Checking Out the Competition -- a day of reconnaissance

July 1,2013 -- Our half-day off.  We decided to check out our closest competition and drive about 90 miles around the Grand Traverse Bay (past all the TC Cherry Festival hoopla)  to the very grand Grand Traverse Lighthouse.  (see map above)  We were instantly impressed, but had to remind ourselves that this lighthouse has been a museum for 29 years, and ours has only been open to the public for about 8 years. 

Plus the Grand Traverse Lighthouse never closed -- or lay abandoned, losing artifacts or records which makes a HUGE difference.  Another plus is it resides within a Michigan State Park and not a county park.  However, after talking with the very efficient lighthouse keeper (she even gave us her card) and listening to everything she and her husband (from Rochester, Mich and serving their 10th year)had to DO, along with another couple on duty....Jane & I both felt we had a better deal.  Those keepers even have uniforms!  She let us in free, which was nice -- keeper's solidarity!  In addition to running the tours and gift shop....and doing minor repairs and cleaning....she pointed out the (beautifully clean) window toward a 15 ft x 15 ft pile of dirt and said, "see that pile of dirt....my husband I have to spread that around the gardens tonight too."

 Well, to qualify that statement, she also said the other couple had the day off today, so they were doing double duty.  Yikes.  Too much work...and they pay more than we do to work there.   But there is MORE to do there -- that's why it takes two couples to run it.  She was a delight and obviously loved what she was doing...and did it very well.  Her husband was running the gift shop in large remodeled stable down the sidewalk -- tons of merchandise (my favorite sweatshirt is below) but chuckled with us as he became flustered with the cash register (just like we do).  We resisted the urge to jump-start their stalled AV system in one of their outbuilding museums, but things probably fall by the wayside, when it falls to one couple to do everything. 

 The up side of GT lighthouse is the gift shop receipts at the end of the day do not have to be balanced/counted, etc...which for us is a nightmare.  The husband-keeper smiled and said, "No, there is an employee who comes in every night to do that, thank goodness!"  We heartily agreed.

We came away with lots of ideas to share with the manager of Mission Point, to help the peninsula township folks improve their little lighthouse, which Jane & I both agree is completely charming.  Who knows....maybe when next I go up (when it is closed!) I can paint scenes in the lens room like the GT lighthouse, illustrating "the view" out the windows.  We thought that was a sweet addition...along with instructions on how to get DOWN the ladder...which at MP lighthouse would save us from going over the "watch your head!" part every time!