"I wanna go up in the square one!"

"We can't. It's not open."

I took them to the Twin Lights¹ in the Highlands today on their day-off school. More pictures at flickr.

The Navesink is not close, but it's the closest.

The lighthouse climb is manageable. We went up twice and no one was scared coming down. Barnegat is much taller and would have been impossible with the kids.

We checked out the power house which featured a replica of an electric producing dynamo and a huge, rotating lens.

The small museum is suited to their short attention span.

On display are artifacts from the 19th century seamen's life-saving era, including a Francis Life Car which looks like a miniature submarine. The technique was to blast an iron projectile with a line attached towards a ship in peril at sea. Along the line, the life car traveled from shore to ship, back and forth, removing as many as three people at a time, riding inside the car, to safety. One dramatic painting depicts a rescue amid raging seas and I told Kenny that shipwrecks rarely occur in fair weather. Rough seas could almost always be counted upon to make the rescue more harrowing.

Lower Manhattan ought to have been visible but, without the Twin Towers, I can't distinguish it from Brooklyn and Staten Island with the naked eye. I was able to see Sandy Hook's lighthouse²; its white brick stood out against the surrounding green pines.

Unlike sailors on the sea, I navigate by churches: Holy Family, OLPH, Holy Cross, St. James, Lincroft Bible Church, CNRC. It's as easy to do in NJ as it is in FL!

I always make the mistake of taking the Parkway to exit 117 and driving ten miles through ugly Middletown when I should go through beautiful Rumson instead. Now, the Parkway is beautiful especially in mid-day traffic. I had forgotten how beautiful it is, not driving it every day anymore. But 36 South through Keyport and the Leonardo section is depressing Jersey sprawl with a pizza joint in every mean, little plaza.

Going home, I made the right choice to continue down 36 South and pickup 520 in Sea Bright through Rumson, Little Silver and Red Bank / Shrewsbury to Lincroft, Colts Neck, Freehold, Manalapan and home. I missed my turn in Little Silver and saw more of Red Bank than I had planned but quickly doubled back.

Then in Lincroft, I opted to drive past CBA ... a mother can dream, can't she? ... but 520 West was closed ... so I had to double around again. I was close to the Holmdel building and was tempted to get back on the Parkway at exit 114 which seemed to put me nearly where I started 30 minutes earlier! But I resisted that temptation as well as the urge to drive through the old Lincroft building, now Avaya. And we hopped onto Phalanx, finally, in Lincroft to 34, 537, 33 and found our way home at long last.

I don't need to tell you that the lighthouse is a Christian symbol, do I? I mean, a symbol of Christ, the light of the world.

¹ See also: Twin Lights Lighthouse -- Wiki
² See also: Sandy Hook Lighthouse -- Wiki