, as it was caught on a traffic cam.  On the other side of the screen they showed a map of the county and where the tornado was going. It was scarily close to us, but we could see on the map that it would stay to the west and was moving north.  Remember- Florida houses have no basements!  Everyone in the path was urged to get into their bathtubs. Just about all our destruction from Milton came from these tornadoes.  Most of the county is fine, but the areas in the path of the tornado were obviously devastated.  The schools were closed Wednesday, Thursday, and they’re closed again today because so many people are without power, and they’re still making sure all the schools are structurally sound. Seeing the damage so close to home, and then all the flooding and wind damage on the west coast, makes me feel a little guilty- but we really had no issues from this storm (other than being temporarily scared by the tornado warning.) We had no damage and didn’t lose power.  I had a little unexpected vacation from work (we were closed for a couple days) and well…. I kind of …. cringe… (I’m very sorry!) enjoyed it. On Wednesday (when Milton was still out in the Gulf of Mexico) my daughter asked if her friend could sleep over.  Sure!  Because it’s always a good idea to be in charge of someone else’s kid in a natural disaster, right? I picked up her friend and we stopped at Target for last minute supplies.  Remember my storm snacks?  Well, the girls took a dim view of the Lesser Evil popcorn, keto plant-based cereal, and sugar-free chocolate chips.  They loaded up the cart with more “appropriate” supplies. I took the opportunity to get a couple more candles.  I figured, if we’re going to be stuck in the house, it might as well smell good, right?  I had such a good time smelling them all (I always think of the Girl Next Door Fall Extravaganza candle sniffing when I do this.) I love all the names… But this was my favorite: I ended up choosing these two: By the way, did you know that money spent during a storm doesn’t really count?  We were throwing things into the cart with reckless abandon.  My husband wasn’t too pleased (especially with the mocha marshmallow coffee.)  But we were ready to hunker down. The hunkering didn’t last long!  By Thursday morning the worst of the storm had passed, and we were left with a beautiful, breezy day.  We even opened our windows (for the first time since… March?) It wasn’t exactly COOL.  But it was less humid, and we enjoyed the windows open until 11 am, when I realized I was roasting and we had to turn the AC back on. Since I had a bonus day off of work, I decided to start working on my blog to fix the sidebar problem.  So if you never hear from me again, you’ll know what happened.  No, just kidding- I backed it up!  Hopefully I can fix the current issue and also clean up a few other things that have been bugging me. Now, back to regular life!  All our friends on the west coast evacuated.  Stephany went to Ocala; two more friends drove all the way to South Carolina, and others flew up to New Jersey.  We’ll be anxiously awaiting word from them on how their homes fared in the storm.  We’re so close to the end- PLEASE, no more hurricanes! Have you ever been through a tornado? Do you have a favorite fall candle scent? Top photo by Greg Johnson on Unsplash  

Reading and Eating

Well, it was my first post- Century Trilogy week of reading, so it was bound to feel a little blah.  But I’m happy to report that I finished this book, and can weigh in with my opinion: I liked it!  But I didn’t LOVE it.  The characters were interesting and I was curious to see where the story was going to go.  It’s a mystery, and I always love a mystery.  The thing I didn’t love was, the story was told from multiple timelines.  I think that could be super confusing if you listened to the audio version of this book (anyone who listened want to let me know?) Overall the ending was satisfying- but I wish the same story could have been told without the confusing time period switching back and forth.  But that’s my personal preference- I’m just not a fan of that style. Next up: I’m only about 1/4 of the way into this, but I’m liking it so far.  The premise is, a mysterious woman gets up on an airplane and walks down the aisle, telling each passenger when and how they’re going to die.  The passengers react with confusion, outrage, amusement… but six of them are given especially early death dates, and I’m just getting to the part of the book where we’ll see if the first prediction comes true. I’m not far enough into the book to say if I’m going to love it, or just like it.  But I’m enjoying it so far. On to the eats!  This week I made Suzanne’s Chickpea and Sweet Potato Stew.  It was so good! I also decided to splurge on the weekend, and made lasagna (I always use the recipe from Isa Chandra Moscowitz’s Veganomicon.) And, storm snacks!  We were hoping that Milton would nudge a little bit north, but it’s actually tracking further SOUTH now.  The counties to the north of us now have a hurricane warning.  It looks like we’ll have a tropical storm, but if it tracks further south we’ll put up our shutters tomorrow (we have accordion shutters which are attached to the house- all we have to do is pull them closed and lock them.) Either way, I stopped at the store for snacks! WHY do we feel like we need and deserve junk food when there’s a storm coming???  The cashier actually asked the woman in front of me, “Are you having a party?” The woman said “No, I just want to make sure I’m stocked up in case I can’t leave the house.”  Hee hee. Wish us luck!  I’ll be here eating my popcorn, and anxiously watching to see how our friends on the west coast are faring. What are you reading now? What are your favorite storm snacks? Top photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

My Superpower Would Be…

You know that question, if you could have a superpower, what would it be?  After contemplating many possibilities (flying, being invisible) I’ve decided that I definitely want my superpower to be the ability to control the weather. We have another hurricane heading to Florida.  It’s forecast to hit the Tampa area, which is terrible (if you haven’t already read it, here’s Stephany’s post– her car was totaled in the flooding from Helene, and now she has to evacuate.)  After it hits the west coast, Milton will continue across the state- hopefully staying just to the north of us. But we have a tropical storm warning, so school has been canceled for Wednesday and Thursday, and all after school activities are canceled for this week.  For my daughter this includes a rehearsal, a concert, an audition for an all-county band, a football game and a band picnic.  WHAT are the odds that this storm would hit us in this week of all weeks, where so many things were scheduled???  I’m really cranky about this, because we were supposed to bring soda to the picnic, and now I have about 50 cans of Coke in my fridge.  Grr. (Yes, I know- people died from Helene, and I’m complaining about having too much Coke.  Yes, I feel like a bad person.) I hate not knowing what’s going to happen.  Did they cancel school for nothing?  Should we be putting up our hurricane shutters?  At least, it seems smart to prepare for a power outage.  Let’s see- do we have our battery powered fans?  Check.  Lamps?  Check.  Beer?  Check.  (WAIT.  How did that get on the list?)  Food?  Che-eck… a trip to the store is probably in order.  Water?  Nope.  I’ll start filling bottles with our purified tap water (or, if we have a boil water order, we can just start drinking Coke, heh heh.) I don’t mean to make light of the situation.  There’s no great outcome here.  If I say I hope the storm doesn’t hit Tampa, then I’m wishing it on someone else.  But since I can’t control the weather (darn!) I have an alternative superpower. From this article, “40 Simple Rules for Life”, #37: Separate almost everything into two: things you can control and those you can’t. Don’t waste time and energy on what you can’t influence. Yes, that’s a superpower right there.  I’ll prepare, hope for the best, and deal with whatever happens.  Sending love to all our fellow Floridians on the west coast!  Hope everyone is safe. Top photo by Mélody P on Unsplash  

30 Responses

  1. Oh, this is a very cool project! What lighthouse will be next?

    We live half a mile from a lighthouse and I pass it EVERY day on my runs. I haven’t been up there once!! Time to change that – thanks for the inspiration, Jenny!

    I remember we once visited Thomas Edison’s winter home in Ft Myers. It was from the early 1900’s and, compared to today, surprisingly small. Also, no AC of course. I guess we are a lot more spoilt compared to our great-great-grandparents!

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    1. Yes, we are very spoiled! I go crazy if I have to live a day without AC, and these people didn’t have it at all. And yes, their houses were tiny. I’ve been to that Edison house, years ago.

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  2. Jenny, that is so cool. I love stuff like this! I really enjoy thinking about the people who lived and worked in historical places. Like, life was so hard – ten kids in a tiny house, etc. – and I think that their life could be made into a historical fiction novel. Well, everyone’s life could be made into a novel, really. But how interesting to work in a lighthouse! I would also 100% climb to the top.

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  3. Jenny, Jenny, Jenny. How do I even come up with the words to express HOW THRILLED I AM YOU WENT TO A LIGHTHOUSE!!! And a beautiful one at that. I’m adding this to my bucket list of lighthouses.

    My heart is just so happy right now – I’m grinning ear-to-ear in Nova Scotia.

    While I’ve visited many lighthouses (50? 60?), very few where I live are open to climb up, so that is extra special and I’m so glad you took that extra step. AND YES, windy stairs freak me out. I always, always think I’m going to fall. Also, I never think of myself as claustrophobic, but they tend to be so narrow that I do start feeling a bit panicky. Wherever I do stairs like that it’s always worth the view, but takes some effort to not freak out! And agreed that coming down is worse; I always feel like I’ll lose my footing and just tumble arse over teakettle the whole way to the bottom.

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    1. You’ve visited 50 or 60 lighthouses??? Wow. And yes- I think this is the only one in my area where you can climb to the top. Thanks for the inspiration!

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  4. Lighthouses are so fascinating! I’m glad you decided to visit one. Those stairs certainly can be scary. I’m also afraid of heights but have decided to try to work on it. We have plenty of lighthouses here but not so many are open to the public, at least in my area. One of the accordion players in our music session is a retired lighthouse keeper!
    On one of the peninsulas around here, there is a very interesting museum, an old signal station, where the first wireless oversea communication system (Marconi, named after its inventor) was developed and tested. The museum talks about the rough life of oversea travel in the past, about Marconi, the Fastnet (the nearby lighthouse) but also about the life of the lighthouse worker. It’s one of the most interesting places and I’d love to go back. There’s also some fantastic views out there if the weather is right. It’s called Mizen Head but most times I’ve been there the weather has made it more like the “missing” head, lol!

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    1. Wow, that does sound interesting, and I’m REALLY intrigued by the fact that you actually know a former lighthouse keeper!!!

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  5. So neat that you got to climb it, though I would have been claustrophobic too. Many years ago I climbed to the top of St Peter’s dome at the Vatican and I kept hunching away from the walls, because the angle of the dome made it feel like the outer wall was coming at me!

    My nearest lighthouse, based on that map, would be Sanibel, but I’m not sure how well it’s doing after hurricane Ian. Let’s say I’m not going to plan a trip there for now. I didn’t visit the lighthouse when I was in Key West, but I loved the story they told us at Hemingway House, that he used to use the light to get home after he’d had a night out, because it was past his house from the direction of the bars. Head for the lighthouse, and you’ll find home!

    How fun that the sign says Outstanding Natural Area. Way to pat yourselves on the back, BLM! I’m sure it IS outstanding.

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    1. Ha, that’s a funny story about Hemingway. I’ve been to Key West, but not to the lighthouse. And yes, I wonder how the Sanibel lighthouse survived the storm. I would think it’s pretty sturdy? Might be worth looking into.

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  6. I have an addiction to lighthouses so I do visit them wherever I go. I’ve been to that one, one in Ft Lauderdale, St Augustine, etc. Some in Maine too.

    I climbed to the top of Jupiter right after I finished a half. LOL

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    1. I thought you might have been here! I’ll bet the St. Augustine one is amazing, and I want to go to the lighthouse in Ft. Lauderdale- that’s not too far from me.

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  7. I have definitely been to my fair share of lighthouses. Living on the Great Lakes, we have A LOT. I’ve been most of the Michigan lighthouses. I’ve also been to a couple of lighthouses in the Carolinas. I never really mind the climb, but looking out over the top gives me so much anxiety. It’s beautiful to see the views, of course, but it’s SO FAR UP! Can you even imagine being a lighthouse keeper and living in one of those things? Such a tiny space with such big responsibilities.

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    1. I know. I’m pretty sure in the old days the lighthouse keeper had to climb to the top every day to light it. I’m not sure if I’ve ever visited a lighthouse before- I never really thought about it until Elisabeth talked about them.

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  8. Back when I had to climb fuel tanks (the big, round, white ones) I needed to look forward and one the way down, I would look at my feet. But also, I think the narrower spiral stairs doesn’t help.

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      1. Yeah, I don’t like thinking about it either and liked doing it even less! I needed to inspect the condition. Fortunately, different type of auditors do that work at my company now.

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  9. HOW FUN! You made me look up lighthouses near me and there are more than a few! I need to go for a little trip like you did.

    I’ve been to a few lighthouses – I know I went to the one in St. Augustine, which was super cool!

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  10. I love this! Lighthouses are what kicked off my local tourism quest. I heard that there were lighthouses on Lake Erie which seemed crazy to me, and I finally got out and started going to them. Previously I had been to the Hatteras Lighthouse in North Carolina, which is huge. Lake Erie’s lighthouses are tiny in comparison. I’ve experienced exactly what you say that the smaller the lighthouse, the narrower and scarier the stairs are.

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  11. Well I definitely don’t live near any lighthouses being in the desert haha and I’ve only visited the Pacific Ocean (and technically the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston) where lighthouses don’t seem to be as common as along the Atlantic so I’ve never been to a lighthouse! The history of the lighthouse you visited and the families that lived near there is fascinating though.

    As for the no air conditioning, I always think the same thing about the Native Americans who lived in my area as well! I barely survived one day last summer when I lost power! Apparently my dad had a relative who lived in the Phoenix area in the 70s and he visited her as a kid and she didn’t have A/C since it was wasn’t super common then, and I can’t even imagine that even 50 years ago people were living in hot places with no A/C.

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    1. Yes, AZ would also be miserable with no AC! I wonder if it was cooler then? Or the areas were less built up and that made a difference? It just couldn’t have been comfortable.

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  12. I have been to the Jupiter lighthouse! Isn’t Jimmy Buffet from there, or he had a bar there or something? That is actually what I remember about Jupiter more than the lighthouse! I think I also went to a nature reserve somewhere near there that had pumas and stuff. Now that you have gone there, I think there is another one in Saint Augustine that is very cool (and striped!). I know that is a bit far, but you never know, maybe after your race!! 🙂 You could make that your new mission — FL lighthouses! https://www.floridalighthouses.org/

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  13. Yes, St. Augustine is far, and it would still be far to go to after my race! It’s really far north. And, I’m wondering if the “Jimmy Buffet lighthouse” is possibly in Key West? I know there’s a lighthouse there.

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  14. What a cool spot to visit! That path to the beach looks amazing. I could have spent a long time sitting on that beach, watching the water and the boats go by. It looks so peaceful and beautiful!

    I’m land locked so there are no lighthouses around me but I’ve been to some on the north shore of Lake Michigan. I tried to see a lighthouse this week in CA. One of my colleagues said you could run to a lighthouse but I got lost and gave up!

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  15. For some reason, one doesn’t think of lighthouses in Florida (or at least, I am not LOL) but this one is so cool… a red lighthouse surrounded by palm trees. I am glad you took advantage of being in Jupiter with your daughter to go on this little adventure 🙂

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  16. Oh, lighthouses! How fun. There are some on the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan, but I have not been! I’ve been to many on the East coast, though. I will have to remedy my limited exposure to midwestern lighthouses, for sure. And I totally agree on the stairs and the winding and – even worse – the grates. That makes it really dizzying and disconcerting. I’m glad you got up and down safely!

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