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The Barnegat Lighthouse located on the north end of Long Beach Island in New Jersey has always been one of my favorite places from my childhood. My family vacationed every year at the New Jersey shore ever since I can remember. Before I was born my parents owned a bungalow in Ocean Beach, New Jersey which is located about 30 minutes north of Long Beach Island. The bungalow was sold in 1967 when my brother was adopted and the following year, when I was born, is when my family began to vacation on Long Beach Island.

One of the earliest memories of Long Beach Island is when I broke my ankle jumping from the lifeguard stand. I was around two or three years old and saw the life guards jumping from the lifeguard stand to rescue someone from the water. My mother told me that I climbed up to the top of the stand, which was about 8 feet high, and jumped off into the sand and broke my right ankle. This incident was the just the beginning of a series of accidents that my brother and I had throughout the ten years we spent vacationing on Long Beach Island. We seemed to take turns having accidents either before our trip or during our trip to the shore.

Where does the Barnegat Lighthouse fit into the story? Well my earliest memory of the lighthouse was climbing the two hundred and seventeen stairs to the top with my family. Every year when the weather was rainy or overcast the family would take a drive to the north end of the island to visit Barnegat Lighthouse State Park where the lighthouse is located.

As I got older the challenge every year was to ride our bikes all the way to the lighthouse, climb to the top, and ride all the way back. The distance from Beach Haven where my family stayed on Long Beach Island to the Barnegat State Park is 15.6 miles.

When my mother retired in 2000 she bought a house about 10 miles from Long Beach Island, which gives me the opportunity to visit the island and the lighthouse every year. I introduced the lighthouse to my wife in 2002 when we flew up to New Jersey to visit my mother. I hope to introduce the lighthouse to my son next year when he will be three years old and can hopefully remember his first memory of the Barnegat lighthouse.