Over the Memorial Day weekend we visited the Mukilteo Lighthouse. The Coast Guard gave the lighthouse to the city about 10 years ago. Now a group of volunteers mans the lighthouse on weekends and holidays so you can tour the grounds and lighthouse.
This is the lighthouse building. There is also the keeper's home currently being used for storage of archives and the assistant keeper's home which is now the gift shop. The gift shop also houses a historical time line of the lighthouse.
It's a "short" lighthouse, so it was easy for Reese and Gus to climb the stairs to the top. Here's Gus and Daddy out on the landing.
In the background are Whidbey and Camano Islands.
This is the lens currently in use. It has an itty bitty 50 watt bulb. All the reflective mirrors are what make the light bright enough for boats to see.
This is an old lens circa 1895 that was salvaged from a fire. Once upon a time they put candles in the center.
Then we checked out the beach. This rock came home with us.
Reese would have liked to throw every single rock on the beach in the water, but then there would be nothing under us since the "beach" is really nothing but rocks.
He toned down the enthusiasm a bit and then chose very specific rocks to throw.
We watched the ferry pull out for Clinton, Whidbey Island.
It turned out to be a really nice sunny and warm day. The boys had a blast running all around the beach. We learned a lot of info about lighthouses. Did you realize lighthouses all have a unique signature of light? Mukilteo is 2 seconds lit up, 3 second pause. They also all have unique daymarks. It's how they look in the daylight so you can tell your position from sea. One of the few other lighthouses I've visited has a very distinct daymark. They have a cool passport program that gives you stamps in your passport and patches for visiting lighthouses. I am excited to do it when the boys are a little older. We had a really fun day!
2 comments:
This is a pretty place. Very interesting about the bulb only being 50 watts and using the mirrors.
I did not know lighthouses have distinct signature light patterns. That's really neat. I've never been to a lighthouse, but we are always saying we are going to go to one here at Sullivan's Island.
You got some cute pictures of your boys playing on the beach! It looks like it was a very fun day. Speaking of the beach, we are at the beach now--the weather has been good, not too hot, and everyone is having a fun time.
I hope you are having a good week too!
What a neat place! Great pics too!
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