Shirin,

The photo came out, but not very well. I have to get a new camera. The one I have is tempermental and works only when it feels like it.

The NELL event was great fun. I got to meet some new people (like Arthur & Margaret Minor who we spent the day with, Terry Webb who has a delightful new Lighthouse book available, Tom & Arline Pregman, Margarite & Nellie and others who I'm forgetting I'm sure)and also some people I've
only known online (like Bert Mtn Hrkr, Jeremy D'Tremont, Doug Bingham, Frank & Carolyn Carbone )and some people I've met before (like Shirin, Greg (Sea Girt), Ron & Mary Jane Foster.

We started out the night before by meeting up with 19 others for dinner at the Steak loft that Ron Foster reccomended. We didn't get to speak to everybody, but we spent a good bit of the evening with Tom & Arline Pregman and Frank & Carolyn Carbone. I had corresponded with them, but never met them. Great people. We also got to speak to Ron & Mary Jane Foster.

We also got a chance to speak with Jeremy D'etremont without whom our visit to Morgan Point would not have happened. Thanks very much Jeremy.

We met some others, but I'm not sure of the names at this point (I'm terrible at names).The majority of those at the dinner all spent the night at the Comfort Inn so we saw many of the same people at breakfast- where I apparently made some people cold just by looking at me in my shorts- I tend to dress very casually.

We got on the road and met up to pair off and fill up as many vehicles as possible to make the parking situation better since there were 86 people in this "little" group. We got to say hello to Kim Andrews here before we set out for Watch Hill.

We spent the day driving around with a very nice couple- Arthur & Margaret from CT. It's always nice to meet new people who like the same things as you- Lighthouses.

We got to Watch Hill and braved the wind (25-30 miles and hour) and the cold (low 20's at that point). We got a very nice reception from the representative of the Watch hill Organization and the Coast Guard who graciously had arranged for us to actually climb the Lighthouse- which is almost never done.

Here's a couple of pictures from Watch Hill-

Here's the Lighthouse-




Here's one from the Lantern Room giving you an idea of the wind-




We spent about 1 1/2 to 2 hours at each site.

We moved on to Stonington and the weather improved a bit- not as much wind, but it was still very cold. The Stonington museum Association graciously opened the Lighthouse and Museum for us. They had several people there to assist and answer any questions we might have had.

I got to talk to Doug Bingham here. He's one of those people I had conversed with on the Net, but never met before.

I also got to talk to Shirin here for a few minutes and got a picture for proof to Dave that she was wearing her Wacko Badge. My camera did not want to cooperate very much thogh. Caution it is not your eyes that have the problem, it's the picture (this is the best one)

Shirin With Wacko Badges-



You can see into the tower from the second floor of the Museum. Here we have Tom Pregman of NELL posing pretty in the window-



Here's a picture of the protective case that was purchased with the donation from NELL for the Fresnel Lens at Stonington-




You can get a better view of Latimer Reef Lighthouse from Stonington (it can be seen from Watch Hill also). Here's a shot I took of it at Stonington.




We left Stonington and stopped for lunch on our way to Morgan Point. I didn't take any pictures there.


I'm breaking this into two parts because I went over the photo limit.

Dennis