Lighthouses - Five on Friday

I'm joining in with Amy over at Love Made My Home for Five on Friday.

With our trip coming up tomorrow I thought I'd share a little about the lighthouses of Michigan. If you've visited my blog before you've seen pictures of lighthouses here. Since leaving work last year hubby and I have been visiting them. I really love history. In England it's really easy to find historic places, turn around and you bump into one. Here in America, not so much. It's a much younger country and Michigan became a state in 1837. It's not so easy to find history. But Michigan does have lighthouses. In abundance.

There are 129 lighthouses in Michigan - more lighthouses than any other state. Four of the Great Lakes border Michigan - Huron, Superior, Erie and Michigan. I think it's going to take us quite a while to see them but we are determined to do as many as we can.

I'm not going to overload - just share five. Four of them we've visited and I had a lot of fun taking pictures of them. The fifth is one of those we hope to visit on our way up north.

South Haven Lighthouse. This is one of the closes to us. It was built in 1872. The picture above was taken in the summer.

I love these views of this lighthouse. We visited again in the dead of winter. You can see how in the winter the lake is all frozen over and even the back of the lighthouse had ice on it. This was my first visit to Lake Michigan when the lake was frozen.

You can almost see the frozen waves. Or is it just my imagination?

St. Joseph Lighthouse

This is another one we visited in the winter. We have yet to visit in the summer yet. It's on our list. Our son lives really close to it so no excuses!

It was built in 1832.

Grand Island East Channel Lighthouse

I think it's the romantic in me that likes this one. It is (apparently) privately owned though I think it is by more than one person. I like the thought of being able to live in the lighthouse though it needs a lot of restoration! It is quite remote though.

We saw it when we took a trip on the Pictured Rocks tour.

Au Sable Point Lighthouse

This was one we visited in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There was quite a walk along a mosquito-laden path before we reached it. Luckily we had plenty of spray. You could see swarms of mosquitoes follow as we walked along.

The view from this one was so beautiful. It seemed like the very edge of the world. I imagine having to stay here in a harsh Michigan winter with the bitter cold and snow blowing off the lake.

Point Betsie Lighthouse

This is one we hope to visit on our way up north. This is not a picture I took. 

This picture is taken from a really cool lighthouse website that shows you all the lighthouses in Michigan. Map of Michigan Lighthouses  .  You can click on different parts of the map to see lighthouses in different parts of the state. It's a really great website for anything Michigan Lighthouse.

 We have so many more to visit. We have done a lot along this side of the state and some up in the Upper Peninsula but only one on the other side of the state. Next year we hope to take a trip over that side of the state to do some more. There are also some that you can only see from the water so it sounds like a few boat trips are in our future!

Thanks for looking. I love reading comments.