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Fire Island Lighthouse

Originally uploaded by etacar11

Yes, the weather held up for us. We had only three stops left on the second day and we finished easily.

The seventh stop of the challenge was Old Field Point Lighthouse. Apparently they used to bus people to this stop. This year we drove right to it. Through a quite lovely neighborhood that my mom went ga-ga over. She had decided that the Hamptons were too snobby, too remote, and too lacking in fast-food restaurants. Old Field, with its lovely yards and gardens and beautiful homes, I think she could take. Old Field Point was climbable, even for my parents, and had a nice view of Long Island Sound.

Huntington Harbor Lighthouse was the eighth stop and we actually reached it by boat. It rests on a caisson and has its own dock. So we were able to explore this lighthouse, unlike the other off-shore ones. We all brought our coats with us but the weather was still being mild and we hardly needed them. The people working on preserving the lighthouse had many interesting stories to tell about its history. There was a picture of someone (a keeper’s family member) with a cat at the lighthouse. I’ll bet that cat moved there under extreme duress.

The ninth and final stop of the challenge was Fire Island Lighthouse.  This lighthouse is part of Fire Island National Seashore and reachable from Robert Moses State Park.  I had actually been to the state park before to go to the beach but had realized you could visit the lighthouse from there.  Fire Island was the tallest of the lighthouses on the challenge, I think.  I climbed it, my parents sat it out.  It had already been a bit of a hike from the state park parking lot.  And the climb was a little on the tough side.  I took breaks on the landings and looking up it seemed like I would never reach the top.  But I did, finally, and the view was tremendous.

The rain started as we left the parking lot for our trip home.  Perfect timing!  The drive home wasn’t much fun, but all-in-all, it was a fun trip.  Now my mom is excited to try the Maryland and New Jersey challenges.  We’ll see!

Montauk Point Lighthouse
Originally uploaded by etacar11

My parents and I are doing the Long Island Lighthouse Challenge this weekend. The drive up from Maryland was the worst. First, it rained ALL DAY. And the timing made us hit NYC at rush hour. NYC + Friday + rush hour + rain = a very horrific time. Plus my mom’s allergies were acting up. I felt so bad for her. We finally made it to our hotel near MacArthur Airport several hours after we expected to. And we got lost trying to find it. GPS isn’t always your friend!

But today made up for it, for the most part. Sunny and mostly clear all day. Lovely. Our first stop on the Challenge was the farthest out, Montauk Point Lighthouse. A bit pricey, you have to pay to park, plus to get into the lighthouse. But the view was nice and it was not a bad climb to the top.

The second stop was Cedar Island Lighthouse. It was out on a long, thin strip of sand that would have taken a long time to walk out on. So we just viewed it from a far. Maybe some other time, because it looked like a great walk.

Two ferries got us to the third stop, East End Seaport Museum in Greenport, NY. Ok, not a lighthouse but it’s part of the challenge. They have a lot of nice lighthouse memorabilia.

The fourth stop was Long Beach Bar Lighthouse, also viewed from afar. There was a man from the East End museum at the viewing spot who gave us a nice little history of the lighthouse. Apparently you used to be able to walk to it via a sand bar, but due to various reasons (including rising sea levels) they no longer connect. It’s no longer even that safe to visit it by boat. They make people get their own insurance if they want to do that…

The fifth stop was two lighthouses-in-one. Plum Island and Orient Point Lighthouses, both off-shore, were viewed from Orient Point County Park, right near a very cool-looking ferry that goes to New London, Conn. We had a 15 minute walk to a little beach to see the lighthouses. My parents didn’t make it all the way to the end of the path, but I went most of the way.

Our sixth and last top of the day was Horton Point Lighthouse. This one was NOT off-shore and since it isn’t a tall one, it was an easy climb. One of the guides said that the lighthouse is often included in winery bus tours. They make sure the tours come to the lighthouse BEFORE the wineries. Yeah, last thing you need is a bunch of drunks climbing up 27 steep spiral steps!

I got a U.S. Lighthouse Society passport at Montauk, and got it stamped at each stop. They also gave us souvenir magnets at each stop. Very nice. We have three more lighthouses we are going to try to see tomorrow before we head home. I just hope the weather holds up…

There was an interesting post on Wired magazine’s blog: Is the All-in-One Personal Website Headed for Extinction? I have to admit mine is rapidly (though I seriously need to update and redo it at the moment) becoming just a collection of links to my presences on other sites. Though this blog is hosted on my domain, all my photos are on Flickr, my bookmarks are on Del.icio.us, my resume is on Linked In. Heck, I’m even thinking about trying Twitter. What is the world coming to??

South Mountain Creamery calf

Originally uploaded by etacar11

A dairy farm in Middletown, Maryland, near my family’s house, was having a festival last weekend. They called it the Cow Caper. I was amazed at how many people were there, but coverage of the festival in the Washington Post must have been a big part of it.

The highlights were seeing cows getting milked (weird machines actually suck it out of them), a horse-and-buggy ride, sampling the Creamery’s ice cream, and seeing calves like this. Very cute.