Today, is National Lighthouse Day.
If you have been following my blog for a while, you know how much I love lighthouses.
On my recent trip back to northern Minnesota, we stopped at Split Rock Lighthouse along the north shore of Lake Superior. It is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the country.
We spent some time walking around the area and were able to go up into the lighthouse.
The lighthouse in Grand Marais will always be special to me. 
This is where I grew up listening to the sound of the foghorn at night. With the use of radar, the foghorn is obsolete but I can still remember that mournful sound.
Maralee
Through My Lens 
Beautiful images Maralee. The light house on the cliff is beautiful. The design seems rather unique for a light house :-).
Thanks, Marcus. What’s interesting about this lighthouse is that all of the materials had to be brought up from the water . . . there were no roads going up the north shore at that time.
Wow.. Well it sits on a cliff so it must have been incredibly difficult and time consuming just to hall up the materials to build it.
You remember before radar?! . . . wow . . .
Seriously, that sound is something that comes to mind when I hear a train horn late at night. The tracks are about five miles from the house, but the sound carries.
As for lighthouses, I wish I had done the Michigan shoreline tour while I still lived there. I got a few, but I should have been more diligent about it.
Yes, I’m pretty old. I lived about 2 blocks from the harbor so when the fog would roll in, the foghorn would be blowing all night long. We got used to it and loved it, but it drove visitors who weren’t used to it nuts because they couldn’t sleep. Now I live about 2 miles from the railroad tracks and when the wind is in the right direction, it sounds like its a block away. I love it.
Your topic for today rather jingled a nerve here in the U.K. So with apologies I have cribbed your theme….Thank you (http://davidoakesimages.wordpress.com/2014/08/07/lighthouse-day-perhaps-we-should/)
That was no gentlemanlike comment, disperser!
And additionally based on a misunderstanding. Maralee of course doesn’t remember the times before invention of radar. The first commercial radar systems came up in the 30’s of 20th century. More functional and mobile systems have been invented during second worldwar. But the modern, small, mobile and affordable radar systems for small civil ships and boats came much later, triggered by modern micro-electronic parts. I think that the fog horns may have begun to disappear around 1980.
By the way – the photographs are very nice and I like them 😉
My propensity to kid trumps any gentlemanlike tendencies I might have.
Besides, elderly people celebrate their success at attaining ripe ole ages. Shying away from one’s age does a disservice to the memories of struggles, hardship, triumphs, and joys one experiences in the journey.
. . . if, that is, they can still remember all that.
When you get to be my age, you tend to forget everything within five minutes of learning it. 🙂 Both an advantage and disadvantage.
I look forward to that . . . there are movies and books I really, really like, and want to experience the thrill one has when they first come across something great.
Firefly . . . as much as I like the show, and as many times as I have rewatched the episodes, nothing compares to the feeling when I first viewed it.
. . . and pasta! I look forward to the day when I go “What’s this? OMFSM! This is AWESOME!! I’m gonna eat this all the time. What? . . . Nutella? Sure, I’ll try it. OMFSM! This is AWESOME!! . . . etc. etc.”
That top photo is terrific. I’ve been missing these kinds of lighthouses since I moved to Europe. The history and lore surrounding them has always been fascinating.
Nice post. I like the memory.
That first shot is magic! But I have a question. I’ve never seen one with one side blacked out like that. Do you know if it’s to protect the lens, or a kindness to the neighbors?
I don’t know the answer but there are no people living close to the lighthouse. However, the blackout portion is in the direction of the highway so maybe its so it doesn’t blind drivers. But its all moot now as the lighthouse is not longer in use. It is a historic monument now.
Thanks, Maralee. It makes sense that it might have been (note past tense) to protect drivers on the highway. The thing that made me wonder was a lighthouse tour here on our coast (at the still functioning Cape Blanco) has a curtain that’s drawn to protect the lens.
Beautiful photos. I never tire of seeing the lighthouses. I miss the noon whistle, too, in Grand Marais.
That’s beautiful.. There is something magical about lighthouses..