2021 Lighthouse Challenge - Day 2

We didn't rise as early on Sunday morning but were out of the condo by 9:30 and on our way to the Squan Lifesaving Station in Manasquan.  I didn't have printed directions for this one so we relied on Siri to get us there.  Siri sent us past this building and down a one way street to a recreation area.   There was no Challenge signage visable outside this building so we did ride past it before turning ourselves around.  It had taken us about an hour to go 37 miles to get there.

In contrast, it only took us a few minutes to travel the 3 miles to the Sea Girt Lighthouse. 

Instead of getting onto the Garden State Parkway we opted to take the "shore route" which took us through a string of shore towns up the NJ coast though at no point was the ocean visible until we got much nearer to Sandy Hook 29 miles and an hour later.  Sandy Hook is a beautiful barrier beach peninsula recreational area that separates the Atlantic Ocean from the Sandy Hook Bay.  Given the beautiful weather conditions, although slightly cooler than the day before, the park was full of all kinds of activity on land and in the water.  The lighthouse and the lighthouse museum building however were closed on the inside and had the challenge tables outside the building.  Sandy Hook is the oldest working lighthouse in the United States.

   This is the back of the barracks that remain from Fort Hancock located on the Sandy Hook peninsula and steps away from the lighthouse.

They face the mainland and have fallen into disrepair.  The majority of them are not occupied and have not been for a very long time.  There appear to be a few that have been renovated and are being used for something.   These pictures only show a few of them. There are many more in various states.  A lot of the porch roofs were being propped up so that they wouldn't collapse and take the whole building down.  Not sure what the plan is for them. 

Leaving the park we have only to look up the hill in the distance to see the Twin Lights at Atlantic Highlands, the highest coastal elevation on the east coast of the United States.  There is very little room on the grounds of these lighthouses to be able to get a picture of both of them together from the front without tumbling down the hill.  So my shot this time was to try to get the two of them from the north side.   It is a grassy hill, but I didn't want to find myself at the bottom.  I didn't realize until later that I didn't get too much detail of these buildings as the sun was behind them.  The lights are connected with a building in between them that serves as a museum.  They remind me of chess pieces.  

Turning myself around just slightly to my left I could see the tanker ships that are waiting their turn to enter the New York harbor and empty their cargo.  This is only what could be seen from my vantage point.  There are a lot more out there but I don't believe as many as what they say are waiting off the west coast these days.  

Turning a little more to my left I could just barely see the NY City skyline in the distance.  I don't remember the trees obscuring so much of the view here.  I don't remember if I had gotten better pictures of that view from the top of the north tower at some point or weather it was just the growth of the trees in the area.  

This is where we ended the challenge stops.  We found a pizza shop and a bakery down the road aways and had a quick lunch in the car before making the 57 mile trip home.  The total mileage for Sunday was 172 miles in about 4 1/2 hours.

This is the challenge booklet that we purchased at the start of our trip on Saturday morning for $4.  And on the right you will see an example of the stickers that were given out at each site.  

Here is the booklet opened up with all the stickers in place.  We didn't do a night climb (the top center) but they gave us the sticker at the last stop anyway to make the book complete.  They also gave us the completion sticker (center bottom).  I've only put those stickers in one of the booklets for now.  HWNSNBP said he is going to create a frame for this.  We have our tokens from past challenges displayed in a glass topped coffee table at the condo.  

Close-ups of the stickers.

People ask us why we keep doing this even though we don't climb the lighthouses anymore.  Of course there is beauty to be found in the view from the top, but there is beauty just looking up and looking around.  It's such a nice time of the year to take a drive, why not take a drive with a destination in mind.  Sure, it's fun to collect the tokens along the way, but we did part of this on our own last year when it was only virtual and didn't miss getting the tokens at all.  We see parts of our state that we don't see every day.  It's fun to notice the changes in areas from year to year.  There are places that we have stopped before that no longer exist and we are finding new places to explore along the way making note of what we might like to come back to.  We have a comfortable car that happens to be a hybrid and gets great mileage.  I do admit that I only do about 1% of the driving, and on long trips I tend to fall asleep when HWNSNBP is driving, but my only naps on this excursion were before the first stop on Saturday and after the last stop on Sunday.  I don't want to miss any of the scenery in between.  And, you'll see in another post soon, there's always the chance of a bucket list accomplishment.

Will we do it again?  There's our health, the weather, and other social commitments to consider but I'll say probably right now.  It's nice to have something to look forward to.