Lighthouses

A couple of weeks ago es and I started talking about lighthouses, perhaps because she heard her mom mention fog horns and one thing leads to another then another.  I looked for a short YouTube video and found one about the Eddystone lighthouse, the first one ever built miles off the coast, in this case about fourteen miles off Plymouth, England.  The original structure was built about 1699 but was destroyed in the Great Storm of 1703; thousands of people died, chimneys and structures collapsed, flooding devastated London.  The next lighthouse lasted longer but burned, apparently due to a spark from the candle.  The third one endured many years, till the rock it stood on began to erode and the building developed cracks.  Now the fourth lighthouse stands on a different rock in the group.

I have been just as fascinated by this lighthouse as es, watching a couple of videos with her, talking about storms (no, Alameda doesn't have tornadoes or hurricanes), fire (such as the Oakland hills fire and my childhood home burning), flooding.  She soaks up information like a sponge; I have to be careful what I say.  The other day I found a book at the library about the Little Red Lighthouse on the Hudson River under the George Washington Bridge, which we've read several times and today saw a video tour of the now-closed lighthouse.

We may decry the time people spend in front of their devices, but what fun this exploration of lighthouses has been!  I imagine es will remember the Eddystone story for a long time.