June 4, 2011

Glenmont Estate, Mount Mitchell, Twin Lights

Included in the admission to Thomas Edison's site is a tour of his home, the Glenmont Estate. I had to get a parking pass for my car because its located inside America’s first planned, gated community Llewellyn Park. Waiting for my tour to start, I walked around the grounds. The gardens are gorgeous! I love how everything is blooming.

The Edison’s are buried in the backyard.

I have toured a lot of historic mansions and this is one of my favorites. I really liked the design and layout. There was also a lot of window seats which I think are so adorable. Our guide was really great and gave some great information and then let us explore at our own place.

It was nearly 1:00pm by this point and I still had half of the Jersey shore to see so I had to get going.

I stopped at the Mount Mitchell overlook which, at 266 feet, is the highest natural elevation on the Atlantic seaboard (excluding islands) from Maine to the Yucatan. Nowadays the park is home to a 9/11 memorial. The path leading to the memorial chronicles the 9/11 events. A table of black granite lists the names, ages, and towns of those 147 individuals from Monmouth county who were lost. At the center, a light stone sculpture by local artist Franco Minervini of an eagle “ascends to a better world.” The eagle has in its grasp a beam from the World Trade Center. It was a sunny day but there was smog so I could only barely make out the Verrazano bridge and the NYC skyline. Apparently many people came to this spot on 9/11 to see what was happening. It’s a beautiful, tragic spot.

Next stop was the Twin Lights of Navesink. It was definitely one of the most interesting lighthouses I'd been two because there were 2 lights! You could walk up in one of the towers which had a great view.This was the first lighthouse to test a Fresnel lens. There was a display of one which I liked because I'd never seen a lens up close before.Here's a picture of both lights from back in the day:

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