Migratory path of two Denver Snow Birds Part 5 (A 2023 travelogue of Denise & Gary Flanders)
It has never been too old or mundane to hike a block to the beach to watch the sun sneak up on a new day. A few minutes before sunrise can be ‘Boyhowdy’ colorful. ‘Mornin’ Gertrude and Hecliff. On the morning of January 18 not only did we have a gorgeous sunrise, we,also had another rocket launch. Today’s blast was another Space X rocket of a GPS satellite. At a mere $52 million it did put on a cool show. To complete our January 18th ‘hat trick’, while taking a shot of a shorebird, Denise looked up and out in the ocean we saw a Right Whale. An extremely rare sight in this part of Florida. [National Geographic photo] “Right whales are the rarest of all large whales. There are several species, but all are identified by enormous heads, which can measure up to one-third of their total body length. These whales’ massive heads and jaws accommodate hundreds of baleen “teeth.” Rights and other baleen-feeding whales use a comblike strainer of baleen plates and bristles to ensnare tiny morsels of food as they swim. Right whales feed on zooplankton and other tiny organisms using baleens up to 8 feet long.” They are called ‘Right Whales’ because Whalers considered them the right whale to hunt. Almost hunted to extinction Rights have had complete international protection since 1949, they are currently the rarest of all large whales. We needed a mighty tall adventure to top a ‘hat trick’, so we headed to Ponce Inlet to experience the tallest lighthouse in Florida which is also the second tallest one in the US. Ponce De Leon was a Spanish explorer and Conquistador who in 1504 lead an expedition and mapped the Atlantic Ocean along the Florida coast from Key West all the way north to the peninsula. The Inlet is named after him. The Ponce Inlet Lighthouse was begun in 1884 and took three years to complete. It contains one million two hundred and fifty thousand bricks. The walls are eight feet thick at the bottom and two feet thick at the top. It rises 175 feet with 203 steps from bottom to top. The ‘lamp’ was lit on November 1, 1887 ushering in the days of the blue uniformed keepers (the original Blue Man Group?)You are definitely ‘huffing & puffing’ by the time you are at the top. That guy seems to be hugging the wall up there on the top. The views from the top. In the Ayres Davies Lens Exhibit Building they have one of the first Fresnel lenses used as the light beacon. A chilling exhibit on the grounds, one very few take the time to see, are actual ‘vessels’ that were used by refugees crossing the open ocean the 90 miles from Cuba to Florida. Thirty and forty individuals clung to these ‘boats’ to arrive on the Florida shores. The Ponce Inlet Lighthouse.
deliriouslove1970. The life & times of Gary and Denise Flanders. (Free and worth every penny. If you would like to compliment the editor, send to garytheflan@deliriouslove1970.com. If you would like to complain, call your mother.) 
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