23 June
The next two weeks we will be visiting sites along the Jersey coast, the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island, Philadelphia and Atlantic City. We will see the sites of New York City while we are camping near West Point in a couple weeks.
Doreen loves to visit lighthouses, so today we drove to the Long Beach Island area of New Jersey to visit the Barnegat Lighthouse.
The first Barnegat lighthouse dates back to 1834. Poor construction combined with eroding shoreline led to it's premature demise. The second lighthouse was commissioned in 1859. Interesting tidbit, the inspector that predicted the demise of the original lighthouse was Lt. George Meade, the same man who would become a general and lead the Federal troops at the battle of Gettysburg! Hey, I know about that guy!! It was decommissioned Jan 1944 and then through the efforts of the locals was restored and relit 1 Jan 2009.
So we arrived to a huge free parking lot easily accommodating our "big ol' truck". Even from there we got a great perspective of this mega-lighthouse - all 172 ft of her! That translates to 217 steps up the circular stairway.
Doreen has been having some knee issues, but she has been a real trooper on this trip, religiously icing the knee and staying on the ibuprofen. So far, so good but this 217 step climb may be a challenge - naah, not for Doreen! As we are going up, there are those who are coming down the same stairway. Luckily there are platforms every 50 steps or so, allows others to pass.
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| Doreen headed down after our visit to the top. |
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| From the top of the lighthouse. |
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| Looking down from the railing. |
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| A beautiful view of the coast |
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| Looking out, and up to the beacon |
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| Doorway from the top of the stairs out to the platform. They have it fenced off really well. |
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| Remnants of the old system where the whole beacon assembly would rotate.. This is in the center. The room under the beacon is where the keeper would sleep and tend to the oil lamps . As you can see, the room is not very large. |
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| At the top. |
After leaving the Barnegat Lighthouse we headed up the coast to visit the Seaside Boardwalk. It is located in Seaside heights NJ.
We walked the boardwalk and looked at all the shops and restaurants, then we stopped for a cold drink. There is a wide variety of pubs along the way to choose from with very reasonable prices.
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| The boardwalk above the beach. |
To get a view of the beach from above we did a round trip on the chairlift that runs parallel with the boardwalk over the beach.
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| The chairlift. Not very busy. |
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| White sand beach and a bit of surf. Not many sun worshipers out there today. |
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| Nice view of the boardwalk and shops |
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| Not real busy, but on the weekends this place would surely be swamped. |
After the chairlift we grabbed a bite to eat at Dentatos. Doreen had a Phillie steak sandwich and I had a soft shell crab sandwich. Was really good!
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| Grilling up the Phillie steak, onions and peppers |
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| Deep fried soft shell crab on a bun. |
Tomorrow we will visit the Twin Lights of Navesink lighthouse at Highlands NJ
We walked the boardwalk and looked at all the shops and restaurants, then we stopped for a cold drink. There is a wide variety of pubs along the way to choose from with very reasonable prices.
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