Dear Jake & Amelia,
We pushed on through the fog, crossing into Oregon. We are molding, but the moist air seems to produce big, beautiful, deeply colored, luscious flowers. We found the foggy coast of Oregon protected by a string of nine light houses. All are on the National Register of Historic Places. The oldest, built in 1870, is at Cape Blanco. It is also the most southern, most westerly and the first to boast a woman light keeper. 

Cape Blanco is a piece of rocky coast that juts out into the ocean. We turned west onto an old road that curved through rolling grassland. As we neared the coast, we looked out over marsh land and coves with crescent shaped sand beaches. We found the brick lighthouse standing guard over an off shore reef. 

We walked though wet fog. We climbed a spiraling cast iron staircase to the lens room. The lens was made of  stunningly beautiful pieces of heavy glass held together with brass fittings. The  Fresnel lenses, one of a handful still operating, spread a prismatic signal of light. As we climbed down, the fog increased and the visibility decreased. The light kept blinking its warning.

Nancy & Peter

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