New floors

So I had some new flooring installed in Jan.  Here are some pics for you:

Dining room old:

Dining room new:

Living room old:

 

 

Living Room new:

Bedroom old:

Bedroom new:

So I have to say, I'm still getting used to how dark it is.  But I like it.  It feels like A LOT more maintenance.  And it's definitely noisier than carpet.  If there is one tiny speck of anything white on the floor, it feels like it's visible from the space station.  For the first few weeks, I was literally sweeping like every 10 min.  I finally had to make a rule that I sweep ONCE a day, no matter what is on the floor!  But it's fairly easy to dry dust and mop.  I just seem to be doing it a lot more often...

Lighthouses

So if you know me, you probably know that I kind of like lighthouses.  I'm not like totally obsessed with them or anything but if I'm in an area where a lighthouse is near I would def go out of my way to see it.  Two weeks ago, I went to the Cape Florida Light in Miami.  I went up top, it was really cool.  As much as I love going to the top of a lighthouse, I am totally freaked out because of my fear of heights.  But the view is amazing.  And I'm not going to let a little thing like vertigo get in my way.

Last year when I took the kids to Maine I got to see 4 different lighthouses.  Pemaquid, Fort Point Light, Owls Head Light and Marshall Point Light.  Now Pemaquid is a staple of visiting Maine and I've been there quite a few times and have at least 50 pictures of it.  But I always have to take more pictures of it every time I'm there!  But the other 3, we kind of went to coincidentally.  We have these Maine passports and you go to all the state parks and get a stamp in your passport.  So last trip, me and the kids made it a point to get 3 new stamps in our passports.  So when I explained to Joe's mom that we wanted three passport stamps she literally turned into our tour guide through basically all of Midcoast Maine.  She would say "Well, if we go to this park, then this park is just a few miles away."  And we ended up getting 7 stamps from 7 Maine state parks!  Some she had never even been to herself.  It was really fun.  So, three of the lighthouses we saw just happened to be at some of the state parks.  And funny enough, I kept running into people doing some kind of lighthouse "race" where they had a passport that they had to get stamped from certain lighthouses in like one weekend, or something like that.

Last year when I went to Key West, I ended up seeing 3 lighthouses.  Key West Light, Loggerhead Key Light and Garden Key Light.  Some lighthouses are kind of hard to get to.  Like you can only take a boat to get there or they're not open and doing tours all the time.  The Key West Light is actually "retired" and was moved from it's original location.  But they still do tours.  The Garden Key Light is part of Fort Jefferson and is about a 2 hour boat ride off the coast of Key West in the Dry Tortugas.  The Loggerhead Key Light is only accessible by private boat.  It can be seen from Garden Key, but is about 3 miles off shore.  Literally in the middle of the ocean with NOTHING around!

I've been to other lighthouses as well but can't really remember their names.  I know one was in SC (I think it may have been Hunting Island Light).

After I went to the Cape Florida Light a few weeks ago I have been fired up about seeing as many Florida lighthouses as I can.  There are only about 30.  As I go to each one I will take pictures and document them here.  If I'm coming to visit you, and there is a lighthouse nearby, don't be surprised if I ask to visit it!