Fellow guests are wild. Check in and check out is timed by the tide. Amenities? A cargo ship view. The New Dungeness Light Station is not your typical getaway, but year-round, vacationers can leave reality behind to become lighthouse keepers for a week.
"Your job out here is to be the keeper. You're responsible for the lighthouse for the week," said Chad Kaiser, Director of The New Dungeness Light Station Association.
Built in 1857, this is the second oldest lighthouse in Washington.
About 20 years ago, the Coast Guard could no longer afford to maintain it, and volunteers worked out an agreement to take care of the station. Today, anyone who joins The New Dungeness Lighthouse Association is eligible to stay for a very reasonable price. Keepers give tours, do light maintenance, and mostly relax.
When we visited, one guest explained: "I was a little reluctant at the remoteness of it. Like, you can't go anywhere, we have 6-year-old twins; they can't go anywhere. But when you're not on a cruise, you're not at Disney; you're not at the beach on some resort, it's so wonderful to see their imaginations."
Here, kids make their own fun. Out of rocks and sand.
Stays last a week and the main piece of advice from the group that was there when we visited was this: "Plan the Menu. Make sure you bring anything you need for your recipes because there's no going back."
So, if you need to trade your current reality for some slow-paced serenity, become a lighthouse keeper at New Dungeness. It may be the best job you -- and your kids -- have ever had.
