Counting down

So, I have eleven months less 5 days remaining here in Ohio.  Not that I'm counting down or anything.

Aside from arranging employment, the biggest thing I've decided I  need to work on is seeing all the lighthouses in Ohio.  There are 18 that are worth looking at, and I've already seen 6, so 12 seems pretty do-able.  Some of them are on the islands, and some can only be accessed by boat, so I'll have to make special trips for those...

Anyway, per the plan to see all the lighthouses, I went east of Cleveland yesterday to see the Fairport Harbor Lighthouse, where they used to hide runaway slaves prior to departure to Canada.

Its a pretty cool lighthouse, and they let you go inside.

Here is me at the top of the tower.  When I came back down, they gave me a ribbon, which I thought was pretty funny.   I think they have them mainly for the kids, but the little old lady wanted to give me one, so I let her.

This is the view from the top of the tower, looking out over the lake, and you can see the breakwater lighthouse in the distance.  The one on the breakwater replaced this one on the hill, and the coast guard intended to dismantle it, but the townspeople protested so much that they left it intact.  The breakwater lighthouse is the one at Mentor beach, and I took a closer look at it the day I was there after finishing my exam.

After climbing this lighthouse and looking through their museum (they have a ghost cat, FYI) I drove farther east to Ashtabula, where there is a pretty nice maritime museum, and a nice older gentleman gave me a tour, including teaching me all about how cargo ships are unloaded, how docking facilities work, and how if you attend the launching of a ship, and its a side launch, the resulting wave will wash fish up onto the bluff and you can collect them for dinner (he grew up there).  They also have a lighthouse at Ashtabula, but I had read online that the breakwater is a pretty rough scramble to get out to it, and this gentleman also advised against it, citing how quickly the waves can whip up and people get stranded.

So I did it anyway, convincing myself that it was nice weather, no sign of a storm, and the first part of the breakwater didn't look too rough.
 

I neglected to note exactly how far out that lighthouse is.  You can see it in the distance, right in the center of the picture, but its a ways.  I just measured on mapquest and it looks like its about 1.2 miles.  I did not know that at the time.  I also did not know that these nice flat stones weren't going to last.

About two hours later, maybe more, I had this view, and very much considered not going the final distance, since where I was at made for a pretty good picture.  As you can tell, the breakwater at this point is basically a jumble of rocks, making a very rough scramble; bouldering, basically.  I slipped at one point, bruised my palms and would have likely broken a toe, but my fabulous Keen sandals saved my bacon, as they have before.  It was, however, a major workout, and my quads are currently so sore that moving from the sitting to standing position is very difficult.  I came to the conclusion that I am very out of shape, and likely getting old as well.  I did, however, persevere;

Here I am just shy of the lighthouse.  I did actually climb over the railing and touch it as well, but I won't post that picture as I was technically trespassing at that point.

So, pursuing my lighthouse hobby was unexpectedly taxing this weekend, but I doubt any of the others will require this kind of effort.

:)