Note: I finished updating the blog back to 10 Sep, if you want to go back and have a look. It has the lighthouse tour on the upper peninsula.
19 Sep
This morning we headed south into the Chicago area to visit the Naval Station Great Lakes.
They have a campground there that we have talked about visiting and while in the area we thought we would drive down there and have a look.
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| Main gate to the Naval Station Great Lakes |
The Naval Station Great Lakes is huge, over 1628 acres. It has 1153 buildings and is now the US Navy's only boot camp, but it is much more than that.
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| "Boots" in formation marching to the heel beat! Ah, the memories! |
They also train sailors in electronics, explosive ordinance disposal, diving, leadership, firefighting and many other specialties. Here is one I did not realize:
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| SEAL TEAM Training School |
There were literally hundreds of signs to guide visitors who are here to attend their loved one's boot camp graduation. We are just thankful that we did not hit that day, whenever it is. The Air Force Basic Training graduation ceremony is each Friday. I assume the Navy graduates each week also.
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| Entrance to the campgrounds |
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| Electric-only hookups in the campground. They don't have a lot of camp sites but there were a few available. |
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| The campgrounds is situated right on Lake Michigan, so beautiful view |
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| I bet they get a nice breeze here off Lake Michigan. |
We stopped in the NEX (Naval Exchange) and the commissary, and then headed north to Kenosha to check out two lighthouses.
The first one was the Kenosha Southport Lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in 1866 replacing two other built in 1848 and 1858 at the same site. The tower stands 55 ft tall and is on a hill projecting light 74 ft above lake level.
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| Very picturesque! |
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| Doreen standing in front of the lighthouse tower. |
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| The south side of the keeper's house. |
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| This shows where the keeper's house appears to have been added onto with a red brick structure. |
We were not here on a day it is open for visitors, but visitor can climb the 72 steps to the top. The house is a museum and is also open certain days. Both the house and the tower are made of yellow Milwaukee cream city brick and they have been beautifully restored and preserved.
From here we drove just a couple blocks east to view the Kenosha North Pier Light. It is located at the end of a concrete pier on the north side of the Kenosha harbor to mark the entrance.
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| A long walk out the pier to the lighthouse |
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| Sea gull checking out the tourists |
It was built in 1856 and is a conical cast iron structure 50 ft tall. It was guaranteed to withstand "anything the lake could give it".
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| Doreen standing in front of the Kenosha North Pier Light |
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| Solar panels providing power for the light |
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| Foghorn ports on the right |
It was fitted with the Fresnel lens that was removed from the Southport Lighthouse. They used the house as the residence for the pierhead keeper. Now it is painted bright red with some graffiti.
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| Lights marking entrance to the harbor |
From here we headed back to the campground and then loaded up laundry and other items for a trip to Michelle's house. Keith is on a trip so we arrived at the house just in time to meet Jon coming home from school. Later Joe and Michelle arrived and we had dinner with them. We returned to the campground just in time to see the end of the Chicago Cubs vs Tampa Bay Rays baseball game.
Tomorrow's plan is yet to be determined. We have done most of what we intended here, other than possibly visiting the Harley Davidson plant and maybe a return trip to Kenosha to visit a Civil War Museum we spotted from the North Pier..
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