I spent the night in a lighthouse on a tiny California island. Here's how you can too

You might be reluctant to stay at a $475-a-night inn that warns of flashing lights and foghorns throughout the night, or bans one-night guests from bathing, or requires that you be ready to climb a ladder above roiling seas.

But then you hear those four words:

Lighthouse on an island.

The East Brother Light Station is a compound of three buildings on a three-quarter-acre island near the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay. The main building is a four-bedroom 1873 Victorian home, topped by a beacon you can see from up to 13 miles off. And all of those bedrooms are rentable by the night, with a fancy dinner and breakfast included.

In December, I booked a night and made my way to Point San Pablo Harbor in Richmond, 20 miles north of San Francisco.

The first surprise was the crocodile. When you follow the two-lane approach road, you pass a few miles of mostly idle post-industrial waterfront, climb a hill, then descend to the harbor, where you are greeted by a 40-foot-long