The Lighthouse
Sep. 8th, 2011 02:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eregyrnSo, a couple of weeks ago, I went again to visit my Mom down on the Jersey Shore; because this summer she had her 80th birthday, and to celebrate it, my brother rented a house a block from her so that his entire family (grown children and spouses) could converge, since Mom's place doesn't have the room (and has a cat, to whom my nephew's wife is deathly allergic). I went down for part of the week to visit with the entire family, and as is my wont, took some pictures.
One of the things I decided to do was go up and visit the Barneget Lighthouse, which is one of the... well, probably the ONLY attraction of any significance on LBI (as we do not have a boardwalk or casinos or other familiar hallmarks of other shore resorts). My relationship with the lighthouse stretches back many many years, to when I was very small. To climb it by yourself for the first time was a milestone. To bike to it for the first time (10+ miles there and back from where our house is) was another. To bike to it alone, yet another. And like other landmarks in places with which one is very familiar, after a while, you take for granted that it's there, and you don't go. So every few years, I like to go back.
This time, I also decided to climb it, which is something I haven't done in so long that I can't remember when I last did. Mom had gone with me for the ride and the short walk, but didn't mind my leaving her to sit at the bottom for a short bit. (Well; she thought it was insane that I wanted to go up, and wouldn't I rather just walk out along the jetty? But no.) Built in 1857, it is the 4th tallest lighthouse on the east coast, and the tallest of the NJ lighthouses. It has 217 steps to the top. (After my experience last summer with Yosemite's Vernal Falls trail's 600+ steps, I was hardly deterred.)
It has to be said, it was the perfect day to do it. The preceding days had been kind of humid and hazy, but we'd gotten rain moving through the night before, and this day was still warm but nice and crisp.
Views of the rest of LBI stretching south, and of the narrow inlet between the island and the northern long skinny peninsula of Island Beach.
A rough panorama of same:
Alas, the first-order Fresnel lens it contained is no longer inside (it's in a nearby museum). But apparently (and I didn't even quite realize this), since 2009 it has had a working beacon that runs from dusk till dawn. I will have to make a point to try to see it, even if it's probably not as impressive as seeing the original lens would be. But here is a picture of its beacon, and now that I know that it works, the way the beacon is blocked off from the tourists at the top makes more sense.
The steps down:
The top and its observation deck, from the ground:
The standard postcard view:
So, that was fun. And will hold me for the next few years. Though now I have as a goal to try to see the light itself.
Next: pretty sunsets; gulls and sandpipers.
One of the things I decided to do was go up and visit the Barneget Lighthouse, which is one of the... well, probably the ONLY attraction of any significance on LBI (as we do not have a boardwalk or casinos or other familiar hallmarks of other shore resorts). My relationship with the lighthouse stretches back many many years, to when I was very small. To climb it by yourself for the first time was a milestone. To bike to it for the first time (10+ miles there and back from where our house is) was another. To bike to it alone, yet another. And like other landmarks in places with which one is very familiar, after a while, you take for granted that it's there, and you don't go. So every few years, I like to go back.
This time, I also decided to climb it, which is something I haven't done in so long that I can't remember when I last did. Mom had gone with me for the ride and the short walk, but didn't mind my leaving her to sit at the bottom for a short bit. (Well; she thought it was insane that I wanted to go up, and wouldn't I rather just walk out along the jetty? But no.) Built in 1857, it is the 4th tallest lighthouse on the east coast, and the tallest of the NJ lighthouses. It has 217 steps to the top. (After my experience last summer with Yosemite's Vernal Falls trail's 600+ steps, I was hardly deterred.)
It has to be said, it was the perfect day to do it. The preceding days had been kind of humid and hazy, but we'd gotten rain moving through the night before, and this day was still warm but nice and crisp.
Views of the rest of LBI stretching south, and of the narrow inlet between the island and the northern long skinny peninsula of Island Beach.
A rough panorama of same:
Alas, the first-order Fresnel lens it contained is no longer inside (it's in a nearby museum). But apparently (and I didn't even quite realize this), since 2009 it has had a working beacon that runs from dusk till dawn. I will have to make a point to try to see it, even if it's probably not as impressive as seeing the original lens would be. But here is a picture of its beacon, and now that I know that it works, the way the beacon is blocked off from the tourists at the top makes more sense.
The steps down:
The top and its observation deck, from the ground:
The standard postcard view:
So, that was fun. And will hold me for the next few years. Though now I have as a goal to try to see the light itself.
Next: pretty sunsets; gulls and sandpipers.
