I've added some pictures.
MAY 17- We went back over to Battery Point, but as expected it was not open. We were able to walk over to the island and take a look around the outside of the LH. We met a family from St Louis that had been to LH all up down the East Coast from Maine to Florida.
Talked shortly with the "keeper". He was doing some outside maintainence. We left there and drove out by the airport to try and get a glinpse of St George's Reef. It was visible barely with the eye and not much better with the binoculars. You could see with the binoculars that it had no lantern room. I could not find the area where it is being stored.
We left and proceeded on our way to Oregon. We stopped in to the visitors Center in Port Orford which is about 5 mi from Cape Blanco. I wanted to check on my route for later in the day. It's a good thing I did- I found out that the road I was going to try and use was a logging road and not very well marked and has lots of big slow trucks on it. Saw an interesting sign there- San Diego 1000 miles. We had driven 2100 miles at this point o get 1000 miles from where we started.
We went on up to Cape Blanco. It's about 5 miles off 101. It is closed on Tuesdays. You can't even walk up close to it when it is closed. The view from the area was spectacular. You can sit an look out over the cliffs to the ocean below in the parking area. At least it was a pretty place to eat lunch.
We continued on north and reached our last destination in the north- Coquille (Bandon River) LH. It also is about 5-6 miles off 101- at least how you drive to get there. It probably is only about 1/2 to 1 mile away from the highway.We had a nice chat with the docent at the bottom of the tower while waiting for the chance to go up to the lantern room We talked about what we had been doing and compared hobbies. After we spoke she said that I had talked her into starting with Harbour Lights. She said she was going to blame me when her husband complained about it.
We went on up the tower and got a nice talk from Marvin. He gave us the history of Bandon and the LH. It seems that a museum up the coast has two 4th order lenses, and no one knows where the lens from Coquille is. It got lost sometime in the past. It is suspected that the extra one up north is theirs.
We left there and made our way to our destination for the night- Redding CA. We had the same problem again this day- our distances were as I expected them, but the driving times were not. The only thing that saved us was that a large part of the drive from there was on interstates. We drove right between Mt Shasta (14,000 ft and snow covered) and Mt Eddie. Mt Lassen was off to the side. Incredible vistas. We got up to about 7500 ft during this drive.
MAY 18- No LH's on the trip today, but also hundreds of them. We were driving back to the San Francisco area to spend some time touring with our son Douglas. I decided to drive into the city and stop into the offices of the United State Lighthouse Society. We had a little difficulty finding it, but we found it. we went on up and had a nice talk with Dave about their resources. They have file on literally thousands of LH's from all around the US and the entire world. they have logs, pictures, memorabilia, etc.
They also are a HL dealer ( which I only found out after we got back- but I did notice all the different editions they had. not only HL, but others as well). We had incredible luck- while we were there Wayne Wheller came back into the office. We had a very nice chat with him about LH's (there's a surprise). He is a very personable, knowledgeable, interesting and opinionated individual. I reccomend stoping into these offices if you have the time when you are in San Francisco. You could spend two weeks here and not make a dent in the information they have available.
We left there and we went to meet with Douglas and to give Esther her other big "surprise" for Mother's Day/Birthday. Well, it would have been a surprise if I had not spilled the beans a week earlier. I had kept the secret for over four months, but I blew it in a second. Douglas and I, along with my daughter Beth, had come up with the idea to have Beth fly out to San Francisco for the weekend to surprise Esther.All was going well with the plan until a week earlier when Esther and I were driving to Pigeon Point and talkining about what we were going to do with Douglas when we got back to SF. I was talking, driving and thinking. I said out loud what I meant to think in my head and said something like "I'm not sure which LH would be better with Beth along". I could not clean it up fast enough- the cat was out of the bag. Esther was pleased with the idea and did her best to be surprised when we saw Beth .
We had dinner that evening with a nephew of mine that lives in San Francisco.
MAY 19- The time had arrived to get another triple header- combine my Vacation with my Vocation and my Avocation. We were going to Alcatraz. I'm a Prison Guard. I've been one for over 26 yrs. I work in a tower overlooking the recreation yard in the maximum security prison in Trenton, NJ. My brother-in-law says that is why I'm a LH nut -cause I've already spent so much time in towers.
Anyway, we took the boat over and did the audio tour of the cellblock area. I gave my family a little extra information as the old part of Trento State Prison has a cellblock just like Alcatraz's. Took a look at the hospital, mess hall, recreation yard and the cells. We went outside and got a close view of the LH. You can't get into it.
Well, I tried. I found a ranger and asked. He said that the only way was to find the right ranger and beg nicely. Unfortunately, he was off that day. I had to be satisfied with the exterior view. The LH is not the original one, The original one was the first one built on the West Coast and it used the same plan as the one used later in 6 other places- Old Point Loma, Santa Barbara, Pt. Pinos, Battery Point, Humboldt Harbor and one other whose name escape me right now( still can't remember).
We walked around a while and took the boat back over. We then took the grand tour of San Francisco. We got to just about every part of the city- Knob Hill, Presidio, GG Park, Union Square, Haight Asbury, Twin Peaks, etc. Douglas took us into the Control Room for the Levis store which he helped put together. He works for a Systems Integration company in San Mateo. We finished the day having dinner in a LH.
We went over to Oakland to Quinns Restaurant. It started life as the Oakland Harbor Entrance LH. Nicely kept and the food is good also.
MAY 20- We decided to return to Santa Cruz. Our daughter Beth is a surfing fan so we thought she might enjoy it. We also figured maybe we could find a beach where she could put her feet into the Pacific so she could say she had done it. We manged that, but I was disapointed.
I figured I could get to tour Pigeon Point on the way to Santa Cruz since it was Saturday. I was outvoted. We stopped for a few minutes, but I was unable to tour it.
After the surfers and the beach we went back north and went over the GG Bridge so Beth could see some Redwoods. We went to Muir Woods which is a small forest of Redwoods just over the bridge and relatively close to Pt. Reyes. And that ended the adventure.
We flew back to Newark the next morning. I was an uneventful flight back, but there was one similarity in the movie- it was "Snow Day". No LH in it , but the snow theme was a repeat of the movie on the way out ("Snow Fallin On Cedars"- which drove me crazy until I rented the DVD. I had to know which LH they used in the movie. It looked like Portland Head, but all the info on the DVD talked about filming in the Northwest only. I went to the Universal site and the forums there ,that are set up like these are, and searched until I found the answer- way back in the beginning of the forum there was a post telling how thw LH was from Maine, but nobody knew (or seemed to care) which one. I guess it takes all kinds)
We had made it to 23 1/2 LH's and to 4 faux LH's. All in all it was a successful adventure and a good time was had by all. We got to see relatives, LH's and other interesting things. Did not get to all the places we all wanted to get to, but got to most of the important ones. I'm waiting now for my pictures to return and when they do I'm going to attempt to post some. Dennis
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