I’ve wanted to post this photo for a couple of weeks. I just haven’t had the time. This is the view of Lake Erie from the top of the Marble Head Light house. I really like this area and never thought that I would visit it twice in the same year but I did!

Vermilion is a really sweet coastal town. I’ve photographed its lighthouse in the dead of winter when it was mind-numbing cold. This time the temperatures were at the opposite extreme—the high 90′s. I discovered pretty fast that people who live up north usually don’t mix well with heat. Air conditioners were running with great fury or “full tilt” as my grandmother would have said. And no one was willing to tell me just how low the settings were. It was freezing in all the buildings and houses!

One afternoon, we ended up in this little coffee shop where all of us enjoyed the atmosphere, the conversation, and the espresso! I came a way with a half pound of Pirate’s Blend. Thus, continuing my “Pirate” theme, which I have no clue where it came from this summer.

And then there is this soda shop. Eating here and drinking a cherry coke is becoming a tradition.

Last week, I was in a a couple of small towns on or near Lake Erie. One, Bucyrus, Ohio, had a 3-D mural that was painted years ago on the side of a prominent city building. My friends walked up to it; and for a moment, I thought that if they kept going they would walk into the painting!

I was here a couple of years ago in the dead of winter and it was an entirely different scene—blustery and snowy. It was absolutely beautiful. The Marblehead Lighthouse is still one of my favorites. It is just plain sweet but I have to admit that I liked it better under the canopy of winter.

This time we were able to walk to the top and view Lake Erie.

They were able to save their Fresnel lens and it’s on display in the lighthouse keeper’s house. An electrical beacon is now used to guide ships away from the shoreline.

The lighthouse keeper would have walked up these steps and pulled a lantern out of this cabinet. A few steps more and he would be on the top of Lake Erie.

Here’s the back of the keeper’s house. Who knows why I took this photo—probably because I thought the fence with the flowers was sweet and simple.

The Lorain Lighthouse stands at the north end of the west harbor. Its light is no longer lit, but it remains a constant reminder of the rich shipping history of this area. The first lighthouse consisted of a simple lantern hanging on a pole at the water’s edge. The first official “light station” was constructed in 1837 and was a wooden structure located at the end of the West River pier. Its beam was powered by lard oil. Later, it was run by kerosene. History books report that within “the next 80 years, Lorain’s light was rebuilt at least twice.” This particular building was built in 1908.

Here’s one for my former newspaper editor. The guy would always run a snow photo on the front page of the newspaper on the hottest day of summer. I confess that I’m torn. I’m so hot that I wish it was cooler but not this cold. I think when I took this photo it was around 18 degrees, and I was standing on the edge of a rocky gorge in northwest PA! The evening wind was whipping around my neck and my feet were frozen from being outside most of the day doing photography. . . . Extremes. Wonder why we always seem to be dealing with extremes?

The last morning we were in western PA, we woke to freshly fallen snow, and as I drank a cup of coffee and gazed out the windows at the sight before me, I couldn’t help but wish that I could stay. The week had been relaxing, fun, and energizing. I even said (out loud), “I could stay another day or two. After all, I don’t need to be back in the office for another three days.” Reluctantly, I got up and finished packing my suitcase. We drove to the airport in near silence. Everyone was rethinking all we had seen—the meals we had shared and the photos that we had taken with our hearts.

Later, at the Pittsburg airport, I watched a parade of snow plows race down a nearby runway and listened to the person next to me talk about the “major snow storm” that was bearing down on the part of the state where I had vacationed. “Maybe, it is best that I’m leaving,” I mused.

Then yesterday, I received an email from the friends that had journeyed with me around Lake Erie saying they had not been able to venture out of their home since I left due to the amount of snow that had fallen. “It is a good thing you came when you did and left, ” they said. “Otherwise, we would have been stuck.

“Stuck,”  I wondered . . . “Stuck in Vermilion or Fairport, or maybe some place overlooking the Allegheny River?” . . . .  No, I really don’t think we would have been stuck at all.

If you have read even one of Jan Karon’s novels about life in the small town of Mitford, you will understand that when I spotted this church, I expected the door to open and Father Tim to step out beckoning me inside for a cup of hot tea and an Irish biscuit.