






Even though we walked gingerly along the path and kept moving, the birds squawked at us and sometimes tried to dive bomb our heads. Dave Begun, our National Park Service ranger, suggested we raise our hands over our heads to discourage them. These seagull couples nest in the same location year after year, their brown speckled eggs sometimes lying within inches of the trail.
For this second leg of our lighthouse trip, we moved north of Malibu where we initially camped, to a Ventura RV Park. Nestled next to the freeway, quiet it was not. Stu even had to sign a form saying that he knew it was noisy and agreed to stay the five nights we had reserved! With our trailer parked, we headed out to see our last two lighthouses, Pt. Hueneme and Anacapa.
We planned our trip around Island Packer's online boat schedule for Anacapa Island. Part of the Channel Islands National Park, Anacapa is made up of three small islands just 12 miles off the coast. Of the Channel Islands, it is the smallest and closest to the California coast. And it has a lighthouse.

Anacapa Lighthouse Island Packer's Anacapa Boat Seagulls on their nests
Most people come for the day, but there is a rustic campsite for those who wish to stay longer.
Unexpectedly, our trip to the island with 43 elementary school kids on board, was itself one of the highlights. Marine wildlife surrounded us. Whales spouted off the bow, black and white Orcas hunted for their next meal just off the port side, and schools of dolphins chased our boat.
May is nesting time on the island for brown pelicans and the above mentioned seagulls.
But we were here for the lighthouse. The National Park Service manages the island, but the Coast Guard still maintains the light, an aid to navigation. Currently not open to the public, visitors may walk up the trail toward the lighthouse and get into photo-shooting range. On the island are remnants of the old Lighthouse Station including the still operational fog building, and another sheltering two huge redwood water tanks. Because we were writing a story about the lighthouse and had arranged with the NPS ahead of time, Dave escorted us through the 39-foot cylindrical lighthouse tower.
Built in 1930, the tower design resembles Pt. Vicente, but it's 27 feet shorter. In 1989, the third-order Fresnel lens was removed and replaced by a beacon. Today, the lens is on display in the tiny visitor's center. However, as one of the old keepers said, "A static display of a lighthouse lens in a museum...is similar to viewing an animal in a zoo." He has a point.
A few days later we headed for Pt. Hueneme Light (pronounced why-nee-me). When originally built in 1874 the building resembled the Victorian Pt. Fermin. But in 1941 that lighthouse was replaced with a square, 48‑foot‑tall, art moderne-style concrete tower. Unlikely as it seems, a fourth-order Fresnel lens still rotates at the top of the tower.

Pt. Hueneme Lighthouse Stairs to the tower

Stu at the top of Pt. Hueneme Light Pt. Hueneme Lighthouse Tower
Like Pt. Vicente, the Coast Guard Auxiliary opens this lighthouse once a month. This one on the third Saturday, February through October. Also like Pt. Vicente, the people in charge are named Castrobran. Here it's Kim and Rose, son and daughter-in-law of Commander Eric of Pt. Vicente. Kim and Rose tour visitors up to the tower via some steep stairs and they tell stories of it's history and answer questions. Downstairs a small museum provides more information about the light.
Rose and Kim, like Commander Castrobran at Pt. Vicente, are committed to keeping the Fresnel lens lit at Pt. Hueneme.
For more information on lighthouses, including these five, check out the excellent: www.lighthousefriends.com website.
We've just returned from a 10-day RV road trip along the southern California coast to capture five South Coast lighthouses in text and images, a rather more complex challenge than you might imagine. One lighthouse is inaccessible, but may be viewed from a nearby breakwater. Another is open most afternoons, while two are open only one day a month, and another requires boat passage only available on specified days.

This Fresnel Lens operates in Pt. Vicente Lighthouse A view of Pt. Vicente Light
Yes, Fresnel lenses go with lighthouses. Invented by a Frenchman August Fresnel (pronounced fray-nell) in1822, his glass prisms and lenses were constructed to focus a lighthouse lamp beam for 20 miles and more. Built in several "orders" or sizes, the "first" orders being the largest, these glass lenses look like a giant beehive with a light at the center. Today, more often than not we find modern beacons in lighthouses, because they require less maintenance than these "multifaceted crystal lenses, bound in polished brass." (A quote from James Baker, a lighthouse keeper at Anacapa in the 1950s). As history buffs, we love finding lighthouses with original Fresnel lenses still operating as aids to navigation.
Eric Castrobran loves lighthouses too. He has managed to keep Pt. Vicente's third-order lens operating for the past 20 years. One of the most interesting people we've met while researching lighthouse stories, at age 80 he serves as a Commander in the Coast Guard Auxiliary. In this role, he helped automate and remotely monitor thousands of aids-to-navigation including buoys, fog signals and lights. As long as he's around, he says, the Fresnel lens will be here too.
Pt. Vicente Lighthouse occupies a bluff at the northwest end of the Palos Verdes Peninsula within a Coast Guard facility. In 1793, Captain George Vancouver named this point for his friend Friar Vicente of San Buenaventura Mission. While the government knew they needed a light here in 1914, the 55-foot cylindrical tower was not built until 1926. Open only on the second Saturday each month, we arrived early to climb the steep spiral stairs to the lantern room. While the lens made its slow rotation, we marveled at the construction and how such a small light bulb could be seen so far out to sea.

Pt. Fermin Lighthouse Lightkeeper's Uniform and Fresnel Lens on display
On another day we visited nearby Pt. Fermin Light. Vancouver named this point for Friar Fermin who replaced Father Serra as head of the California missions. The 1874 Victorian-stick style building looks like a neat old house with a lookout tower. Open for tours Tuesday through Sunday afternoons, it is owned by the City of Los Angeles and is surrounded by a city park. A nonprofit volunteer group keeps the garden beautiful with blooming flowers, provides tours and is working to fill the house with period artifacts to better tell this lighthouse's story.
With the decommissioning of the light in WWII, the lens was removed from the tower that remains empty today. However, the original fourth-order Fresnel lens, once lost, was recovered through the diligence of volunteers and is now prominently displayed downstairs.
Pt. Fermin sits smack between Pt. Vicente and Los Angeles Harbor Lighthouse, also known as Angel's Gate.

Los Angeles Harbor Light aka Angel's Gate, San Pedro
Not open to the public, Angel's Gate perches on the tip of a breakwater jutting into LA Harbor. On a very windy afternoon we walked from Cabrillo Park near Pt. Fermin to the end of the local pier to photograph this 1913 Romanesque-style tower. We snapped a picture just as a gigantic container ship passed behind it. No Fresnel lens here now, but the Los Angeles Maritime Museum displays it's fourth-order lens at the Los Angeles Maritime Museum.
Happy Travels, Janet and Stu
You might drive right by the small
town without noticing it. Built below
the
It=s
the only town in

Housed in the old buildings are shops, museums and restaurants, including Al=s Place, known affectionately to one and all, with no disrespect, as Al the Wop=s. We=ve browsed the art galleries, perused the Dai Loy Gambling Hall and Joe Shoong School museums and enjoyed the beer and steak sandwiches at Al=s Place. But, only recently did we capture a more intimate portrait of the town and it=s history.
One Sunday afternoon we met Connie, a long-time resident and activist, sometimes called Athe Locke Lady.@ Connie, whose energy and enthusiasm belie her 80 something years, moved to Locke from her hometown of Courtland, eight miles upriver, sixty years ago when she married Locke native Tommy King. She has lived in the same white frame bungalow ever since, working almost continuously to get title to the land beneath it.
Chinese immigrants started arriving in

After a fire leveled nearby Walnut
Grove=s
After World War II, Locke declined
as younger, better educated residents moved to the cities for job opportunities
and, after a 1952 court ruling overturning
In 2004

In front of Connie=s home a whimsical garden, where old toilets serve as planters, generates visitor curiosity. Connie uses it as a chance to tell her stories. She told us that an unusual corner urinal had come from a former brothel. When she helped broker the building=s sale, the urinal was her commission.
As Connie toured us through the
At the
We ended our visit with Connie at
the little memorial park on
Postscript January 2010 -- This story was originally published in 2008. Our friend, Connie King, died in September 2009. We're posting this to our blog as our tribute to and remembrance of this remarkable woman.
For more information: www.locketown.com
; California Delta Chambers & Visitor=s
Bureau, www.californiadelta.org





Happy Travels, Janet and Stu

















