Lights and Bikes

Sunday morning we left Buffalo behind and took a scenic route along the Erie coast.  We were going to try to see several light houses along the way, but only had time for two.  Our first stop happened to have tours of the light house.  Great, we thought.  Turns out, there is a military museum in the house connected to the lighthouse.  This tiny museum had an amazing collection of artifacts from many wars housed in four rooms, one devoted to each branch of the military.  They also have many objects that fell off ships and shipwrecks.  The tour guide knew stories behind each piece in the collection.  Then, the grandson of the last lighthouse keeper showed up and joined our tour.  He had some interesting, if hazy, memories of his visits to the lighthouse as a child.  We spent more time here than anticipated, so we drove down the road to the next one, not open to the public, and then got on the interstate to speed on to Cleveland.  

Dunkirk Lighthouse

Dunkirk view

Knowledgable tour guide teaches Mara to steer the boat

rudder from sunken ship

Lighthouse Newel Post

Barcelona Lighthouse

We made one quick pit stop at Tim Horton's for some Canadian lunch and a 10 pack of Timbits.  When we got to Cleveland, we found the Institute of Art and took a quick tour.  The building is undergoing a huge expansion so finding our way around was difficult.  After leaving the museum, we drove to our nearby hotel.  We checked in, took a short break and then drove to the Indians stadium where we were to meet our bike tour.  Bob, of Bob's Bikes, took us on a three hour tour of Cleveland.  We went to many interesting places and the tour was mostly on flat streets, so the riding was easy.  We had nice sunset views of the city at the end of the tour and then we headed back to our hotel.  A very full day.

ready to ride

Free Stamp

Cleveland Sunset