Point Reyes Lighthouse

 

   I visited my daughter’s family in Sacramento from my town of Anaheim in Southern California. My son-in-law and my daughter took me to Redwood Forest, Lake Tahoe and many attractions in Sacramento. The Lighthouse is located north of San Francisco. They planned to take me to Point Reyes Lighthouse.        

 

   It was an exciting and cheerful day, thinking about my visit to Point Reyes Lighthouse. I wasn’t able to truly fall sound asleep the night before. In the morning, it was sunny after some rain at midnight. My son-in-law drove and it took three hours to arrive at the Point Reyes Lighthouse.

 

   My daughter and two granddaughters including myself were so excited to see beautiful sceneries through Point Reyes National Seashore. As we traveled through, I couldn’t help but notice the deer, the cows and bulls of various colors all over the land grazing on the green rich grass. There are several beautiful lakes, thick forest and renowned hiking courses along the road.

 

   The scenery looked like a masterpiece of art, but really it’s a masterpiece of God. It gave me joy and pleasure. From the bottom of my heart, I enjoyed every minute of my visit to the Lighthouse. When we arrived at the Lighthouse, I exclaimed with a breathtaking surprise. There are almost 500 stairs on the steep rocky cliff leading all the way down to the Lighthouse. As I looked down the stairs, I felt dizzy. The Lighthouse commands a beautiful view of the navy blue ocean.

 

   Point Reyes Lighthouse is the windiest place on the Pacific coast and the second foggiest place on the North American Continent. This Lighthouse was built in 1870 and an automated light was installed in 1975.

 

   The Lighthouse at Point Reyes Seashore is now a functionary museum, where the era of the light keepers’ lives is explained and the craftsmanship and the beauty of the Lighthouse are actively preserved. Lighthouses provide mariners some safety by warning them off rocky shores and reefs.

 

   The lens in the Lighthouse is a “First Order” Fresnel lens, the largest size of Fresnel lens. After Fresnel’s invention in 1822, the brightest lighthouse could be seen all the way to the horizon, about twenty-four miles. The Fresnel lens intensifies the light bending and magnifies the source light through crystal prism into a concentrated beam. The Point Reyes lens is divided into twenty-four vertical panels, which direct the light into twenty-four individual beams.

 

   Listening to the light keeper telling the history, it was an amazing and awesome story about its lamp. I was short of breath, when I climbed the stairs all the way up to the top of the hill after I saw the Lighthouse. Happily, I toured without any difficulties or problems in the long run. It proved that I am still in good health, considering my age. I gave thanks to God for it.

 

The sun shone on the rolling and dazzling sea. Sea gulls were soaring high. The clouds were hovering above me. The billows of the sea seemed to call me and I was enchanted with the beauty of nature made by God.

 

   This trip visiting the Lighthouse was a wonderful and unforgettable memory. I will cherish it all the days of my life. I wrote a poem about the lighthouse because I was so touched with the life of the light keeper and about the beauty of Point Reyes Lighthouse.

 

 

‘The light keeper of Point Reyes Lighthouse’                                                                                                                         

 

 

 

Coloring sunset reflects shadow over the horizon

Darkness is devouring the blue ocean

Solitude spreads all over like death

 

Billows of the waves console loneliness

No human trace is seen on the sea

The pale stars are twinkling

 

deadly storms drive the rain and the wind

The beam of the lighthouse penetrates the darkness

The light of lifesaver shoots in all directions

 

In a dilemma of life and death

Through the pitch black darkness,

The shining light leads from despair to hope

The light keeper delivers people from the roaring waves in rage

 

The world is sleeping in silence

He guards the night like an owl

 

In the daytime, he relaxes himself

Dreaming of visiting his family afar.