Happy Birthday, Oh Hallowed Beacon Of Time & Tides!

[HARDCORE]

Ceremonies yesterday marked the 150th Birthday of one of the first eight lighthouses in the land. Completed in 1855, after the end of the Mexican American War, the Point Loma Lighthouse was constructed in an Old New England Style and stood vigil until it was finally closed down in 1891. It was replaced by yet another, more modern lighthouse, after the incessant coastal fog kept it obscured much of the time!

Anyone who has ever visited San Diego and ventured out to the tip of Point Loma, not far from the weather-worn memorial to the Portuguese explorer - Juan Cabrillo, has seen this grand old lady of light. It still sits there proudly (if silently) after a century and a half of faithfully keeping seafarers from running aground atop the perilous rocks that dot this coastline. And situated high atop a rugged promontory that juts out into the eternal sea, it is indeed a stoic monument to generations of sea-faring tradition along this rugged, wave-tossed stretch of Oceania!

Climbing to the top of this relatively small lighthouse, however, can be a chore unto itself! Unless you are slim of waist and hips, and able to contort your body while climbing up the short spiral stairway, you may indeed require a shoehorn to get you to the very top! It is indeed a tight fit for those with an over-abundant twenty-first century torso, but the view from the light itself is well worth the effort!

VERITAS