Tuesday, February 5, 2008

More Travel.. Point Reyes Lighthouse

Back to that weekend trip with my Mom and Stepdad to the Coast Guard Station. One of the things we did was take a drive out to Point Reyes National Seashore. What a beautiful place. We drove out to the visitors center and wandered around Drake's Bay, sat down in the visitor's center and had a cup of coffee. Here's a view of part of the bay:
It was pretty windy and cool that day, so the hot coffee was very welcome. As we wandered through the center and considered getting on one of the buses that take you out to the lighthouse, one of the rangers came up and asked us if we were planning on visiting the lighthouse. He'd spotted my Stepdad's cane and told us that we didn't have to ride the bus, that we could use the handicap parking that is out at the point that the lighthouse sits on. Gave us good directions and a few tips on what to see and do out there. So, off we went. The drive out to the point is a pretty one. It's a narrow 2 lane road that wanders along the bluffs, past several "historic" farms and dairies. Once you get out to where the buses drop passengers, we went through a gate down a bit further to where the handicap parking is. We did get a few really nasty looks from people who were walking down the road from the bus drop off.. lol.. We got my Stepdad's walker out, figuring that it would be easier for him than the cane (at least his walker has a seat it in so he can sit down and rest if he needs to.) and started walking down towards the Lighthouse visitor center. More wind, more beautiful views... My Stepdad found a nice sunny spot that was out of the wind and parked himself there while my Mom and I headed for the stairs down.

Now, from the Visitor Center down to the lighthouse is over 300 steps... A sign at the top says that the stairs and ramps are the equivilant of a 30 story building. Whew! Down we went. When we were nearly down at the light house I took this photo:
Then down at the lighthouse, I took a few more pictures:Before starting the climb back up the stairs and ramps, I pointed my camera back up the way we had come down.... Oh boy....If you look closely at the picture, you see way up at the top what looks almost like a big water tank or concrete building? That is near the top of the steps.... We did it.. Mom and I climbed down all those steps, wandered around in the buildings at the bottom and then climbed back to the top in about 45 minutes! Not bad for a couple ladies, one almost 80 and the other 60 years old. Wouldn't have missed the chance to do that for the world!

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