Today is National Lighthouse Day!  I bet you didn’t even know there was such a thing, did you?   It’s true as the United States Senate passed an unanimous resolution which declares August 7th as National Lighthouse and Lighthouse Preservation Day.  To read more about this, please see this article at the Lighthouse Digest.

As you might have gathered from the pictures that you see on our site, we LOVE lighthouses!   When I see a lighthouse, my mind drifts back for a moment on what it must have been like for the sailors in the mist of a storm brewing.  I am sure they were afraid at times and wondered how they would make it safely through the storm.    If it was a particularly foggy morning, I imagine they were filled with anxiety due to being unable to see through it.   I imagine how they might have been scrambling around on board preparing “just in case” when what did they see flash before them?   A beacon of light from the mighty tower that stood in the distance.  This light would guide them to safety!   I imagine that cheers from the crew could be heard a mile away!

I just recently told one of my friends that I would like to visit every single remaining lighthouse in the United States!   While I don’t like to call it this, this is an item on my “bucket list.”    In the meantime, though, I will settle with visiting the ones in South Carolina that I have had the pleasure of seeing in person.

One of my favorite lighthouses in South Carolina is the Morris Island Lighthouse, which is the picture that comes up on our posts on our Facebook page when we haven’t included a picture in the post for that day.   There should also be pictures in our gallery on this site which include this beautiful structure.   Since I love this lighthouse so much, I won’t make you look far.  I’ll gladly share them with you here!  

My family and I like to go to the very end of Folly Beach, as far as you can drive, and then park our car to set out on a little hike.  At the very end of this path, you will see the beauty that is the Morris Island Lighthouse.

Once we took a boat ride over to the island to get a closer look at the lighthouse.  It is surrounded by water, so it is not possible to walk right up to the lighthouse.

It was fun taking pictures of it where it looked like we were either holding the lighthouse in our hands or hugging the lighthouse.  Good times!   The shells on the island were beautiful as not too many people go there, so you don’t have to worry about shells getting trampled on.  If you like hunting for treasures (shells), then going over to this island is a “must.”

When a friend of the family visited in April of this year, I took him over to Hunting Island to see the massive black and white lighthouse near the Beaufort area.

While the structure has been moved inland, you can climb to the very top of this lighthouse and look through the telescope which will have a mark to show you where the lighthouse originally stood on the shore.  While it was quite a hike to get to the top of the lighthouse, the view was absolutely gorgeous up there!

While my friend was in town, we also visited the Sullivan’s Island Lighthouse which is in the Charleston area.  Sullivan’s Island is a quiet little town with a few restaurants on the main strip as you come into town.  We had to ask the locals where this lighthouse was, as we could not figure out how to get to it.  They were nice enough to tell us as we chowed down on some good food and talked about the local attractions the area had to offer.   Then, we put their directions to good use and set off to find the lighthouse!

It is inland now also with a chain link fence around it, so, much to our disappointment, it was not possible to tour.

My husband and I took a trip recently to Hilton Head, and while we’ve been there before many years ago, I did not remember the lighthouse there.  I am not sure how I could have missed it, but there Is a beautiful red and white lighthouse at Harbortown.

We climbed to the top, although there were not as many steps in this one since it is a smaller structure, to take a look at the boats in the marina.

While we were in Hilton Head, we made sure to check out an old lighthouse that is a skeleton structure.  It took a bit to get to this lighthouse as it is now in a gated community!   We set out on a mission to find it, and thankfully, the guard let us through to view that which we set our sights on that day!

There are several more lighthouses in South Carolina that we have yet to see, but they are on our “to do” list!   We hope to make it to those lighthouses by the end of the year!  I can hardly wait!  Rest assured, I will most certainly have my camera in hand when we visit, too!

Just as I told of how I imagined the sailors at the beginning of this post during the mist of a storm brewing, I’d like to share a bible verse with you and a portion of a song to tie this all together.

Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world.  If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness because you will have the light that leads to life.

John 8:12 NLT

And now the song:

There’s a lighthouse on the hillside
That overlooks life’s sea
When I’m tossed it sends out a light
That I might see
And the light that shines in darkness now
Will safely lead us o’er
If it wasn’t for the lighthouse
My ship would be no more

(SPOKEN)
It seems that every one about us says,
“Tear that old lighthouse down.
The big ships just don’t pass this way anymore,
so there’s no use in standin’ round.”
Then my mind goes back to that one dark, stormy night,
when just in time I saw the light.
Yes, it was the light from that old lighthouse,
that stands up there on the hill.

And I thank God for the lighthouse
I owe my life to Him
Jesus is the lighthouse
And from the rocks of sin
He has shown a light around me
That I might clearly see
If it wasn’t for the lighthouse
Tell me where would this ship be

I thank God for the lighthouse
I owe my life to Him
Jesus is the lighthouse
And from the rocks of sin
He has shown a light around me
That I might clearly see
If it wasn’t for the lighthouse
Tell me where would this ship be

 

Happy National Lighthouse Day to you from all of us here at Light Love Hope!