Malinda Lo

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May 1, 2009

Photo Friday: Point Arena Lighthouse

A couple of weeks ago I went up north to Mendocino County on a working vacation. I worked in the mornings and early evenings, and in the middle of the afternoon went and saw some new stuff. One of those things was Point Arena Lighthouse, which is the closest you can get to Hawaii while still in the Continental United States!

Here I am in front of the lighthouse, which was rebuilt following the 1906 earthquake that hit particularly hard in Point Arena (because the San Andreas fault runs very close by):

Click photos to enlarge

Visitors to the lighthouse can climb 115 feet to the top on these stairs:

It’s a tiring climb, but once you get up there you can see spectacular vistas like this one:

The land there is constantly being pulled into the Pacific. You can see it even more clearly in this photo, where it looks like the earth is just tumbling into the ocean:

Inside the museum nearby, you can see the Fresnel lens that was once lit by a very hot oil lantern. It looks kinda alien:

There’s also a little annex in the museum where there are some historical artifacts from the town of Point Arena. I particularly liked this plate:

It’s a kid riding a turkey! J.C. Halliday & Son sure knew how to make an impression. If they still existed, I would totally shop at their store, if only to get this plate.

Have a great weekend, folks!

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Filed Under: Photo Friday

5 Responses
  1. Susan Ross
    May 1, 2009 at 8:12 am

    Simply beautiful, I have a plate with a kid riding a ostrich, I wonder…

  2. Inger
    May 1, 2009 at 1:50 pm

    Hi Malinda
    Wow you should start a blog on lighthouses!
    Thank you for that beautiful Fresnel lens photo, it does look rather bug eyed… I wonder why they squashed them together like that?
    Perhaps because a full sized one wouldn’t fit?
    Very beautiful and as always, inspiring.
    Cheers

  4. Mishel
    May 3, 2009 at 12:54 pm

    What a beautiful spot! I bet you had a lot of fun spending the day at the lighthouse.

    115 feet…eesh lol But the view is worth it!

    Hope you have a great day.

  5. Malinda Lo
    May 4, 2009 at 5:15 pm

    Not sure why it was like that — I did think it looked weird. But makes for a good picture! I swear I’m becoming obsessed with lighthouses. :)