After all of the morning errands had been completed and we'd enjoyed a typical Grandma Rising lunch (the best sandwiches ever), mom and I decided to head to the beach. Robert Moses State Park is across the bay, only a short drive from Grandma's house. It's a barrier island, protecting Long Island's southern shore from the full brunt of the Atlantic Ocean. It's also home to the Fire Island lighthouse.
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| Fire Island lighthouse |
We parked in Field 5 and opted for the boardwalk, not wanting to fill our shoes with sand. We headed north, stopping at the new
Fresnel Lens museum. Then it was onto the lighthouse, where we decided to do the self-guided tour up 191 stairs to the top. Up and up the spiral staircase went, getting narrower as we neared the top. The last 20 stairs were more like ladders. Once outside we had a 360-degree view of the beach, ocean and surrounding islands.
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| 1st Order Fresnel Lens |
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| 191 stairs to the top! |
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| Going down... |
The sun that had been out earlier disappeared behind a bank of clouds and the wind was whipping, so we made our retreat back down to sea level. On our way down, another visitor was counting the stairs on their way up and we overheard them above us as they reached the 103rd step - the step that my Grandma & Grandpa Rising sponsored when they refurbished the lighthouse many years ago.
We took the boardwalk back toward the parking lot, but couldn't resist a tromp in the sand to search for that ever elusive piece of blue sea glass. A pretty shell and some worthy beach stones were all we found before turning around and heading back to the car... a little salty, sandy and windblown.
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| Beach Babes |
