June 25, 2017

• The Inner Light

  You might read the title of this post and think it's going to be introspective, perhaps even inspiring. Nope. You can take that title very literally. I live in a tiny village minutes away from Lake Michigan. Just up the road is the town of St. Joseph, which sits right on the lake shore. There are two piers in St. Joseph that form a channel where the St. Joseph River empties into Lake Michigan. The South Pier is on the south bank of the river and has a navigation light at the end of it. The North Pier is on the north bank of the river and has two lighthouses on it - the inner light and the outer light. You've probably seen photos of the outer light in winter, coated in ice and looking like a fairy tale castle. You might have seen the inner light depicted on a postage stamp a few years ago.

  My cousin Becky was visiting from Arizona last week. On her first night here, I took her out to Tiscornia Beach to walk on the north pier and watch the sunset over the lake.

  

  It may not look like it in this photo, but the lake was rather choppy that evening. You can see how wet the pier was from waves washing over it. We didn't venture past the safety railings about halfway down the pier.

  On Becky's last morning here, we had time for one activity before she had to pack her rental car and drive back to Chicago to catch her flight home. We chose to return to Tiscornia Beach and walk to the end of the north pier. It was a beautiful, sunny morning with just a light breeze, so we were confident that we could walk out to the lighthouses without getting wet. As we approached the inner light, I was amazed to see the doors standing wide open! I've lived here for 25 years and this was the first time I'd seen open doors on the lighthouse.

  

  There were people inside wearing tee-shirts from the Heritage Museum in downtown St. Joe. I stood at the bottom of the steps and shouted up to the man in the doorway asking if they were giving tours. He said they were and told me how much it would cost, so Becky and I returned to the parking lot to get some money out of the purses we'd left in the van, then walked back out to the lighthouse.

  It's not a big lighthouse, so the tour was brief, but we were allowed to spend as much time as we wished enjoying the views and taking photos. Getting up to the light involved signing a waiver, then climbing up two steep and very narrow metal spiral staircases and one metal ladder with very widely spiced rungs.

  

  This is the first staircase. The narrowness and tiny steps reminded me of the staircase at the Betsy Ross house we toured in Philadelphia a few years ago. It was a little tight, but not scary for a 20th century sized person wearing capris and sneakers. I'm glad I didn't have to traverse the staircase in 18th century shoes, skirts and petticoats.

  

  We had entered the lighthouse from the doors that originally led to the room containing a steam engine that provided power to the foghorn, with a room behind it that once held the coal for the steam engine. At the top of the first staircase was the actual "front door" the lighthouse keeper reached by way of the catwalk above the pier. This was so the building would be accessible in rough weather, when waves were crashing over the pier.

  

  The second staircase was a bit narrower than the first and led to a small landing with four porthole windows providing a 360 degree view. I'm only showing you 180 degrees of the view - back along the catwalk toward shore...

  

  ... and out toward the outer light.

  The scary ladder up to the actual light was located off this landing. I climbed up it without panicking, freezing or crying. I did all three of those things getting on and off the dock at Power Island a few years ago, so I was relieved that I didn't embarrass myself here.

  

  This is what a modern lighthouse beacon looks like. (Not the guy in the tee-shirt; that was our tour guide.) The modern lights are LED and operated remotely. We spent several minutes enjoying the view (and possibly procrastinating the ladder descent) before heading back down. Going down the ladder was scarier than going up, but I managed it without freezing, panicking or crying. I was having a brave day.

  Our unexpected lighthouse tour was the perfect way to end a wonderful visit with a cousin I rarely see.

   

  • 11:42 am
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