Lighthouse Hop #1: Two Rivers, WI

As I stated on Tuesday, my Door County Lighthouse trip started in Two Rivers, WI. Two Rivers is home to the East and West Twin Rivers (hence its name), Ice Cream Sundae, commercial fishing, two lighthouses, and numerous members of the Klein family. Since it is the hometown of my Dad, his brothers and sisters, and several other close family members, I have visited Two Rivers countless times during my 32 years of life (almost every single one of those years). Some may say I’m crazy! Some may say I’m lucky! I personally believe that I’m both. Two Rivers does hold a special place in my heart, and I have found two new reasons to love Two Rivers: the Two Rivers North Pierhead Light and Rawley Point Lighthouse.

Two Rivers North Pierhead Light-Rogers Fishing Village

Rawley Point Lighthouse

The Two Rivers North Pierhead Light was built in 1886 to mark the harbor entrance of a growing fishing village. The red wooden pierhead stood 36 feet tall on the north pier of Two Rivers Harbor where a fixed red light shined brightly. The lantern room is a decagonal cast-iron structure with a sixth-order Fresnel lens and oil wick lamp. By 1928, the pierhead received extensive repairs and was electrified. In 1969, the pierhead was retired and replaced by a steel tower with an automated light (boring). Following its retirement the upper portion of the pierhead was moved to the Rogers Street Fishing Village on the East Twin River. A wooden staircase leads you up to an observation platform to overlook the river and the surrounding area. At the museum, you can see a replica engine room, Buddy O the Lake Michigan fishing tug and various fishing artifacts.

About five miles north of the Two Rivers North Pierhead Light, located in the Point Beach State Park and a few miles away from Port Sandy Bay Restaurant, the Rawley Point Lighthouse stands. Right now, this lighthouse comes in close second to the Sherwood Point Lighthouse as one of my favorite lighthouses because of its location. Several lighthouses stood in the area where Rawley Point does today and has been known by several different names: Twin River Point Light, Twin Rivers Light, Point Beach Light, and Two Rivers Lighthouse. The first one of these lights was built in 1854. The current steel erector-style structure was originally located in Chicago and was part of the 1893 Columbian Exposition hosted there. Following the exposition, the structure was taken down and rebuilt behind the keeper’s house, which was part of one of the original lighthouses. The white, eight-legged steel structure stands 111 feet high, dwarfing the house, and is the second tallest lighthouse in Wisconsin (Michigan Island Light Tower of the Apostle Islands, WI, stands 112 ft.). Below the decagonal lantern room sits two watchrooms with ornate fencing, a unique characteristic.

Today, the Rawley Point Lighthouse is a vacation destination used for U.S. Coast Guard staff and is off limits to the public. However, if you walk the tree line and sandy, boardwalk trails near the lighthouse, like I did, you can see it and get some great pictures. These trails lead to the shores of Lake Michigan, and the views are quite serene and peaceful. At one point while I was walking the trails, I kicked off my shoes and socks to walk in the soft sand, which was surprisingly warm still for being October. So between the unique structure of the lighthouse and its peaceful landscape, I found it to be one of my favorites. If I didn’t have to rush off to visit the next lighthouses on my journey, I could have spent all day viewing the lighthouse and sinking my toes in the sand.

One last note, besides sharing the same city only five miles apart, the Two Rivers North Pierhead Light and Rawley Point Lighthouse shared lighthouse keepers. The keeper lived at Rawley Point and made the trek south to check on the pierhead…two for the price of one.

This concludes my latest visit to Two Rivers. Next stop Kewaunee and Algoma! Until next time, take care and talk to you soon!

Lighthouse Hopping and Pub Crawling

What an incredible weekend! This past weekend my dad, brother, Cassie, and I went to Door County for a fall getaway and primarily for a Door County Trolley Haunted Pub Crawl on Saturday night. For me personally, I packed as much sight-seeing as one possibly could by driving through/visiting every town in Door County…check, check and check! At the same time I had to keep telling myself that this was not going to be my only visit to Door County so I could save some stuff for next time. I am definitely ready to go back in a heartbeat.

Friday’s Itinerary: lighthouse hopping along the coast of Lake Michigan starting in Two Rivers and ending in Bailey’s Harbor; meeting up with Cassie and Chris at Copper’s Corner in Fish Creek for a quick drink; witnessing a gorgeous golden orange sunset at Sunset Beach Park; back to Copper’s Corner for dinner; to the Waterbury Inn in Ephraim to check in and then catch a quick dip in the pool/hot tub. By 9 p.m., Dad caught up to us, and he and I sat in the lobby to catch up on life. We finally called it a night at midnight.

  

Saturday’s Itinerary: breakfast at Al Johnson’s (the restaurant that has goats on a grass roof) in Sister Bay;

back to Fish Creek to Peninsula State Park with stops at the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse, Welker’s Point, Eagle Panorama, Eagle Tower, and Sven’s Bluff;

satisfied our sweet tooth with treats at Not Licked Yet; walked through various shops; dinner at Greenwood’s Super Club (John Dillinger was known to stop at this restaurant), and then it finally was pub crawling time!

Trolleys were waiting for us at Carrington’s Pub and Grill, part of Landmark Resort in Egg Harbor, to take us to four Door County establishments within four hours. Part of the pub crawl included a plastic rocks glass that lit up with green, red, and blue blinking blubs. (Can any of you see Dad with a Brandy Manhattan on the rocks with olives in a lighted rocks glass? I never thought it would happen but it did! I have proof!)

Once we received our “confidence juice” (according to Tour Guide Bruce), we climbed aboard Katie the Trolley for our night of haunting fun. Since I highly recommend this tour, I will not spoil the ghost stories, but I will share the four pubs we crawled to. First stop was the Alpine Resort, think the hotel in the movie The Shining. Second stop was Shipwrecked Brew Pub/Inn and Restaurant, the only micro brewery in Door County. Both stops one and two are located in Egg Harbor. Third stop was The Blue Ox in Bailey’s Harbor. Fourth stop was the Peninsula Pub on Hwy A outside of Bailey’s Harbor.

Sunday’s Itinerary: recovery, back to Al Johnson’s for breakfast, then all the way to the tippy top of the peninsula…Ellison Bay to Gills Rock to Northport. Once we got to the very top, we watched a car ferry sail off to Washington Island. From there, we wound our way back down to the Cana Island Lighthouse in Bailey’s Harbor. The last lighthouse on my list to make this trip complete!

The four of us then concluded our trip with a stop back at Shipwrecked for a late lunch and a little Packer action!

And just like that, the weekend was over, and I was on my way back home. So sad because I had so much fun, loved visiting all of the lighthouses, and enjoyed viewing the beautiful scenery that Door County has to offer. I hope my next trip to Door County will be during the warmer months so I can go to the lighthouses on the islands (there are 4 island-based lighthouses I need to visit), hike Peninsula State Park, go to the Whitefish Dunes State Park and Newport State Park, and whatever else I can find.

As I said earlier, I highly recommend a trip to Door County and definitely add a trolley tour to your list of things to do, especially the Haunted Pub Crawl. They do offer the Haunted Pub Crawl from July – October, but I’d do it in October again purely because of its spooky fun.

Some people bar hop. I, on the other hand, prefer to lighthouse hop and pub crawl! To each his/her own, I guess. My next entries will provide you with more detail and history about the 10 lighthouses I hopped to. So until then, take care, and I will talk to you soon!

Sherwood Point Lighthouse

Tomorrow Dad, Chris, Cassie and I are headed to Door County for a three day weekend of relaxation, sight-seeing and fun! We are headed to the west side of the Peninsula (Ephraim and Fish Creek) and staying at the Waterbury Inn. Couple weekends ago when I was home, Chris and Dad talked about all of the favorite places they would go with Mom. All of their stories made Cassie and I even more excited about our trip to Door County, and it may me miss all the times I was not able to go Door County with Mom, Dad and Chris.

While Mom, Dad and Chris had their fun in Door County all those years, I had a bit of my own adventure in Door County. Last year, over Memorial Day weekend, I joined my cousins Kris and Shannon and their camping crew up at Yogi Bear Jellystone Campground in Sturgeon Bay. After hanging with them, enjoying campfires and games, but before I headed home, I ventured over to one of the lighthouses in Sturgeon Bay, the Sherwood Point Lighthouse. Of the lighthouses I have seen to date, the Sherwood Point Lighthouse is my favorite structure. I really like the look of the building and how it overlooks Lake Michigan. While researching the Sherwood Point Lighthouse, I learned a couple things that reaffirmed this lighthouse is one of my favorites thus far.

The first thing I learned is that the reddish-brown brick building, built in 1883 on the western entry into Sturgeon Bay, was modeled after an old schoolhouse. Notice the rectangular-shaped building with numerous large windows. Can’t you envision having school in this building…how cool would that have been! For me, I also see a close resemblance to the former St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Franklin (Chris and Dad, use your imagination.) The Sherwood Point Lighthouse is the only red brick lighthouse in Door County, which is a 1 ½ -story building with a white tower that stands 35 feet tall. Since it is that tall plus built on the limestone bluff of Sturgeon Bay, the white light’s focal plane is 61 feet over the water.

The second interesting fact is the history of its keepers. The original lighthouse keeper was Henry Stanley who transferred from the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse, also in Door County (the family and I will be visiting this one on Saturday…I’ll share more about that one soon). Stanley’s niece, Minnie Hesh from New York, came for a visit and ended up staying permanently. By 1889, she married William Cochems, who was a prominent businessman and assistant keeper. When Stanley, Cochems became the main lighthouse keeper and Minnie became the assistant keeper in 1898. For 30 years, Minnie (Hesh) Cochems served as the assistant lighthouse keeper. Her husband placed a marker on the northeast corner of the lighthouse to honor her service and commitment. (I wish I would have known about this marker at the time I took pictures – all the more reason to go back and visit my favorite lighthouse.)

Minnie Cochems was one of many female lighthouse keepers. Since lighthouse keeping was a family role, wives would serve as assistant keepers or main keepers when their husbands would die. According to Wisconsin Lighthouses, women learned how the lights worked, tended to the lights and the house, raised families, and rescued sailors. (Impressive!) While Minnie Cochems served at Sherwood Point Lighthouse, other women served at lighthouses in the Apostle Islands, Kenosha (Southport) Light, and the Old Port Washington Light Station.

Other fun notes about the Sherwood Point Lighthouse include: 1) it was electrified in the 1930s, 2) it was the last manned lighthouse on the United States side of the Great Lakes, 1983, 3) the white building in front of the lighthouse is the fog signal built in 1892, 4) it is said to be haunted by the spirit of Minnie Cochems – visitors may see a shadow of a lady in a nightgown. For more on Door County's haunted lighthouses go to: http://dcmm.org/.

Well I better go and continue mapping out my trip to Ephraim and Fish Creek…maybe I’ll stop at a lighthouse or two or more. I hope when you visit Sturgeon Bay, Door County, WI, you stop and see the Sherwood Point Lighthouse, and if you’re lucky the spirit of Minnie Cochems. If you do see the lighthouse or her, you totally have to tell me! Until next time, enjoy life and take care!

Making friends is hard to do...especially if you are a turkey!

While working on a project at my desk, suddenly ADD took over (McT, you know what I'm talking about). To cure my ADD, I stood up, walked around for a bit, and then as I was walking back into my office, I looked out the window.

Little background before I continue...my office building backs onto a nature preserve. On the north side of the building there is a large, concrete, half-circle seating area where groups can host a campfire. This seating area is tiered so it looks like large, deep steps.

View from my office window/scene of the activity

On these same steps, during the spring, a couple co-workers and I rescued eight turkey babies (known as a poult). Mom was strutting around on the back side of the concrete steps; while the babies were running around on the steps not able to get by mom. They would try to get up by her by jumping, hitting the top rim of the step and then fall backwards. Granted it was humorous watching them do this, but the little guys were stressing out. So, my co-workers and I helped get the babies back to mom by draping a towel over them, scooping them up and flipping them over the step. Then they would scurry off in to the grasses by mom. I do feel a slight attachment to these turkeys because I rescued them.

Back to my sighting, and trust me I wish I had my camera today. As I looked outside, I saw a little rabbit munching on some grass (minding his own business), four hefty crows hanging out, and a woodchuck walking around on the concrete steps. All of sudden a family of turkeys came strutting through the area. It was the same turkey family that I rescued – mom, dad and the eight chicks, which were now teenagers (they grow up so quickly). The teenage turkeys were a curious group. My guess is that they wanted to make friends...I can hear them saying, "wanna be my friend?" I watched the turkeys wander over to check out the rabbit, and the rabbit had no interest in the turkeys. So he said, "Forget it, I'm outta here," and ducked under a bush. The turkeys then saw the woodchuck, and tried see if he would be their friend. I'm not really sure the woodchuck acknowledged the turkeys because he kept plodding along until he disappeared into the tall grasses. Now that these turkeys were shot down by a rabbit and a woodchuck, I think they felt the four large-and-in-charge crows would be a good choice. (I could have told them that they were not very nice birds.) Not being able to give them a clue, I watched the turkeys approach the crows. The four crows advanced towards the turkeys, making a few of the turkeys run closer to mom and dad. I figured the crows said some mean words to upset the turkeys. Then one by one, the crows left. One crow stood there and flapped his wings, one crow turned his head and walked the other way, one crow squawked and flew away, and the last crow just plain flew away. For a moment, I was expecting a battle of the birds: turkeys vs. crows.

The poor turkey kids did not make any friends. I felt bad for them, but I did continue to watch the family of turkeys poke around in the grass for food until they disappeared into the prairie grasses and trees.

Definitely an interesting observation of wildlife, and it did consume some time so my ADD could settle down. Granted my ADD led me to writing this story rather than tackling my project. Guess I better get back to that. Hope you are all well, and I will write soon!

Milwaukee Lakefront

In the last post, I talked about cheering on Chris and Cassie during their marathon. I am proud to report that both of them finished strong and well before their estimated times. Chris finished in 3 hours, 32 minutes and 56 seconds; while Cassie finished in 3 hours, 33 minutes and a couple of seconds. Chris improved his time over last year by 20 minutes, and Cassie's time qualified her for the Boston Marathon. As for the performance by Dad and me as spectators, I'd have to say that we need to improve our times! :) We arrived at Klode Park (the 20 mile marker) to cheer them on. Dad dropped me off, he went to park the van, and I found a place to stand. Just as I got comfortable, turned on my camera, suddenly I saw the 3:35 pace marker with two familiar faces hot on the pace! I quick snapped some pictures, ran ahead to catch a couple more and then my runners were gone. I met Dad back at the intersection and said, "They already came through, back to the van we go so we can get to the finish line." Dad and I had plenty of time to spare at the finish line, picked out prime spots, and cheered Chris and Cassie the last few feet they had to run!

Following the race, the four of us hung out at Veterans Park for a while to partake in the post-race activities, enjoy some Milwaukee Lakefront brews, and let the runners recover (or stiffen up). By 1 p.m., we looked at our watches and said time to go because we had important games to watch - Brewer playoff game and Packer game. While waiting for Dad to pick us up at Veterans Park, a white tower standing strong in the blue sky and water caught my attention. Circling the white tower were numerous sailboats and seagulls. This white tower was the Milwaukee Breakwater Lighthouse (MBL).

Feeling confident that the two runners were not going to move another muscle unless it was into the van, I wandered off to photograph the lighthouse as well as the numerous sailboats in the harbor. This photographic opportunity allowed me to capture the MBL in a different light and setting. Back in 2008, while at the Rascal Flatts concert at the Marcus Amphitheater, I snapped a couple of shots of the MBL at dusk. From the Amphitheater grass seats, you have a beautiful view of the Milwaukee Breakwater Lighthouse.

The Milwaukee Breakwater Lighthouse is one of three city of Milwaukee lighthouses – MBL, Milwaukee Pierhead Light and North Point Lighthouse. MBL was built in 1926 and replaced an earlier structure that was built in the 1890s. The current white steel plate structure stands 53 feet high on the Milwaukee breakwaters, which is comprised of three levels – the fog signal equipment housing, the keeper’s living quarters and the lantern. The lantern is a fourth-order Fresnel lens that flashes a red light every ten seconds. By 1966, the light became automated and was powered by electricity fed through an underwater system. Today the light is owned by the United States Coast Guard.

My historical information is courtesy of the Great Lakes Lighthouse Encyclopedia by Larry and Patricia Wright, pages 304-305. For more information or directions to the Milwaukee Breakwater Lighthouse, visit: http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=243.

In closing the Milwaukee lakefront proves to be a great place to run and observe a beautiful lighthouse.