Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Michigan Stadium's New Scoreboards

Over the off season, Michigan installed new scoreboards in the stadium. Apparently they are going to be state of the art with high definition screens. It would be kind of cool if they used them to show away games like they used to at Joe Louis. They are also quite a bit bigger than the old scoreboards.The iconic block M. I thought they would tower over everything but they fit in pretty nicely.
Just a shot of the surrounding things. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a shot of the stadium.
One of the gates. On Saturday, this gate will be open for the first time this season.
A shot of the gate and scoreboard.

Another Evening at the Zoo

Through July and August, the Zoo is open until 8:00 on Wedesdays. Since tonight was the last Wednesday in August, this would be my last chance to catch some evening pictures at the Zoo (or so I thought, it seems they are open until 8:00 this weekend). It wasn't too bad of a night weather wise, so I decided to stop at the Zoo.

For the most part, I like to use the zoo as a chance to take pictures since I can get pictures of animals I wouldn't be able to take pictures of otherwise. I think the Detroit Zoo is pretty good for that since the habitats are pretty close to being natural as you can get. Of course, sometimes that makes it difficult to get pictures of some of the animals, but I'll accept the trade off.
They try to plant some pretty cool flowers at the Zoo. This one is no exception. Although I'm not sure what kind of flower it is.
I believe this is a vulture of some sort.
This is a condor, I believe.
A camel of some sort. I get the two types confused.
A group of chimpanzees. I thought it was pretty neat to watch these guys for a while. The Detroit Zoo has a pretty nice enclosure for the chimps and gorillas. I'm not sure how many acres it covers but there is quite a bit of ground. I think it gives the chance for the animals to behave a little more naturally.
A mother chimp and her baby. I'm going to guess this one is fairly young.
One of the chimps enjoying dinner.
One of the peacock. Yes, definately not a partridge, not sure what I was thinking there.
A Lion Tailed Monkey. I forget the exact name though.
This was the moment I was waiting for. All summer they have been working on the lion enclosure and it looked pretty cool the last time I was there. They finally have the lions back in it. Unfortunately, being cats, they were doing what cats do best.
The male lion seems to have the look of, "Yeah, we were 0 and 16...but this year we may be contenders."
Fire Millen. Oh wait, he's already fired....good.
A rhino. A little known fact...rhinos are the fire marshalls of Africa (kudos if you know the origin of that phrase).
A pair of zebras.
The giraffe.
It was beginning to look like it would be my next strike out on seeing the wolverine awake. He was sleeping in the corner. He woke up long enough for me to take this picture.
Enough of that crap about the Buckeyes...Football season is almost here.
It might be a tough one...I need a little more sleep.
I was also happy to see the grizzlies out and about.
The Czech's in the male...Get it? Hahaha...
You know if that wall wasn't there...
My lines...my lines.
Huh?
The prairie dog exhibits are pretty cool too.
I kind of liked the pose of this one.
An Elk. Or is that Anne Elk?
And of course the eagle. I don't think he ever sleeps.
I kind of like this pose.
But I think I like this one a little better.
Also on Wednesdays, they have music.
These guys were pretty good.

Monday, August 29, 2011

100,000 Visitors!

It was almost three years ago that I started this blog. Sometime in September, I started to track the number of visitors here. Since that time, I have had 100,000 visitors (many of them are probably repeats...but hey whatever). I am pretty excited about this and I want to thank the folks that took the time to stop by a read what I have to say here.
And to think, it all started with this picture.
I think I have improved a bit since this picture. If there are things you would like to see me do, please put them in the comments section.
Thank you.

A Couple Helicopters

Every so often, I see helicopters pass by. Usually they are from the Coast Guard or Border Patrol.This is a helicopter for the Border Patrol. I'm not sure what kind of helicopter it is.
The helicopter as it passed almost directly overhead.
It ended up passing us by.
This is a helicopter for a company called boatpix.com. They take pictures of boats and you can request them.

Some Geese in Flight

As I was waiting between ship and there were some geese in the park. Some of them took off, so I managed to take some pictures of them.
I kind of like this shot.
I think I like this one a little more.
Sadly one of the geese got his head chopped off.
A couple more geese.

The American Mariner

The other ship I was expecting to see was the American Mariner. I believe this is also making a debut appearance here on Michigan Exposures.She was constructed in 1979 at the Bay Shipbuilding Company in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. She was originally going to be named the Chicago but ended up with the name American Mariner.
She had her maiden voyage in 1980 and is equipped with twin 3,600 Horsepower engines and can travel at about 15 miles per hour.
She is 730 feet long and can carry 37,000 tons of cargo.
In 2000, she lost steering and collided with a light in the Lake Huron cut. She was refloated and repaired.
She is a pretty nice looking ship.
Here she is passing under the Ambassador Bridge.
A shot of her almost full length.
I like this shot a little better.
A closeup of the superstructure.

Heading off to deliver her cargo.