Lighthouse Journeys over the Years

 
   

Ontario, Canada
March 30, 2013

A trip north of the border to Ontario, Canada for some furniture allows for some time to visit several lighthouses. It has been over ten years since we last visited the lighthouses of Ontario. Read more about our Canadian Lighthouse Trip.

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut
June 27-30, 2011

Follow along as we travel to Massachusetts, the head to Rhode Island to cover many lighthouses of Narragansett Bay, and the follow up in Connecticut. Read more about this lighthouse trip to Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.

New Jersey and Delaware
April 20-24, 2010

Follow along as we travel the Atlantic Coast of New Jersey south to Delaware and stop at many lighthouses in between! Read more about our lighthouse trip to New Jersey and Delaware.

Los Angeles, CA
May 15, 2009

The company that I work for sent me to Los Angeles to attend Microsoft Tech Ed back in May of 2009. Once I found out that I was going, I quickly started researching which lighthouses were the closest to where I was staying, and trying to figure out which ones I would have time to visit. The conference kept me pretty busy all week long, but I was still able to do some sightseeing. Read more about the lighthouses of Southern California.

Erie, Pennsylvania
April 6, 2009

We were planning on visiting Splash Lagoon in Erie, PA. I figured while we were there, why not stop by the several lighthouses in Erie to get some updated photos.

The first lighthouse that I visited was the Erie Land Light. When I was last there in 2003, the replica lantern room was blown off the top of the building. From what I have read, during 2003 the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority had installed a new replica lantern room. You can see my new photos of the Erie Land Lighthouse here.

The next lighthouse I tried to visit was the Erie Yacht Club Lighthouse. However, the grounds to this lighthouse were closed. As there was no good view, I left. The next lighthouse was the Erie Pierhead Lighthouse. You can see my new photos of the Erie Pierhead Lighthouse here.

After that, it was back to the Presque Isle Lighthouse. The weather was really starting to get nasty by now. I was fighting with driving rain/snow mixture and heavy winds. My lens kept getting water spots on it, which would then show up in the pictures. I was able to get a few decent shots to add to the collection. You can see my new photos of the Presque Isle Lighthouse here.

Cape Cod, MA
October 19-24, 2008

I had to travel to Hyannis, Massachusetts back in October of 2008 for work. With this, I figured it would be crazy to not try and see a few lighthouses. I had never been to the Cape, but we had talked about it. While booking my flights to Boston, I decided to fly out early Sunday morning so that I would be ready for my training on Monday morning. This would give me all day Sunday for traveling. I had my GPS programmed for a bunch of the lighthouses in Massachusetts. Read more about this trip.

Lake Ontario, NY
December 19, 2007

I had some vacation time that I had to use by the end of the year. So I decided to take a quick trip up along Lake Ontario to get some pictures of lighthouses with snow on the ground. Read more about this trip.

Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana
May 17-22, 2007

My wife and I travel to Door County Wisconsin to attend the Door County Lighthouse Walk, and while we are in the area, cover the rest of the Western side of Lake Michigan. Read more about this trip.

Central and South Florida
May 9 - 12, 2006

My wife and I decided it was time to get away for a little bit. After checking airfare to Florida, we decided that we would go there. We flew into Orlando, stopped and Disney for a day, and then went about visiting some lighthouses. Read more about this trip.

Oregon / Washington
Sept 28 - Oct 3, 2005

I had to travel to Oregon for work again. Since my wife and I still had some vacation time left, we decided that she should come with me, and then we can head to Seattle and do some sightseeing. Read more about this trip.

Oregon / Washington
May 27, 2005

I had to head to Hillsboro, Oregon for work. The meeting that I attended ended early leaving me some time for sightseeing. I decided to head out to the Oregon Coast and headed north into Washington. I was able to visit three lighthouses and a lightship. Read more about this trip.

Toronto, Ontario
September 24, 2004

We spend a few days sightseeing and dining in Ontario's Capital. During this time, we take in the Toronto Islands and visit a man-made peninsula which houses the Toronto Harbor Lighthouse. Read more about this trip.

Three Sisters Island
August 2, 2004

We climb aboard the Empire Boat Lines in Alex Bay, NY for a trip to Singer Castle. While on this trip to an amazing castle, we will pass by the Three Sisters Island and Sunken Rock Lighthouses. And while on our trip back home, we will stop by Selkirk Lighthouse as well. Read more about this trip.

Long Point, Ontario
August 11, 2001

We join the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keeper's Association to cruise out to the Long Point Lighthouse in Lake Erie. What a great cruise this was. We also visited several other lighthouses in the area. Read more about this trip.

Lower Michigan and Whitefish Point in the U.P.
May 11-15, 2001

Once again a global positioning system helps us find our way to lighthouses. This time we see 42 Michigan lighthouses, one old Lighthouse Depot Building and a retired lightship. Read more about this trip.

Toronto, Ontario
March 9 - 11, 2001

A quick jaunt to the north for a weekend getaway and one of the last missing sections of Lake Ontario Lighthouses gets filled in. Read about how a little thing called GPS helps the us find our way to several Toronto Lighthouses. Read more about this trip.

1000 Islands, New York
August 5-10, 2000

We spent some time in the 1000 Islands Region of New York State and the Canadian Side photographing the lighthouses that are unique to this area. All in all, about 15 lighthouses over the course of 5 days. Mileage from Buffalo, Ny and back would be a little under 1000. The lights were scattered apart from one another in Canada. Read more about this trip.

Florida Keys
April 27-May 2, 2000

Our original plan for this vacation was to visit friends in Raleigh, NC and then head to South Carolina to see the lighthouses that we missed back in 1997-1998. The trip fell through, so we made last minute plans (3 days notice) to visit the Florida Keys. It was the only destination that airfare was less than $1000, and I have never been there before. Read more about this trip.

Cleveland, Ohio
March 24-26, 2000

Our first lighthouse trip of the new year. This trip covers lighthouses from the Pennsylvania - Ohio Border to Sandusky, Ohio. All in all, we covered 16 lighthouses over the course of 3 days. Mileage to and from Buffalo, NY I would estimate at about 760 or so. Read more about this trip.

Ontario, Canada
July 2, 1999

This trip originally started out as an opportunity to visit the missed lighthouses of the Seaway Trail. It quickly changed as we were in Lewiston, NY right at the Lewiston - Queenston Bridge. After a quick glance through the lighthouse book, I decided that there was many more to photograph in Canada. Over the bridge we went. Read more about this trip.

Edenton, NC
May 15, 1999

This trip we found a rare gem...the Roanoke River Light. We found the last remaining screwpile lighthouse in NC, thanks to some help from Chris Burnett. He searched all around Edenton and found this lighthouse.

Mileage: under 300 miles from Raleigh, NC - roundtrip.

San Francisco, CA
January 25-27, 1999

This trip had us out in Northern California, in the San Francisco area. My girlfriend, Lynne, was sent out there on business, so I seized the opportunity to cover the Bay Area lighthouses. The stretch of lighthouses covered span from Point Reyes Lightstation all the way to the Santa Cruz Lighthouse. Read more about this trip.

Mileage: ummm. A lot. No seriously, once in the Bay Area it wasn't too bad. I didn't really keep track since it was a rental car with unlimited mileage. If I had to guess, I would say less than 500 miles. We were staying at the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill, this put the lighthouses all around us, the two farthest were Santa Cruz, about 70 miles south, and Point Reyes about 45 miles north.

Seaway Trail, NY
August 7-12, 1998

This trip we cover some of New York State, and Pennsylvania. The easiest way to do this is to follow the Seaway Trail from Erie, PA up through Buffalo, Rochester, Oswego to the beginning of the Thousand Islands. That was all the time we had for this trip...I would really like to get up into the Thousand Islands region to cover those lights for this page, but living in North Carolina, makes it tough to cover the North East region. In this trip we cover close to 16 lighthouses including the 30 Mile Point Light, Selkirk Light, and the Barcelona Light to name a few. I must apologize for missing two lights, the Oswego Pierhead Light and Braddock Point Light. My camera ate my film on one occasion and the other, the film was not completely loaded in. I still consider myself quite the novice when it comes to photography. Read more about this trip.

Mileage: For this trip from Raleigh, NC to Buffalo, NY and back was just over 3000 miles. I also did a bunch of local driving while staying in Buffalo for the week.

South Carolina / Georgia
June 26-28, 1998

This trip we tried to cover much of Georgia and South Carolina. We headed south on I-95 for a solid 7 hours and then stopped in Townsend, GA for the night. The next morning we tried to head to Sapelo Island, but the ferry trip was canceled for the day. So we headed to St. Simon's Island and back North again to Savannah, then into South Carolina. Once in South Carolina, we only went as far as Charleston. Some of the lighthouses we covered in this trip would include Tybee Island, Hunting Island, St. Simon's Island, and Morris Island. Altogether, we covered about 1200 miles and 7 lighthouses in about three days. Read more about this trip.

Wilmington, NC
May 16, 1998

After doing some more research on the Internet about lighthouses, I found that there was another lighthouse in South Port, NC called Price's Creek Lighthouse. It is located on private property of the ADM company. This trip served a dual purpose, to go to the beach, and to see this unusual lighthouse.

Western New York
December 22, 1997

Our next lighthouse journey wasn't until December of 1997. We drove back to Buffalo, New York for Christmas. While back in Buffalo for Christmas vacation, we decided to visit the Buffalo Main Light and the Old Fort Niagara Light.

Virginia Beach, VA
August 23, 1997

Our next trip was to Virginia Beach. Our original plan was to see the Old Cape Henry and New Cape Henry Lighthouses, cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, then visit the ones on the other side. But traffic on I-95 was heavy, so it took us longer to get to Virginia Beach. Although, while in Virginia Beach we did stop at the Life-Saving Museum right on the main boardwalk.

Outer Banks, NC
August 2, 1997

Then on August 2, 1997 we decided to visit the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This was a very interesting day, visiting four lighthouses in one day! Read more about this trip.

Core Banks, NC
July 27, 1997

Our next trip I planned was to the Cape Lookout Lighthouse, North Carolina. This was pretty neat. You have to take a ferry ride over to the Core Banks from Harker's Island.

Erie, PA
July 21, 1997

After actually getting to climb to the top of "Old Baldy", and seeing Oak Island, I was hooked. In mid-July, we made a trip back to Buffalo, NY, for about five days. On our way back to NC, we stopped at Presque Isle State Park in Erie, PA. There we found a pamphlet that showed a lighthouse, and on the map it said Presque Isle Lighthouse. But after further investigation, we found out that we missed the two main lighthouses in Erie, and photographed the Erie Pierhead Light.

Wilmington, NC
June 28, 1997

Our Next lighthouse encounter was in South Port, NC in June of 1997. We left Raleigh, NC to head out to the beach. Raleigh was sunny and about 85, by the time we got to Wilmington, it was a little rainy. So deciding to make the most of the 2 hour trip, we saw two lighthouses listed on our map, so we decided to find them. The first one we went to was Bald Head Island. This is the same island the "Weekend at Bernie's" movie was filmed on. From there we found the Oak Island Light.

Outer Banks, NC
May 11, 1997

Shortly after moving to NC, I heard about the Outer Banks. I thought it would be pretty cool to visit the Wright Brother's memorial in Kitty Hawk. After that, we started heading South down Route 12. As we were several miles from it, the top of Bodie Island Lighthouse just sort of peeked over the brush. It was at this moment that I pretty much got hooked on Lighthouses. We were with several friends, so we never stopped.

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