Sunday, January 17, 2010

Lighthouse Fever - Day Two

What's on your travel agenda this year? You know where I'm headed with this as we're still on the subject of lighthouses, but, it may surprise you to know that you can plan a whole vacation around lighthouses. The obvious method is to visit one or more lighthouses while vacationing, but you can take it a step further if simply visiting isn't enough . . .


In Michigan you can actually live in the Tawas Point Lighthouse (above) for a week. Wow! You pay a small fee and agree to guide tourists who visit and spend the week enjoying the great views of Lake Huron. What a wonderful change of pace - well, unless you already live in a lighthouse. The link above will take you to the application form - hurry, you don't want to miss out . . . Other lighthouses in the great lakes area have similar programs for one or more night stays - find out more here.

Maine's Whitehead Light Station also offers rentals, including seven bedrooms. This historic light was commissioned by Thomas Jefferson in 1803 - so while Lewis & Clark were heading west, the first light was established here at the mouth of Penobscot Bay. Now your family can have its own adventure on this spot. Check out the variety of programs and rentals here and you could soon enjoy this view.

To search for the perfect lighthouse for your next holiday, check out this link. There are listings from across the globe - perhaps you're interested in Norway?

Or Germany's famous Roter Sand?

And if you're more of an armchair lighthouse tourist during the winter months, there are lots of great books that will satisfy you until the weather warms up. Just Google lighthouses or lighthouse keepers and you'll find lots of fun reads. Or, click here to read the story of a retired lighthouse keeper who's in the news today. Or rent the PBS special Legendary Lighthouses - it has a beautiful companion book as well!

Finally, watch this amazing footage of lighthouses withstanding some very rough waters. Warning: if you're planning an overnight stay in a light house, watch this afterward!

2 comments:

  1. Well, growing up in landlocked Nebraska, lighthouses weren't a big deal....but I really got "into" them when I was a young mother of four small children and became slightly obsessed with my daily escape, better known as Guiding Light. As a tribute to the GL that wasn't creepy, I started looking for a couple of lighthouse pictures for my den. At that time it wasn't so easy and I had to special order a copy of an antique print of a Nantucket lighthouse that had been colorized with watercolor. About four years later, the whole lighthouse as decorating motif craze was in full swing and I saw a copy of that difficult to acquire print in Linens and Things. Thus ending my lighthouse fetish. I also have a bunch of Shelia houses, just the lighthouses from places we have visited. I moved all that decor to our office building, which is a wonderful place to get rid of stuff you don't want in your house anymore!

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  2. How nice to have an office to transition things from your home. It's so funny that you liked GL - when I was in college my friends and I loved GL and tried to schedule classes around it! That was during the Nola/Quint Beth/Philip years. I hadn't seen it in years, but did watch the last episode online.

    Thanks for stopping by,
    Leah

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