Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Lighthouses & Special "Guests"

We're huge fans of lighthouses. This lamp is a replica of the one in Cape May New Jersey. It sits on a table in the sitting room off the master bedroom.























This picture hangs in our bedroom. It's from one of our favorite places - Cape Henlopen. That was "our beach" when we had our weekend/summer house in Delaware.




















If you look closely - there's a ferry boat in the background. It travels across the mouth of Delaware Bay from lighthouse to lighthouse - Lewes Delaware to Cape May New Jersey. We used to hang out on our boat Laffin' Gaff, just out of the travel lane & eat lunch & watch them roll past. We had a visit one day from Homeland Security guys in a Coast Guard cutter. Guess we were suspicious looking characters. They were 'just checkin' on us. After the tough guy start - they were pretty cool.


















There's even one here in Chicago.




















Here's my favorite - This is in St Augustine. The picture was taken at dusk. Looks like a great place for vampires to hang out.



















No matter where you go, St Augustine's LH is on the horizon. This pic was taken from Laffin' Gaff. We have tons of pictures from all angles - but don't want to go crazy posting 'em all.



















This picture is included in my soon to be available book, BAD LATITUDE. You'll find it at the start of Chapter 9 Dead Girls.






















This is the lightkeeper's house. We've never ever taken a picture there at night without something strange showing up in either the foreground or backgound. I guess you have to expect that from a haunted lighthouse. I can't say for sure if that "stuff" in the picture is a ghost, but it wasn't something added after the fact.






















It's only 219 steps to the top of the spiraling iron staircase. No construction workers were killed when the St Augustine Lighthouse was built - but 2 of the construction superintendent's daughters were. I let my imagination run wild with that bit of history when I wrote BL. So what do you get when you mix 4 teenagers, an empty lighthouse at night with 2 dead girls & their long deceased over-protective father? Hmmmm....



















I have visited lighthouses from Maine to Florida & I'm always amazed at how they're built & wonder what strange tales & secrets are hidden away in each one's history. It had to be a lonely & difficult life for the keepers & their families back in the day when they had to carry fuel to the top to keep the lights burning. Not a job I would want to do, well, not for very long anyway. I also wonder how many ships were saved from wrecking along the coastline because of their hard work & dedication?

There was a show on TV (Discovery Channel?) about our haunted lighthouse. The 'paranormal experts' were pretty freaked out. Wouldn't it be cool to spend the night alone in one - especially during a storm? Especially if it really was haunted?