On Our Way to the Top of the Lighthouse

“Alright, you go on up, I’m going to wait right here,” my then 17-year old sister Obadiah declared after we’d made our way to the grounds of the Key West Lighthouse and Keepers Quarters Museum.

She and my then 21-year old sister Onierita and I decided to drive down from Weston, a small resort town west of Ft. Lauderdale. I had been in South Florida maybe a little over a year when my sisters and I decided to plan this day trip.

Only a few hours away, we knew we had to try the conch fritters, and bring home key lime pie as well as hit the Pirates Museum, Mallory Square, and ride a trolley to the historic Key West Lighthouse. We talked about the itinerary beforehand and that’s why it came as such a huge surprise when Obadiah protested taking the journey to the top.

“What,” Onie and I questioned in unison.
“I’m going to wait right here,” Obadiah smiled up at us defiantly.
“Oh no,” I said, “You’re going with us!”
“Yep,” added Onie, “you have no choice.”

Obadiah reluctantly headed towards the stairway and the three of us climbed the eighty-eight steps of the narrow spiral staircase to the deck of the lighthouse. Once there, the three of us enjoyed the view of the ocean and the island below. We basked in the moment of accomplishing a feat of a new adventure. Together, my sisters and I stood on top of the world.

A few years later, after my job relocated me to Hilton Head, South Carolina, Obadiah and I and our then 7-year old niece Kelacia stood at the base of another tall and lingering structure, this one a 90-foot red and white striped tower in Sea Pines Harbour Town on Hilton Head. Both Obadiah and I were eager to conquer the 110 step stairway of this lighthouse. My seven-year old niece raced ahead of us and beat us to the top. Although this was her first lighthouse visit, Kelacia had no fear of going where she had never gone before.

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