Lily Pad Travels: Summer of18-#26-Lighthouses, USS McClusky Farewell

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Summer of18-#26-Lighthouses, USS McClusky Farewell

Wednesday July 18th, 2018

I spent the day getting pictures downloaded and videos processed ready to start and try and catch up on the blog. It was quite a productive day.

Thursday July 19th, 2018

We went to three lighthouses today. The first one was Point Betsie Lighthouse in Frankfort. You can't even tell it's a lighthouse as you enter the driveway.

This was the view from where we parked our car.

We went into the gift shop to buy our tickets. We always look around to see what they have and my eyes zoomed in on this. "Mighty Mac", this refers to the Mackinac Bridge here in Michigan, but I immediately think of USS McCluskey. It was Ryan's first ship, the irony is that today she is being used as target practice during the Rimpac 2018 exercises in Hawaii, and will ultimately be sunk. What are the odds of such a reminder as we were going about our day. We are all, but especially Ryan, sad. He was fortunate that this was his first ship and he "loved" her. Hopefully, she will eventually become an artificial reef and divers will be able to explore her. I have put some pictures of his first homecoming on her at the end of this post, as a tribute to a ship that will always be a part of our hearts.

Sorry about that, but back to the lighthouse. There was a small room(museum) that was included with the tour. There was a lot of historical information in what looked like a fairly new addition.

Outside, at the back of the gift shop was a gravestone but there is no grave.

Across from the gift shop is the lighthouse. You can stay in the part nearest to us. It's $2,100 a week!!!

We have no idea what these are for.

The entrance to the lighthouse.

Liked this painting

Oil lamp

Previous Keepers

Fresnel Lens

View from the lighthouse

The inside walls had been plastered over and painted, but they left a part open to show what the original was like.

At the top of the lighthouse the fresnel lens has been replaced with an electronic light.

Views from the top

Fog Signal Building

Back down on the ground

The Oil Shed

Most people say this is their favourite lighthouse on the Michigan coast but I don't agree.

Next we went to Frankfort North Breakwater Lighthouse at Frankfort Public Beach.

There were people paddle boarding. This couple looked very cute.

The harbor light is on the left.

A coastguard helicopter hovered above.

Bryan taking pictures. There was a small beach behind him which was quite busy. We found these benches which were perfect for us to sit on and take in the view. We decided not to walk along the breakwater.

Apartments overlooking the beach.

Our final stop was the Robert H Manning Memorial Lighthouse in the Village Park, Empire, near Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park.

We found the lighthouse at the far end of the park at the end of a car park. Parking was very crowded but fortunately we found a handicapped spot that we could use with our handicap placard that Bryan has. As we got out of the car Bryan heard a lady saying that she wondered if we were authorized to park there as we didn't have a handicap number plate. Fortunately, I didn't hear her or I would have informed her that the placard gave us the right. I looked for a pay booth as there was a parking fee and returned to put the sticker in the car. There is a reason that people have the handicapped placards and it's not always obvious, although a walking stick and a bad limp should have been obvious I would think. These spots often make the difference to us of being able to see a place or not. It's surprising what a difference those few steps make in the course of a day.

This lighthouse was built as a memorial to Robert Manning, a lifetime resident of Empire, who had always lamented that there should be a lighthouse here.

There was a river running behind the park and we took some pictures.

The water was clear and like glass.

Lots of lily pads but didn't see any frogs!!!

We headed home after a long day. I took this picture of a beach access to a lake. We have seen several of these as we drive alongside lakes and beaches. They are private and belong to a house on the opposite side of the road. So you have to cross the road to get to your beach access. Some of them, like this one are clear of trees though so you can see the lake from your house.