What are your plans?

[Hersh]

So, what kind of plans do you guys have for lighthouse travel this year now that Memorial day is upon us? Any lighthouses you've been dying to see that will be finally taken off of the list? Big-time cruises or guided land tours? Special day trips with just you and your camera?

I think we'd all like to hear where our friends will be travelling this year.

Of course my travel will be very limited due to the babies at home and having to stay around town while I'm on call for work, but I am still planning one big trip this year. It will be the WiLD cruise this August. I've said before that if I could only take one trip, this would be it. Now I get to put my money where my mouth is. On the cruise I'll be able to cross some very remote lights off of my wish list, and most importantly I get to see some great friends again. Of course since I'll be taking the whole week off I'll be packing as much lighthousing as possible into the time before and after the cruise, I want to make every minute count.

In the fall I will be fishing in a tournament on Lk. St. Clair, and though it won't be a lighthousing trip I'll certainly make time to run the boat near some of the lighthouses in the area and chase a couple freighters.

Ok, there's my itinerary, where are YOU going this season

[wheland]

I don't have too many specific Lighthouse travel plans this year.

We will be volunteering at the NJ Lighthouse Challenge in October and may do the MD Challenge. I just got done volunteering at the LI challenge last weekend.

We were originally going on the NELL Cruise in June but family obligations are nixing that one.

We will be going to Baltimore in August and I'm sure I'll at the very least get to see Seven Foot Knoll and the Chesapeake Lightship.

The big trip this year is a trip to Europe. We'll be spending some time in London and then we take a 14 day cruise to France, Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Norway and Denmark. We will definitely see one lighthouse in Northern Ireland in Donaghadee

http://tinyurl.com/pw67g

I'm sure we'll see more on our way in or out of port. I haven't done my research on that yet. I'm not going to be able to paln too many trips to lighthouses- Esther wants to see as much of each city as we can in the time we have at each one.

We have some overnight and weekend trips planned but they are not near any lighthouses either.

I guess every once in awhile you have to do things that are connected to lighthouses- yes I know that's heresy here.

Dennis

[Larry]

I have no real plans. With the new job, I now have very few vacation hours so far (although they do load up quickly...22 vacation & 3 personal & 13 holidays & 15 sick per year...I love working for the state!).

I might do a few weekend things, but those will be to see things I've already seen.

[AL]

So far I have planned the following: (June) The NELL Western Long Island Sound LH cruise; (June) a trip to Maine for a few LH's; (July) a return to Rhode Island for a LH cruise; (Aug) busy with another new Grandson , & a combined air show with the Blue Angels & Thunderbirds; (Sept) NJLS Lake Champlain LH tour & cruise; (Oct) part of the NJ LH Challenge; (Oct) tour of the Hudson-Athens LH; and (Jan) possibly a return to FL for a few more LH's in the panhandle.

[beachbum1616]

We have no concrete plans for lighthousing this year. Cape Lookout has been mentioned several times, so we may get out that way for the weekend, and I want to get back to Bald Head again. Other than that, there are no plans.

But then again, my camera is on the fritz, so I guess that could be a good reason we don't have any plans in place.

[Weasel58]

Well this year is an "off" year for me as far as trips go. I will be in the Norfolk area for the HL 'tidewater" trip, and will be revisiting the Northern Outer Banks, the same weekend. My big trip this year is the WILD trip that Hersh is going to be on. I hope to visit as many lights in the UP of Michagan as I can. I have 2 days before the boat trip and 3 days after it to try to see as many of them as I can.

[Ross]

Had the first Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse open house today, and 250+ visitors passed through the gate. My voice is shot and it's hot in that lantern room!

[Gary Martin]

Planned trips..... me???? About the only thing that is seriously planned is the WiLD trip in August. Aside from that, I tend to go out to photograph pretty much on a whim. We're about 45 min from Navesink, which is the closest light. Sandy Hook is only just a little farther away. I can see Romer Shoal out in the distance from either Mt Mitchell in the Atlantic Highlands or from the beach north of Sandy Hook. At some point this summer, we want to get down to the OBX again but that will be whenever things ease up a bit at work in terms of instrument installations and the massive amount of work sitting there waiting for us to get the toys on line... There's probably a trip to Maine in the works at some point this summer, which of course means that I'll catch the lights that it's convenient to see on the way up and back...

At some point, I want to get out to Fire Island to shoot the sunrise. That light just clamors to be photographed at dawn when I look at it. In all liklihood we'll do the NJ lighthouse challenge in October since it falls on my birthday this year... I'll give myself that for a b-day present. Of course if I get distracted with the cameras, the challenge will go by the wayside!

[Gary Martin]

Camera on the fritz, Stephen... that's just an excuse for another camera so you have a backup when one of them is being serviced! That's a pefect excuse

[beachbum1616]

I wish that was possible!

I am having some sort of electrical trouble. It says that the batteries are dead even when new ones have been put in it. All of the contact points are clean, and I have messed with it enough, now I have to send it in for repair. I have a waranty on it, so hopefully that will take care of the repair?!

[Gary Martin]

I've only had to send in two of my Nikons over the years for service. The autofocus died in one of my F5's and the metering system went out in the D2H. The F5 was covered by warranty, the D2H was covered by wallet... Oh well.

[mikev]

Looks like only one trip, and Carole will be pleased to know it will be Maine. My family, including my married kids and their children, are doing one more week at a long-favored cabin complex on the coast in Rockport, before it closes forever and becomes upscale condos or whatever. Bittersweet trip, but it will involve picture-taking (my sons-in-law are all digital but Hersh has shamed me into digging out the film gear for another go at that, and I've actually bought a couple rolls of Velvia to experiment with). We'll be doing Dot Black's Friends of Rockland Breakwater LH cruise to Penobscot Bay lights, checking in on the Maine LH Museum official opening, and longtime friends Anne & Troy Wallace want to boat us out to the Seguin Island LH she runs. Looking forward to all this, and to taki some pictures again....

[Hersh]

Sounds like some good lighthousing in the works for many of you...

Mike, I can imagine how tough it will be to see a favorite vacation spot bulldozed in the name of progress, but I hope you enjoy this last visit. And I'm glad I influenced you to drag out the cameras, but I hope there wasn't that much shame involved...

[epona]

Mike and everyone

I am attending an all day conference being held here in Biddeford at the University of New England about Coast Access and the like. Along the coast/islands of Maine lands are being bought up and converted. This is limiting fishing and the like. It is also driving up taxes and pushing out the locals. I will find out a great deal more on Friday.

Carole

[TWolfe]

In June we're going to Milwaukee for a wedding. It will be a very brief trip. We're definitely planning to see Wind Point Lighthouse. We'll have to see if we have time to visit any other lighthouses.

This summer we're going to Washington State for our almost annual vacation to San Juan Island. Before we head to San Juan Island to relax and whale watch, we're going to stay a few days on the Olympic Peninsula coast. When we get to San Juan Island, we'll be spending lots of time at Lime Kiln Lighthouse, one of the best places in the world to passively watch whales.

In August we're doing the WILD Lake Superior cruise.

In October I have tentative plans to participate in an organized lighthouse tour in Maine. This will be my first visit to Maine. We're considering taking a vacation there in the summer of 2007.

Happy Lighthousing to all.

Tammy