Esther and I did a bit of lighthousing this past weekend (8-18 & 8-19) in CT & RI. We didn't get to see any new lighthouses but we did get to tour one we had only seen from shore and a boat- New London Ledge.

We were planning on taking the boat ride and tour of New London Ledge and my brother and sister-in-law were to go along as well.

We would not meet up with them until 3 PM so we had some time to fill so we decided to do a bit of revisiting of lighthouses.

We took a ride to Stonington and walked around outside the lighthouse there- although we skipped going inside. We did get a very distant view of Watch Hill- which prompted Esther to want to go to the town of Watch Hill to walk around. We also saw Latimer's Reef from Stonington as well. It's a bit closer so it may actually show up in the photos.

Here are some photos from that stop-

Stonington Lighthouse



Latimer's Reef LH from Stonington Beach



Watch Hill, RI from Stonington Beach



Esther decided after "seeing" Watch hill LH she wanted to go walk around Watch hill, RI so we drove over there and rode around the town 4 times bedore we got lucky enough to have somebody leave a free parking space on the road (lots cost $20 to park in).

She walked around the shops for a bit and I walked down to the lighthouse while she did that.

It looks like it is being painted- and possibly some other restoration work. There were several trucks there and some ladders up against the buildings. The paint looked brand new as well.

Watch Hill, RI Lighthouse






I met Esther back in the shopping district and we left to meet with the in-laws for the New London Ledge Tour.

Dennis

We met up with my brother and sister-in-law and waited around to sign in for the tour. The people were a bit busy with a birthday party.

We got onto the boat and took a ride by Avery Point as we cruised into the mouth of the Thames River. It looks so much better than it did just a few years ago.



We then cruised on by the New london Harbor LH as well.



Unfortunately my mind was not working well on that Saturday, apparently. Here is the only photo I have of New London Ledge from the tour. I was on the wrong side of the boat coming into the LH and when we left it they made us stay in our seats because the water was a bit choppy.




I know I took a number of photos while on the lighthouse mostly of the 6 lights you can see from New london Ledge but the only ones on my camera were shots of New London Harbor and Avery point.

I had some very distant shots of Race Rock, North Dumpling, Little Gull and Latimer's Reef but they disapeared from my camera.

The tour of New London Ledge itself lasts about 1 1/2 hours. you get to go on all 4 levels of the LH from the basement to the Lantern room and even outside the Lantern room. The guides are very knowledgeable about the lighthouse and the area around it as well.

The weather was just perfect- low 70's and very few clouds. I had my binoculars and got very good looks at all of the surrounding lighthouses. We've seen all of them up close via boat tours out of Greenport, NY (with the LI Lighthouse Chapter) or New London, CT (with the Sunbeam Fleet) which are both trips that are well worth it.

We were going to try and find the commemerative bricks that I had purchased for my Mother and Father -In-Law but nature called and there were no open buildings on the college campus after the trip so we decided to return the next day for that adventure.

Dennis

We got up the next day (Sunday 8-19) and Esther decided to do some Coldwater Creek shopping after breakfast. I opted out of that and waited for my brother and sister-in-law to get moving and had them pick me up at the motel I was at.

We met Esther back at the Avery Point Campus of the University of Connecticut where Avery point LH is located.

Esther had gotten there first and had found my Father-In-Laws brick.




We decided to start at both ends of the rest of the bricks and within a minute i had found my mother-in-Laws brick.



I saw a number of bricks from various members of HLCF and other organizations. i did see 3 bricks paid for by the HLCF. they were all in the same section.

I did not find the one we purchased for Bill O'Brien, though. I probably walked right by it. It was very difficult to read many of the bricks already.

You can see the difference in the color between the two bricks I posted photos of. There were some darker and some even lighter than those.

Here's a photo of Avery Point LH and part of the brick walkway- follow the red brick road.



Here's a photo of showing from left to right my brother-in-law Mike Boldizar, me and his wife Mary. Does he look familiar to you Ron Foster (he works at EB)? It has always struck me as somewhat strange that someone who grew up in North Jersey in the 60's was always a Philadelphia sports fan.



Here's a photo of New london Ledge we took on sunday-



It was a fun weekend spending time with relatives and lighthouses- we even went to the Hamburg Fair.

Dennis

Well, Dennis, isn't New London Ledge supposed to be haunted? Maybe you caught the ghost and he (she) did the images in?

Thanks for sharing. Looks like you and Esther had a nice, pretty weekend to go lighthousing.

I knew somebody was going to say that as soon as I wrote it.

The weather was just perfect- low 70's sunny with a few clouds and a bit of a breeze. My kind of weather.

Dennis

Nice pics Dennis !!!

Great narrative as well !!!

Are you standing above a significant brick in the pic of you with your brother-in-law & sister-in-law? Or was it just a good spot for a pic of the three of you?

I actually had my left foot on my Mother-in-Law's brick- completely unintentional. Mary pointed it out to me after the photo was taken.

Dennis