Community Forums

Lightseekers · 08-10-2009, 08:38 PM

We have made several trips to just visit lighthouses - from Maine to Hawaii and was wondering if there are any others out there that share our interest. We are currently planning a trip in late September to circle Lake Michigan. We will start in St. Louis and travel up the Michigan side and end up in Chicago as our final stop on the loop.

We have seen some of the lighthouses before, having traveled around the edge of Michigan a few years ago.

Our last trip to view lighthouses was last September. We were on the gulf coast of Flordia for a week and saw several on that trip.

we3peas · 08-11-2009, 07:24 AM

I Love lighthouses my dh loves waterfalls so we try to combine whenever possible. We are members of Fl Lighthouse Assoc. They are able to get the members into areas that the general public are not allowed to go. Several of our LHs are still on military/coast guard bases so that is very helpful.

We've seen LHs in Hawaii, FL, Macao, Hong Kong, CA, VA, MD, GA, SC, NC, LA, MS, AL, Bermuda, Bahamas, Grand Cayman...

If you join the US LH Society they have a passport that you can get stamped as you visit them. I like looking back at all the places we've visited. I even added pics to my passport to remember them by.

milt · 08-12-2009, 07:07 PM

If you would like some trivia, Michigan has the most lighthouses of any state in the country.
I've lived in Mich. all my life, but learned that fact while visiting a lighthouse in
northern Calif.

Milt

Lightseekers · 08-12-2009, 07:09 PM

We watched the Blue Angels practice from the top of the lighthouse on their home base. What an experience!

D&J · 08-13-2009, 07:02 AM

My last two years in the USCG I was stationed on a industrial base as an electrician and we worked and stayed on many of the Lighthouses in Michigan. Many of them you will never see unless you visit them by boat because they are out in the lake sitting on a pile of rocks . I have been interested in them and have visited many others every time we travel near water. Very few have anyone living in them anymore but when I was in the were still maned and still had there original lenses in place and some still had there original fog horns in operation. At that time on of the things we were doing was removing the old fog horns and installing the new electronic ones. Door County Wisconsin also has a lot of very interesting Lighthouse.

Denny

CoCoDave · 08-13-2009, 07:36 AM

You can become a temporary "Lighthouse Keeper" here.

New Dungeness Lighthouse - Be a Lighthouse Keeper

BaldOldBob · 08-13-2009, 08:10 AM

Stan & Dorrie

Once you make the switch from retiree wanttobes, to retirees, it will be time to start volunteering at lighthouses, something we have done three times now. Full hookup RV sites, awesome views, a world of information about that lighthouse, and getting to meet the occasional lighthouse nut. It doesn't get much better than that.

Rick&Cheryl · 08-13-2009, 07:11 PM

Dont miss Cana Island lighthouse which is in Door County WI. That is my personal favorite.

There's another one near the Sleeping Bear Dunes near Traverse City. Nice but I thought Sleeping Bear Dunes National Sea Shore was even better for many reasons.

Lightseekers · 08-14-2009, 09:01 PM

Thanks for the suggestion about Door County. We spent a week there about 8 - 10 years ago. Cana Inland is really cool. When we were there before, parking was an issue. We will be traveling with DW's brother and his wife. So there will be 2 motorhomes.

We are going to skip Door County on this trip. We are going to take a week to circle the lake. We have identified 15 lighthouses to see this time. We are skipping pier lights this time.

BaldOldBob, volunteering sounds like something we would really enjoy. Only 3 plus years and I can look into it.

**Janet H** · 08-16-2009, 10:36 PM

I am also a fan - here on the west coast we have a collection of Light houses as well. Some of the ones on the oregon coast are now preserved and tourable. My fav is Heceta head north of Florence, OR.