Thursday Gee Time - Part II

Today we renewed our scavenger hunt for lighthouses and ventured south to Kenosha. The first light that we saw was the 1866 Southport lighthouse. It is located on Simmons Island overlooking the shore of Lake Michigan. At the time the lighthouse was built, the island was known as Washington Island.

The light was originally designed as a coast and harbor light; it provided the first navigational light a mariner would see upon entering Wisconsin from the south. On a clear day one can see the Chicago Sears (now Willis) tower from the light and vice versa.

There were 73 steps to get to the top and the view was certainly well worth the climb. CeCe was a bit scared at first to go all the way up into the tower but Manny reminded her how proud he felt when he climbed the light in Racine. She did make it to the top and had all kinds of questions for the guide. She was a proud as a peacock when we were finished with our tour.

Afterward we walked over to the FREE Kenosha Historical Museum and saw a wonderful display of old Nash cars and vignettes of old Kenosha. Manny was intrigued by the wire rope exhibit and made a point of asking the woman at the front desk whether the display was real or just a prop. She explained how wire rope is actually made and where he could see an example of it -- sure wish she would have thought of a closer place than the Golden Gate Bridge because now Manny's sure he has to see a real one!

We then walked on down to the Pierhead light and watched the young fearless kids jump from the pier into the frigid Lake Michigan water. CeCe had asked if I ever did stuff like that as a kid -- seeing as a grandmother cannot lie to her grandchild I had to tell her the truth -- yes, I did WATCH my friends do stupid things like that (well . . . that was part of the truth)!

I gave them an option -- either we could go out for ice cream or go to the museum that we saw across the harbor; they chose the museum!! I was kind of hoping to get by cheaper by going to Culvers than the cost of admission to the museum but when we found out it was FREE that made the excursion even better. The Kenosha Public Museum has wonderful exhibits from the time of the dinosaurs to the explorers and an art museum on the upper floor. And it was FREE. We spent quite a bit of time here with plans to return and also take in the FREE Civil War Museum next time.

I learned how genetically ingrained our Zarling curiosity gene is in these kids -- Manny stopped at the brochure display and brought back at least one of every place that he'd like to go to. My Dad would have been proud.