Grays Harbor Lighthouse and Westport Maritime Museum

After our morning walk around the Westport area we went back to our hotel for a little bit before heading back out to see the lighthouse, while it was open. We then walked the shops in town and stopped at the Westport Maritime Museum.  It was neat to get to see the lighthouse closer up.  We were not able to climb it because you need to be at least five years old to climb it, which Alden and Anders are not.

It was really neat to see how far inland the lighthouse is now because of accretion (the opposite of erosion) that has occurred over time.  The lighthouse is now about 3000 feet inland, where it was originally only 300.  I am glad that we got to see another of the lighthouses in WA.

The Maritime Museum was also fun to walk through and learn a little more about the area.  The highlight of the museum was the lens from the Destruction Island Lighthouse.  The lens was built back in 1888 in France and was then shipped to Destruction Island where it operated in that lighthouse until 1995.  Since then it has been on display at this museum and it was really neat to see it.  The lens is huge and very impressive.  They turned on the lens for us so that we could see it lit up and it was very impressive!  I am so glad that we took time to go see this museum and the stunning lens on display.

Standing at the bottom of the Grays Harbor Lighthouse you began to appreciate how tall it was.

Alden had a lot of fun walking around the museum and asking us what everything was.  It was a good thing there were signs with everything because I don't know much about maritime stuff.

Alden had fun looking at all the displays.

Alden kept telling me that the triangle thing was a hat. He also thought the model ship was pretty neat.

Alden loved getting to pretend he was steering a ship.

I love seeing Alden sitting at the desk looking through the book.

Drew and I enjoyed looking at all the exhibits and learning about everything too.

This was the lens they had on display.  It was amazing to see!  You can see how large it is by comparing it to Drew.

Alden liked walking around the lens and looking at it. It was really neat to see all the refracted light from the lens and how beautiful it was.  I loved imagining the light that lens would provide from a lighthouse on a dark and foggy night.  I love the analogy that there will always be a light to guide us in the darkest times of life, just like a lighthouse.  I try to remember, whenever there are challenges if life, to look for the guide.  I know God and Christ are always there, along with family and friends when life gets hard.  I have no doubt that even as this lens could pierce through intense darkness from a lighthouse to guide ships home, God can help guide us through rocky and unsure paths to make it back home to him.

They had these skeletons of whales (that had died of natural causes) on display to see outside the museum. 

This was a neat model of the museum building that was on display.  It was a pretty building and it was a fun stop on our trip.  It was worth it to go to the museum even if it was only to see the lens from the lighthouse.  I am so glad we went and saw the lighthouse and the museum while in Westport because they were both very memorable stops.