About four times a year the Seahorse Key Lighthouse is open to visitors. The lighthouse is free to visit but getting there can be tricky. It is accessed by private boat or you can purchase a ticket for a ferry service to shuttle you over there. Once I found this information out, I had to make my plan to get over there as soon as I could.
When I decided to see all of the lighthouses in Florida I asked Quin if this was an adventure he wanted to take with me. Since he loves the ocean and any beach town, he said he was in. He has a marina in Upstate New York that is open from May until October so I knew that the July & October dates were automatically out. We already had plans in November so I waited for the dates to open the following year and then planned our trip to Cedar Key in March.
We love Cedar Key so any reason for us to go is a good reason. We booked a room for the night and headed over after work, making sure we made it in time for a beautiful sunset. You can see some pretty great ones there.
We got up earlyish and made our way to the tour desk to sign up for the first shuttle available. We wandered around town until it was time to get on the boat. Even if we were not going to see a new lighthouse my day would have still been wonderful because we were on the water in Cedar Key. It was even better because we were on our way to see the lighthouse. When we arrived I was elated. We made our way to the entrance & was stopped abruptly by a rope and a sign on the stairs telling us we were not able to climb up. We were baffled by this. We contemplated removing the rope and going anyway but we decided against it. I wanted to go up there but I wanted to experience everything else even more.
We explored the rest of the quarters and then headed out back to see what was new to discover there. We found a very interesting shoreline to walk with lots of goodies to see. There were so many different sizes of horseshoe crab exoskeletons washed up on shore so we started making a nice collection. The beautiful scenery & gorgeous day quickly wiped away my disappointment about not going to the top of the lighthouse & completely filled me with joy.
One the way back to Cedar Key we passed by an island of White Pelicans and even had a few dolphins usher us in. Overall it was the perfect way to spend a day.
Check out the upcoming tours dates here: https://cedarkey.org/event/2024-seahorse-key-lighthouse-open-houses/