Victoria, with Lydia in the background. Hester took this picture.
Here's a little excerpt from my letter of July 31, 2000, when we were in Ohio:
* * *
After crossing over Sandusky Bay on
the Bay Bridge, we drove around Marblehead Peninsula, stopping to see
Marblehead Lighthouse. This lighthouse
has been in continuous service longer than any other lighthouse. Construction was completed in 1822, and it’s
been working ever since. As we walked
nearer, we could see people far above us, walking around the light up at the
top, holding the railing. We headed for
the door.
It was a big old wooden door, painted
green~~and it was stuck. I pushed on it,
succeeding in getting it open a few inches…
I braced my feet and determinedly pushed.
What I didn’t know was that the
lighthouse keeper was trying to shut and lock the door from the other
side. He pulled it open, looking a bit
disgruntled at this persistent tourist who wouldn’t take no for an answer~~and
I, still shoving with all my might and main, nearly tumbled in onto his feet.
I gathered myself together and
grinned at him.
“Oops,” said I. “Sorry!”
He quit looking peeved and
laughed. “The last tour went up at
4:30,” he told me. “I’m just locking the
door; you can come back tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.”
Four-thirty. We were fifteen minutes too late, and
‘tomorrow’ would find us 500 miles farther west. But I thanked him, and we trekked off to the
rocky shores of Lake Erie, where we used up handfuls of film and a good deal of
energy clambering about on the boulders.
Whitecaps sparkled snowy white in the sunlight, and breakers crashed
against the rocks at our feet. Boats in
the distance rose and fell on the waves, and sea gulls wheeled overhead, their
cries drifting down like tinkling chimes.
Nearby, a friendly black man reeled
in the twentieth fish he and his wife had caught, and tossed it into a
five-gallon bucket with some of the others he was keeping. Caleb, wanting to look into the bucket, and
feeling timid about doing so, crept closer…closer…closer…and then he jerked
back quickly and almost fell between the rocks he was jumping, for one of the
fish slapped its tail so vigorously it sprayed water all over him.
In the village of Lakeside, we
stopped at a gift shop and purchased a few souvenirs, including magnets with a
picture of the lighthouse on them.
