The St. Joseph Lighthouse

My cousin just graduated from Western Michigan and he had a little get together yesterday.  Since I was going to be on that end of the state anyway, I decided to head a little further towards St. Joseph to catch a picture of the lighthouse there.  I was thinking that it would be a little less icy than the last time I visited it.

 Sure enough it was.  Despite the sunny day, it was still pretty cold out on the beach.  The wind was kicking up pretty strongly but that wasn't a deterrant for me.

 It's amazing because a month ago, this was all ice and I couldn't really get this view before.  Now it is pretty much clear and I think it looks pretty cool.

 Looking down the beach.  As you can see, Lake Michigan was pretty angry yesterday.

 But not angry enough to wash over the pier.

 I like the fact that it was pretty much a cloudless day yesterday.  The sun did help in keeping things somewhat warm.

 Looking down the pier.

 With the ice pretty much gone, fishing is started up again.  This is a charter boat, I believe.

 Last time I took this picture, the pier was covered in ice and this was as far as I wanted to go.

 But not this time.  I decided to walk out ot the lighthouse itself.

 The waves did lap up a little bit over the pier but not as dramatic as I've seen before.

 Getting closer to the lighthouse itself.  The weather was nice but it was still pretty deserted, which is fine by me.

 Looking up at the tower itself.

 An odd angle.

 Looking out at the range light.  I don't get pictures of this often enough.

 Looking back at the lighthouse.

 A closeup of the range light.

 From the front.

 Both the range light and the lighthouse.

 Looking at the tower.

 Another shot of the range light.

 Sometime the long view is nice.

 There is a little hill on the beach.  It makes for a nice view.

 Another shot of the pair.

 And the even longer view.  I'll tell a little more about this vantage point in another post.

One more shot of the lighthouse.