Excitement All Around

Well.

So much for not having enough to do during the summer. I'm making up for it this week.

Larry says one day last week, "I'm looking at Jeeps online." This is good, because I've wanted a Jeep Wrangler since I was 12, and I told him that if we got a boat I wanted a Wrangler to pull it. He was listening! (We don't have the boat yet. We're doing this in stages.)

On our fourth test drive, we found a used Wrangler with hard and soft tops and acceptable mileage. The dealer met our price, and voila! We own a Jeep.

Today we took said vehicle (we take turns driving but both would happily drive all the time) into Boston. Larry found a Boston Harbor Lighthouse tour, and we both love the harbor and islands so we jumped at the chance. The day was BEAUTIFUL--92 by the afternoon, but when we went it was about 75 and crept up to about 85.

The tour meets at Moakley Courthouse, which is a very cool building; the wall that faces the harbor is all glass. It sets some kind of record, but I can't remember what. Anyway, we boarded and left at 10 a.m. and it took about 45 minutes to get out to Little Brewster Island, which is where the Boston Harbor Light is; it's the only keepered light left in the U.S. (Keepered instead of manned because the keeper is a woman. She's the first appointed female keeper--at least of this light. She may be of all of them; there were other women who took over after husbands died, but the park ranger said he thought she was the first ever appointed to the job.)

We had about 1 1/4 hours on the island, so Larry and I walked around and spoke to some of the rangers on duty. The other two lights, Minot and Graves, are both visible from Little Brewster; they're automated. We can hear their fog beacons at home.

We were able to climb to the top and see the light itself. It was made in the 1850's, and I'm not 100% remembering, but I think it's called a Frenel (Franel?) light. It was amazing. The day was clear so we could see approximately 25 miles out to sea--we could see further if it weren't for the curvature of the earth. All around us were the other islands, and in the distance we could see Boston. She looked like a toy city hovering on the water. If you're ever in Boston, I highly recommend the trip. As soon as I figure out how to make the files small enough, I'll post some pictures.