Thursday, July 1, 2010

South Florida Lighthouses

Hello CrAzY Week! Ummmm…where do I begin??? The last three days have to be the most action packed days of my reign. There was never a dull moment and barely time to breathe.


I started my week at 7am shooting stand-ups for Tel Air at the Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa. From there it was off to Pompano Beach to visit the Hilsboro Light (stop 11 of the 30 Florida Lighthouses). Grant, Dad and I met up with several people including Hib Casselberry, a lighthouse enthusiast. Hib is 88 years old and believe it or not he climbed to the top of the Light! He is a very interesting guy. Apparently, his parents founded the city of Casselberry in the Orlando area…pretty cool.

Another fun fact….Grant is scared of heights! He was so cute. Grant almost made it to the top when he looked at me and said, “You can video tape right??? I do not do heights!” I had no clue! I told him no problem as my dad was the King of home videos growing up. Sure enough Dad took over video duties. I would not be surprised if he used the entire video memory as my dad never stopped ‘rolling’….


Our next and final appearance for the day was an hour away at the southern tip of Key Biscayne, Fl. There we met Art Levy who gave us a guided tour of Cape Florida Light. All these lighthouses have fascinating history, but Cape Florida really caught my attention. In 1836, Cape Florida was under attack by the Seminole Indians. The lighthouse keeper, John W Thompson, ended up surviving the attack and wrote his account in a diary which was later published as part of book titled Captured By The Indians. John survived being trapped in the burning lighthouse, his friend dead by his side, and 3 rifle balls in each foot. If not for the U.S. NAVY, he would have died a miserable death. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we had a long drive to the west coast. We said goodbye to Art, but before we even left the ranger station there was a ‘situation’.

Apparently, there have been random break-ins for the last several months and another one had occurred while we were there. As we waited, we listened to the two-way radio as rangers chased down a white BMW. Once the situation was under control, Dad and I headed to Sanibel Island. The next day Art informed us that the criminals were caught and the stolen items were returned! Great Job guys!

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