2007 NJ Lighthouse Challenge - Day 2

This is a continuation of a previous post, so if you haven't read about Day 1 of my New Jersey Lighthouse adventure - Click Here.

5th stop - Tucker's Beach Lighthouse



Click here to see all of my Tucker's Beach Photos

On Day 2 of the Lighthouse Challenge, the clouds had disappeared and the sky was a beautiful blue. I headed north from Atlantic City to the Tuckerton Seaport, which is an interactive educational museum and history center, with lots of touchable exhibits for kids. It is designed to educate the public about New Jersey's maritime heritage, and offers workshops and presentations for all age groups. It also has an excellent gift shop.

The lighthouse at Tuckerton Seaport was never a working lighthouse, having been built as a replica of the Tucker's Island lighthouse, which was destroyed in 1927. I am not sure when the replica was built, but it looks like new. I am still confused as to what to call the original lighthouse, Tucker's Island lighthouse or Tucker's Beach lighthouse. I've seen both both names used interchangeably.

When I visited Tuckerton Seaport, it was charmingly decorated for Halloween. I was fascinated with the ghoulish face inside of the Fresnel lens display, and took several photos.


Then I walked around outside and managed to get some photos of the lighthouse reflected in the water, altho the water wasn't quite still enough for a perfect photo. I wanted to spend more time here, but I needed to tear myself away and head north.


6th stop - Barnegat Lighthouse



Click here to see all of my Barnegat photos.

On the way to the Barnegat lighthouse, the sun was beating down on me thru the windshield, and I was badly in need of some sunscreen and lip balm. Even tho I am from Florida, it never occurred to me to pack these items because I didn't think I would need them in New Jersey, especially in October. Amazingly, I passed by the "Original" Ron Jon's Surf Shop, so I stopped and shopped, plus took a few photos.


The Barnegat lighthouse was easy to find, really beautiful, and located in an exceptionally scenic area. When I climbed to the top and looked down, I could see that a group of Cub Scouts had written their pack number in the sand so that it could be seen from above. Having been a Cub Scout leader for many years, I was amused but not surprised.

I'm glad I took a wide-angle lens with me, even tho it's a pain to climb a lighthouse while lugging extra photo equipment. It enabled me to get some tight shots in the lantern room.


7th stop - Sea Girt Lighthouse:


Click here to see all of my Sea Girt photos.

The Sea Girt lighthouse is a cute Victorian style and is located in a largely residential area, with splendid homes all around. By the time I got here, I was feeling a bit rushed. My first photo at Sea Girt was taken at 1:54 PM, and the last one at 2:22 PM, so you can see I didn't stay long. I looked around a little, climbed up the tower, browsed the gift shop, took a few photos, and took off for the next stop.

8th stop - Navesink Lighthouse:


Click here to see all of my Navesink photos.

The Navesink "Twin Lights" structure is one of the most unusual lighthouses I have visited. It looks like a big castle perched at the top of a hill. Parking is limited, so there was a volunteer stationed at the bottom of the hill to direct visitors to another lot, where they could park and take a shuttle bus to the lighthouse. He said that it was about a half-mile to the top of the lighthouse, if we wanted to park on the street and walk up the hill.

I decided to walk. It seemed much less than a half-mile, but it was still a tough climb because the road was a very steep incline. There were some houses along this road, and I can't imagine how the residents manage to get home when the streets are icy.

There are two towers at this lighthouse, a square one and an octagonal one. I was feeling rushed when I got here, so I only climbed the square tower. At the top, I could see a big city across the water in the distance, so I asked someone what it was. Everyone looked at me like I was really stupid, and said "Manhattan". So now I know!


9th and final stop - Sandy Hook lighthouse:


Click here to see all of my Sandy Hook photos.

The Sandy Hook Lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse that is still in use in the US, having been first lit in 1764. It is located at the Gateway National Recreation Area. The National Park Service maintains the tower, and the US Coast Guard maintains the lens.

It was after 5 PM when I reached Sandy Hook, and it was rather crowded since it was the last stop for those who took the northerly route. At the beginning of the Challenge, I was given a collector's card which holes in it to hold lighthouse tokens, and I was given a token at each lighthouse. I was kind of disappointed that my card has two empty spaces for the lighthouses I missed (Tinicum and Finn's Point). But I still thoroughly enjoyed the Challenge and hope to do it again some day.

I walked around some and took photographs, but decided not to climb the tower because there was a line of people waiting to climb. It was getting late and I still had a long drive back to Atlantic City. On the way back, I noticed a sign that said "Manhattan ferry". I looked up the ferry information when I got home and found this page on New York Harbor ferry routes. It appears that you can take a ferry to Manhattan, then another ferry to the Statue of Liberty. I've never seen the Statue of Liberty, but would love to see it some day.

While in New Jersey, I did a lot of driving on the Garden State Parkway, and it was wonderful. There were no semi-trucks on it, and most cars stuck to the limit of 65 mph. It was actually enjoyable to drive around, unlike the white-knuckle driving that I have to do on I-75 in Florida.

On my last day in New Jersey (Monday), I did some leisurely sight-seeing in Atlantic City. I visited Lucy the Margate Elephant (just south of Atlantic City), ate lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, walked around the Boardwalk, and lost a little money in the Taj Mahal casino.

I've divided up the photos:
click here for Lucy the Elephant
click here for the Atlantic City photos

When I returned from my trip, I did some more reading about the Lighthouse Challenge, and discovered that I had been out-done by a CAT! Or more specifically, Wobbles the Lighthouse Kitty, who visited all 11 of the NJ lighthouses in 2005. You can read all about the adventures of Wobbles at http://www.lighthousekitty.com/

If you want to learn more, Trish Chambers has written a book called Lighthouses of the New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge, which is available at http://www.trishchambersproduction.com/

Other sites to check out:
The New Jersey Lighthouse Society

LighthouseFriends.com - New Jersey page

Happy Lighthouse-hunting!

Donna

2007 New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge

Executive Summary:

In October 2007, I visited New Jersey for the New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge, which is an annual event organized by the New Jersey Lighthouse Society. The object is to visit 11 lighthouses in one weekend, but I only made it to 9 of them. Here are the ones I made it to:

First day (10/20/2007):
Absecon lighthouse
Hereford Inlet lighthouse
Cape May lighthouse
East Point lighthouse

Second day (10/21/2007)
Tucker's Beach lighthouse (a re-creation)
Barnegat lighthouse
Sea Girt lighthouse
Navesink lighthouse
Sandy Hook lighthouse

The two I didn't make it to were the Tinicum Rear Range and the Finn's Point Range, both on the western side of New Jersey, south of Philadelphia, PA. I've loaded all the photos on to Flickr, a great photo-sharing site.

The three tallest lighthouses on the Challenge were these:
Absecon lighthouse, 171 feet, 240 steps
Barnegat lighthouse, 163 feet, 127 steps
Cape May lighthouse, 157 feet, 199 steps

I've created a Google map showing the stops on my trip. Click on any blue marker to learn more about that location:


View Larger Map

The Details:

My adventure started when I flew into Atlantic City on Oct 18th. This may seem weird to start in Atlantic City because it is in the middle of the Challenge route. Most people I talked to started on the western side of the state (Tinicum Rear Range), or they started on the northern side with the Sandy Hook lighthouse. I decided to use Atlantic City as a "home base" for a lot of reasons (long story which I will skip).

On my first full day in Atlantic City (Oct 19th), the weather was yucky - cold, gray, drizzly, windy. I mostly rested up that day and went over the maps and info for the Challenge. The organizers did an amazing job of planning this challenge, by the way. I especially loved the way they served up some gorgeous weather for the weekend.

There were 11 lighthouses on the challenge, so I decided to visit 6 of them on the first day, and 5 on the second. My plan was to start at the Absecon lighthouse in Atlantic City, then work my way south and westward, all the way to the Tinicum Rear Range. Then I planned to drive back to Atlantic City for the night. On the second day, I would head northward, starting with the Tucker's Beach lighthouse, and ending at Sandy Hook, then back to Atlantic City for the evening.

1st stop - Absecon Lighthouse:

Click here for more Absecon photos

My first stop was the Absecon Lighthouse in Atlantic City. Let me say first that when I visit a lighthouse, I like to climb the tower, view all the exhibits, shop in the gift shop, and photograph the lighthouse from every possible angle. This slows me down a lot, and I was slowed down even more because I got a late start that morning.

Absecon (accent on the middle syllable) was the tallest lighthouse on the challenge, but it didn't feel that way because of all the tall buildings surrounding it.

One high point of visiting this lighthouse was getting to meet artist Donna Elias. She does beautiful lighthouse art work, and did the official poster for the Lighthouse Challenge. It's gorgeous - click here to see it.

As I was leaving the lighthouse, I discovered that I had misplaced the keys to my rental car. I searched my purse and camera bag, with no luck. I retraced my steps around the lighthouse, inside and out, but couldn't find them. I worried that I had locked them in the car. After going through my purse and camera bag several more times, I finally found the keys tucked into a pocket of my camera bag. Jeez...very frustrating, since I do not remember putting them there.

2nd stop - Hereford Inlet lighthouse:


Click here for more Hereford Inlet photos.

I was looking forward to the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse because I love Victorian architecture. It was fun to tour, and the gardens behind the lighthouse were spectacular. It is the best-landscaped lighthouse I have ever seen. The skies were cloudy tho, so my photos came out kind of blah looking. I bought an official Lighthouse Challenge t-shirt at this stop, and also a Hereford Inlet jacket.

3rd Stop - Cape May lighthouse:


Click here for more Cape May photos.

My next stop was the Cape May lighthouse. My GPS quit working temporarily so I got a little lost, but found the lighthouse eventually. This was an awesome lighthouse with a great view from the top. When I got to the top, I met an older volunteer who said that she climbs the lighthouse several times a week for exercise. I felt inspired after meeting her, and promised myself I would start doing some Stairmaster workouts at the gym (yeah, right, any day now!)

When I got back down to the bottom, I walked towards the beach. I saw a wedding party on the beach that was being photographed, so I snapped a photo myself.


I also spotted a weird object on the beach, but was in a hurry so I didn't walk down to inspect it. I asked someone in the museum what it was, and she said it was a bunker from World War II. It was definitely the weirdest thing I've ever seen on a beach.


4th stop - East Point Lighthouse:


Click here for more East Point photos.

The East Point Lighthouse is being restored and maintained by the Maurice River Historical Society. It is structurally sound and looks good on the outside, but the interior has not been restored yet. There was a really interesting tour guide who gave us a lot of info. He could only take a small group of people at a time, so I had to wait a bit.

I asked one of the volunteers when the work on the lighthouse would be finished, and she said "hopefully in my lifetime". I hope it is within my lifetime too, because I would love to go back and see it again when it is fully restored. When you see a lighthouse in this kind of shape, it really makes you appreciate all the volunteers who raise money and lobby for grants to maintain our beautiful historic beacons.

By the time I finished touring and photographing the East Point lighthouse, I realized that I could never make it to the Tinicum lighthouse before it closed for the day. Plus I wanted to see the end of the Florida-Kentucky football game, so I headed back to Atlantic City. And the Gators won, YAAAAY!

That's the end of my first day of the Challenge! To read about Day 2 - Click here.