Presque Isle State Park in Erie, PA

On Sunday, my sister and I visited Presque Isle State Park in Erie, PA. Presque Isle is a peninsula. "Presque" means "almost" in French (per Abby who I am sure is correct!) and while the two years that I took of French in high school gave me minimal French speaking capabilities it did make me aware of the many French cognates in the English language; that combined with context clues, revealed to me that "Isle" means "island" and seeing as how a peninsula is almost an island, well, the name makes sense. A few other states have locations called Presque Isle including Michigan and Maine. But we were definitively in Pennsylvania. 

Speaking of Pennsylvania, here is what the state looks like. Erie is in the northwest where a small portion of the state juts north.

Erie didn't make the cut on the map until I zoomed in on the map.

If you zoom in on Erie on the map, you will see Presque Isle

Presque Isle is a state park that has 13 public beaches on it, three lighthouses and a huge information center. Because we visited it on Sunday, the day we had less time due to traveling home, we barely scratched the surface. We went to two of the beaches, toured one the lighthouses (the only one visitors can go in), and drove around the entire peninsula. That was all we had time for, unfortunately. We really want to go back in the summer. Hopefully that happens. If it doesn't, we have the memory of the beauty of the place and pictures to prove it. 

These first twenty pictures or so are from my Nikon. The next batch is from my iphone. They are out of order (my iphone pictures always load randomly (it's annoying!... the only alternative is to load pictures one at a time in the order that I want them on the page)).

Our first stop was at the Presque Isle lighthouse. We parked just across the street from it where there are a few street parking spots. 

The lighthouse wasn't open to tours when we arrived. So we walked on the grounds on the lighthouse and then made our way to the beach.

The beach was pretty- the waves were big and that unmistakable sound of waves crashing onto the sand sounded just like the ocean. We were in awe! My sister lives very close to Lake Erie in Canada but "her" Lake Erie neither looks nor sounds like the Like Erie on Presque Isle.

Jumping for joy! (I asked Katy to do this for a photo... One year on vacation when we hired a professional photographer to take family photos, the photographer asked Jacob to jump on the sand. The picture is so funny/ unique/ odd so I asked Katy if she would jump.).

The lighthouse from the beach

I kept referring to the water as the ocean even though I knew that it wasn't. It sounded exactly like the ocean and looked like it too. 

While the water looked and sounded like the ocean, the shoreline was distinctly Great Lake. Driftwood and vegetation all had that quintessential Great Lake look.

This is from the top of the lighthouse. 

This is the view from the parking lot of one of the beaches. I love the yellow juxtaposed against the blue of the sky and the water.

The following are pictures from my phone or my sister's:

Wonderful waves!

As a comparison, here are a couple of pictures from one of the Lake Erie beaches near my sister's house in Ontario. All of the Lake Erie beaches that I've been to in Ontario over the years when visiting my sister (five or so) have been placid like this.

We spent some time on the beach and then made our way back to the lighthouse and by this time it was open. We paid the $10 (inside a gift shop that was near the lighthouse) and got to go inside. The porch area was decked out for fall.

My cute sister ❤

View outside one of the windows

At the top

The small building is where oil was stored back when oil was needed for the light. The lighthouse keeper would only keep enough oil for one day in the lighthouse. 

The white building is a gift shop and where you purchase tickets to gain admittance to the lighthouse. 

A park employee (volunteer?) was at the top of the lighthouse. She gave us many interesting facts and information about the light and lighthouse. I forget most of it but it was interesting to hear at the time. The lighthouse is still in use today. She lit the light but of course it was barely visible due to the light of the day.

Downstairs was a museum of sorts with information and items used from the days when lightkeepers lived in the lighthouse and used oil to keep the light lit.

We did a little more walking around one of the beaches before we left the peninsula. We hope to come back in the summer with our families. I'm sure it's a completely different feel with many people on the beach and boats and whatnot on the water. 

Speaking of the water, we each picked up this cute mug at a Walmart in Erie the day before (the Presque Isle Lighthouse gift shop sold the exact same ones (for a bit more money)). Now for this trip, neither the mineral composition of the water nor its marine inhabitants (or lack thereof) were of any consequence to us since we didn't so much as touch the water.  It's still a cute sentiment and we have and will be at some point submerged in a Great Lake when this will be aptly appreciated ;).