Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
A Lighthouse a Day, Apr 25
Today's Lighthouse is Forty Mile Point Lighthouse near Rogers City, MI
Cool picture.
Cool picture.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
A Lighthouse a Day, Apr 23 & 24
Today's Lighthouse is Au Sable Point Lighthouse on Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
A repeat, but a great shot!
A repeat, but a great shot!
A Lighthouse a Day, Apr 22
Today's Lighthouse is Portage River Lighthouse in Jacobsville, MI
Also called the Jacobsville Lighthouse
Also called the Jacobsville Lighthouse
A Lighthouse a Day, Apr 21
Today's Lighthouse is Little Sable Point Lighthouse near Shelby, MI
One of my favorites! Check out the Big Brother
One of my favorites! Check out the Big Brother
A Lighthouse a Day, Apr 20
Today's Lighthouse is St. Simons Island Lighthouse on St. Simons Island, GA
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
A Lighthouse a Day, Apr 16 & 17
Today's Lighthouse is Sapelo Island Lighthouse on Sapelo Island, GA
Again, a repeat but bares quite a resemblance to yesterdays...
Again, a repeat but bares quite a resemblance to yesterdays...
A Lighthouse a Day, Apr 14
Today's Lighthouse is Hooper Strait Lighthouse in St. Michaels, MD
Used to be an open-water screwpile lighthouse but has since been moved onshore to a museum.
Used to be an open-water screwpile lighthouse but has since been moved onshore to a museum.
Six year anniversary
The weekend that we celebrated our six year anniversary we went to see two lighthouses, one replica and one real.
The replica lighthouse that we visited was the Olcott Lighthouse. The original lighthouse was built on the pier in 1873, yet, in 1930 it was no longer needed and was relocated to a yacht club. Unfortunately, the structure started to deteriorate and it was dismantled.
Fortunately, a group called the Olcott Lighthouse Society worked hard to raise enough money to have the replica of the lighthouse built. There were no remaining blueprints or documents left, therefore, old photographs, similar to the one below, were used to re-create the 27-foot tall lighthouse.
While it is just a replica, the Olcott Lighthouse still has a lot of charm and character. In addition to Olcott, there is another replica lighthouse in the area that we still need to visit!
Our day wasn't over, when we got enough photos of Olcott Lighthouse we backtracked to Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse. It was named as such because it is thirty miles away from the mouth of the Niagara River. This lighthouse was built as a coastal light, used to warn seafarers of the shoals and rocks along the coast. Thirty Mile Point was constructed in 1875 and clocks in at 70-feet tall.
You might be able to see the people standing outside the tower. Unfortunately, we never have cash on us and we couldn't pay the fees to climb the lighthouse. We have a trip planned to go back there with family in May (this time we will have money!)
This lighthouse was featured on a stamp in a series initiated by the United States Postal Service that honored five lighthouses of the Great Lakes. The stamp was issued in 1995.
We had a great day visiting Olcott Lighthouse and Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse! There will be more posts about Thirty Mile Point soon (with one featuring Bernie the Lighthouse Dog).
The replica lighthouse that we visited was the Olcott Lighthouse. The original lighthouse was built on the pier in 1873, yet, in 1930 it was no longer needed and was relocated to a yacht club. Unfortunately, the structure started to deteriorate and it was dismantled.
Fortunately, a group called the Olcott Lighthouse Society worked hard to raise enough money to have the replica of the lighthouse built. There were no remaining blueprints or documents left, therefore, old photographs, similar to the one below, were used to re-create the 27-foot tall lighthouse.
While it is just a replica, the Olcott Lighthouse still has a lot of charm and character. In addition to Olcott, there is another replica lighthouse in the area that we still need to visit!
Our day wasn't over, when we got enough photos of Olcott Lighthouse we backtracked to Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse. It was named as such because it is thirty miles away from the mouth of the Niagara River. This lighthouse was built as a coastal light, used to warn seafarers of the shoals and rocks along the coast. Thirty Mile Point was constructed in 1875 and clocks in at 70-feet tall.
You might be able to see the people standing outside the tower. Unfortunately, we never have cash on us and we couldn't pay the fees to climb the lighthouse. We have a trip planned to go back there with family in May (this time we will have money!)
This lighthouse was featured on a stamp in a series initiated by the United States Postal Service that honored five lighthouses of the Great Lakes. The stamp was issued in 1995.
We had a great day visiting Olcott Lighthouse and Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse! There will be more posts about Thirty Mile Point soon (with one featuring Bernie the Lighthouse Dog).
Thursday, April 14, 2011
A bed and breakfast
This post is about another one of our "hometown" lighthouses, which has actually been converted into a bed and breakfast.
After we arrived home from our honeymoon, did our trash the dress photo shoot and returned to work, our lighthouse adventures continued. On a Saturday in September, we headed out to the Braddock Point Lighthouse. Braddock Point is located in the middle of a 100-mile stretch from Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse and Oswego West Pierhead Lighthouse. This 100-mile stretch does not have any lighthouses that have enough height and power to render them a "coast light", even though there are some smaller lighthouses. Therefore, Braddock Point was initially established in order to develop a lighthouse that could have the appropriate characteristics needed to guide vessels on the lake.
We viewed the lighthouse from the Bogus Point Park because, as I previously mentioned, the lighthouse is currently a bed and breakfast therefore the grounds are closed to non-guests. The current lighthouse is 65-feet tall, however, when it was originally constructed it was 110-feet tall. Over time the lighthouse experienced structural damage and the upper portion of the lighthouse needed to be removed, shrinking it to 30-feet tall.
Braddock Point experienced some vandalism during the years that it was deactivated. In 1957 it began its stretch of being a private residence and in 1986 major restoration of the lighthouse began. These renovations would continue for a total of eight years. It was at this point that the 30-foot tall lighthouse would grow to 65-feet tall. In 1996, the lighthouse was activated again and it is currently a working lighthouse.
After we arrived home from our honeymoon, did our trash the dress photo shoot and returned to work, our lighthouse adventures continued. On a Saturday in September, we headed out to the Braddock Point Lighthouse. Braddock Point is located in the middle of a 100-mile stretch from Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse and Oswego West Pierhead Lighthouse. This 100-mile stretch does not have any lighthouses that have enough height and power to render them a "coast light", even though there are some smaller lighthouses. Therefore, Braddock Point was initially established in order to develop a lighthouse that could have the appropriate characteristics needed to guide vessels on the lake.
We viewed the lighthouse from the Bogus Point Park because, as I previously mentioned, the lighthouse is currently a bed and breakfast therefore the grounds are closed to non-guests. The current lighthouse is 65-feet tall, however, when it was originally constructed it was 110-feet tall. Over time the lighthouse experienced structural damage and the upper portion of the lighthouse needed to be removed, shrinking it to 30-feet tall.
Wow, my hair is not that short anymore...
Braddock Point experienced some vandalism during the years that it was deactivated. In 1957 it began its stretch of being a private residence and in 1986 major restoration of the lighthouse began. These renovations would continue for a total of eight years. It was at this point that the 30-foot tall lighthouse would grow to 65-feet tall. In 1996, the lighthouse was activated again and it is currently a working lighthouse.
In 2008, the lighthouse was purchased and converted into a bed and breakfast. We are contemplating staying there for our one year wedding anniversary this summer! It would be an amazing way to get more pictures of the lighthouse and sleeping in the actual keeper's quarters wouldn't be too shabby either. Included in the price of staying there is a guided tour of the lighthouse tower. I'm sure if we do stay there that we will have a blog post about it!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
A Lighthouse a Day, Apr 13
Today's Lighthouse is Tybee Island Lighthouse on Tybee Island, GA
One of my favorites! And yes, it is a repeat, boy am I getting sick of saying that.
One of my favorites! And yes, it is a repeat, boy am I getting sick of saying that.
A Lighthouse a Day, Apr 12
Today's Lighthouse is Cape St. George Lighthouse on St. George Island, FL
A repeat, but LHF has a really interesting story about how it fell over and was rebuilt.
A repeat, but LHF has a really interesting story about how it fell over and was rebuilt.
A Lighthouse a Day, Apr 11
Today's Lighthouse is Hunting Island Lighthouse near Beaufort, SC (not NC like the picture says)
Also is on the calendar in our kitchen for this month!
Also is on the calendar in our kitchen for this month!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Bodie Island (OBX Part 5)
This post will be the final one about our adventure to the Outer Banks as part of our Honeymoon. Although it's the last post, it will actually be about the first Outer Banks lighthouse we visited. The Bodie Island Lighthouse, which despite its spelling is actually pronounced like "body", is the lone light-station on the Outer Banks' Bodie Island. With this picture below I'll give you a lil' more warning than we had when we drove up to the visitor center.
Like I was saying when we entered the grounds of the lighthouse and saw the lighthouse in its "recovery-in-progress" state, although we were amazed by its great stature (at this point the coastal lighthouses of the Outer Banks and rest of the southeast were by far the tallest lighthouses we had seen compared to the smaller New England-type ones we were used to). We were also shocked to see it with all the scaffolding and even the lantern-room all tarped off, as you can see below.
The bottom picture shows the lighthouse with the old keeper's dwelling which now serves as the visitors center and has a great bookstore where we actually picked up our copy of the Lighthouse People's "List of All Existing U.S. Lighthouses." Around the back of the lighthouse the park service had a walk-way and a viewing gazebo built, here are a couple of our shots from there.
As we made our way back to the lighthouse and visitors center we headed inside and looked at all the great exhibits inside and spoke with some of the workers about the restoration project going on. We learned that the restoration began in August 2009 and was estimated to take only about 18 months, so we were happy to hear that soon after our departure the lighthouse would be back to normal.
Turns out that wouldn't be the case, this past February as workers were repairing the spiral staircase, repainting the interior, and updating the stations electrical system (the first-order Fresnel Lens was also sent away for repairs) there were some huge cracks discovered under the lighthouse's balcony. Damages (caused by years of wear-and-tear, as this was the first restoration work ever on the lighthouse since its 1872 opening) this large were not anticipated when funding was set aside, and as it turns out in March the restoration project was indefinitely stalled due to lack of funds and the scaffolding was set to be taken down. So, although the lighthouse may appear to be back to normal it is nowhere near repaired and therefore will not yet be re-opened for climbing. Who knows when the restoration work will start-up again, hopefully soon so this great piece of American Architecture can be restored as soon as possible.
Like I was saying when we entered the grounds of the lighthouse and saw the lighthouse in its "recovery-in-progress" state, although we were amazed by its great stature (at this point the coastal lighthouses of the Outer Banks and rest of the southeast were by far the tallest lighthouses we had seen compared to the smaller New England-type ones we were used to). We were also shocked to see it with all the scaffolding and even the lantern-room all tarped off, as you can see below.
Turns out that wouldn't be the case, this past February as workers were repairing the spiral staircase, repainting the interior, and updating the stations electrical system (the first-order Fresnel Lens was also sent away for repairs) there were some huge cracks discovered under the lighthouse's balcony. Damages (caused by years of wear-and-tear, as this was the first restoration work ever on the lighthouse since its 1872 opening) this large were not anticipated when funding was set aside, and as it turns out in March the restoration project was indefinitely stalled due to lack of funds and the scaffolding was set to be taken down. So, although the lighthouse may appear to be back to normal it is nowhere near repaired and therefore will not yet be re-opened for climbing. Who knows when the restoration work will start-up again, hopefully soon so this great piece of American Architecture can be restored as soon as possible.
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