Breeches Buoy

Peering through my windshield and the torrents of rain gushing past the wipers to follow the fog line (where there is one) on the shoulder of the road as I drive home on these dark, gusty nights reminds me that countless ships through the years have depended on the aid of lighthouses and their keepers to avoid running aground in stormy weather. One of the four lighthouses we visited while on the coast of New Jersey, Hereford Inlet Lighthouse in North Wildwood, NJ, houses an interesting and informative museum. One fascinating exhibit there included this photo of rescue by Breeches Buoy, which stirred in me memories of several lighthouse-inspired hymns of previous centuries . . . .



. . . . and one in particular, Love Lifted Me, an old hymn many people today have probably never heard, and those of us who have heard it have perhaps never connected with lighthouses and the terrifying experience of near death by drowning.

I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore,
Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more,
But the Master of the sea, heard my despairing cry,
From the waters lifted me, now safe am I.
Love lifted me! love lifted me!
When nothing else could help, love lifted me!

Souls in danger look above, Jesus completely saves,
He will lift you by His love, out of the angry waves.
He's the Master of the sea, billows His will obey,
He your Savior wants to be, be saved today.
(1st and 3rd verses and chorus of Love Lifted Me
by James Rowe, 1912)

This photo at Flickr.com makes me wonder if perhaps the Breeches Buoy was the inspiration for Johnny-Jump-Up door bouncers for babies!

Besides life-saving, the Breeches Buoy was sometimes also used to actually build, equip, and man lighthouses that were constructed off the coast in places inaccessible by boat; one example is the lighthouse on Tillamook Rock, nicknamed "Terrible Tillie" because of the violent storms it withstood on its rock about a mile and a half off the Oregon Coast. Read about Terrible Tillie at LighthouseFriends.com; the print is painfully small, but the story is worth the effort.

Counting Coup

We each added six more states to our individual travel logs on this trip, not counting Michigan, where we changed planes.

Pennsylvania, where we flew in and out of the Philadelphia airport

New Jersey
Home of Aunt Toots
Traveled the coast to see the lighthouses

Fort Mercer

New York
Spent 2 amazing and crazy days on Manhattan Island

Delaware

Crossed through it briefly to and from WA DC

Maryland

Drove through Maryland to get to WA DC

Virginia

Mt. Vernon, home of George Washington

WA DC

National Mall, Capitol, White House, Arlington Cemetery

Library of Congress, Holocaust Museum, Book Fest

I love the WA DC plates:

"Taxation Without Representation"

Mt. Vernon

On Monday we departed from WA DC and headed out for Mt Vernon. After a most frustrating morning of driving, we finally arrived at 1:30 PM. We didn't have time to tour the working Grist Mill and Distillery, but were able to tour the estate where the home actually sits.

George Washington's home

A smaller version of his house was given to him by his older half brother. Over the years Washington added on to the existing house to end up with this larger one.

We were not allowed to take any photos inside. There was only one picture I really, really wanted to take, and that was of the original key to the Bastille in France! France sent it to Washington after their revolution as kind of a pledge that they would keep freedoms like America.

I bought a post card with the picture of the dining room. All in its original colors, it was very pretty and peaceful. The entire inside of the home was recreated to appear like it did the day Washington died from epiglotitis. Same bed he died in and everything!

His home is built on the Potomac River. He started out farming tobacco, but came to abhor smoking, so switched to other crops with farming innovations he created, such as a green manure crop.

How would you like to sit out on his back deck with this view of the river? Nice!

Washington was first buried in this family vault, but left directions to build the new burial vault that he had designed but not yet built at the time of his early and unexpected death.

After it was built, they moved all the family into the new vault.

George and Martha are kept in the front in cement caskets, and the rest of the family are inside that black door you see in the rear. The verse that was chosen to display in the vault is John 11:25 "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live, even if he dies."

One of the slaves' quarters

Today archaeologists still search for more clues that may help us know even more about that time period.

The greenhouse, where Washington grew his seedlings to plant. He always used his own seed, once the original crop was planted. Farming was his first love, and one he reluctantly set aside in order to help his country.

George Washington's sword that he used in the Revolutionary War.

After the tour of Mt Vernon, I (Shirley) have a far greater respect for the man George Washington. I know that in more recent years there are those who want to sully his name, but when I see all he sacrificed for a mission he did not chose, he remains a great hero in my eyes.