The Year That Was 2013

Wow, I can't believe that another year has flown by.  It seems like it was just yesterday that I was doing my 2012 in review post.  In terms of number of posts, this was one of my least productive years but I think I made up for that in terms of quality.  I felt like my photography was starting to grow this year and I feel like this blog is pretty well established.

 As has been tradition for this posts, I will start by posting a picture of M-Hat V.  This hat hasn't seen as much travel as some of my other hats because I've spread out the travels amongst my hats.  Still, this hat has seen the Empire Builder and Canada, so that counts for something.

 The pictures are in chronological order but I may talk about somethings out of order.  January brought me back to basketball pretty hot and heavy.  The Eagles gave me quite a bit to be exicted about as they went a little deeper in the MAC tournament than they have in the past.

 I also finally got the ice covered lighthouse pictures I've been looking for.  I'm gonna have to try to get some other ones this week, if the weather decides to cooperate with me.  It's supposed to get back in the 20's this week.  This is the Grand Haven light.

 February pretty much just had me sticking pretty close to Ypsilanti, so I didn't really have much to show for it.  I did like this picture of the Wolverine however.  I also had some pretty good basketball pictures.

 March brought me back to the covered bridges.  I posted this one because this is the bridge that was burned down earlier in the year.  Hopefully, they will be able to replace it.  I guess this shows that stuff is fleeting.

 March also took me up to the Soo Locks and I was able to get a picture of a freigther passing through the ice.  It made a pretty neat sound as it did so.

 April brought me some lighthouse pictures.  I was able to complete the Lake Michigan Lighthouses of the Lower Peninsula.  This particular one is Mission Point.

 April also took me to Canada for the first time in forever.  I thought Niagara was pretty neat but I was more impressed with the Welland Canal.  I will have to find my way back there in the next year.

 May brought me to Belle Isle where I found out about the Cherry Blossoms there.

 May also took me on the Empire Builder to Seattle.  Sadly, the weather wasn't very cooperative, so I didn't get to do quite as much as I had hoped but it was still pretty neat to experience the rails again.

 The Coast Starlight to San Francisco and the California Zephyr.  I could probably say the same thing for San Francisco that I could for Seattle.

 June took me out to Grand Haven where I got to witness a re-enactment.  I really should make it a point to go to more of these.

 The end of June brought me to my second Engineer's Day.  I was sort of waffling on whether I wanted to go there or not but I did end up going.  I'll have to say it was worth just for this view of the Gott.

 I also took the Mackinac Island Ferry over to Mackinac Island.  The ferry I took gave me a view of the Bridge that I'd never seen before.

 July brought me to the Canada Day Fireworks.  I think this was the only year the shot them from this part of Sarnia, so it gave me a pretty good view from the Maritime Center in Port Huron.

 In Bay City, they had the tall ships festival.  This particular vessel is the Niagara.  I would sort of see her re-enact her role in the Battle of Lake Erie later in the year.

 August brought Thunder Over Michigan.  Despite the boneheads in Congress and their sequestor, it was still a pretty cool air show.  It would have been cooler had the Thunderbirds been there though.

We had our company picnic on the Diamond Belle and that gave me the opportunity to get some ship pictures from the water.

 In September, I took a trip up to the Soo Locks and went through the Locks for the first time on the Soo Locks Boat Tour.  I will have to try this again on a day when there is more freighter traffic though.

 October brought me back to the Fallasburg Bridge but I was hoping to get better autumn pictures.

 It also found me on the rails with a day trip over to Chicago.  I took the boat tour there as well.  It was a pretty neat tour where they talked about the architecture of Chicago.

 The fall had me at a few Eastern games.  The Eagles did not look so good in football.  This was a picture from one of the brighter moments of the season, where they beat the Western Michigan Broncos.  The would finish the season at 2-10 and would fire their coach.  From what I've read about the replacement coach, I expect bright things for the Eagles in the future.

And December brought me back to boatwatching.  I was able to welcome an old friend after not seeing her in a while.

I think it was a pretty good year for me.  I got a picture in a book called "Football Nation" that was put out by the Library of Congress.  I also got a picture in the December issue of Esquire and they actually paid me for that one.  Like I said at the beginning, I think that my photography is finally starting to grow.

So what does 2014 hold for me?  Find out when I decide to post that in a couple of days.

Continuing on the Empire Builder - Day 3

I really hate to call this Day 3 because it wasn't much of a day.  I woke up at some time around 5 or 6 in morning at arrived in Seattle at around 10:00 or so.  But it was my third day of travel, so I guess it will count.

 So I woke up somewhere in Washington.  If I had been awake at around 3 in the morning, I could have seen our train get cut down in half.  In Spokane, the Empire Builder is split into two trains.  The one I wasn't on continues on to Portland and ours went on to Seattle.  One of these days, I  may have to take the Empire Builder into Portland to see what that part of the route is like.  As it is, we pass through some pretty nice looking stuff.

 For the most part, I think we follow along the Columbia River, which meant that I had a bunch of Woody Guthrie songs going through my head.  I will have to say that it is beautiful though.  Especially as the sun is coming up.

 I never can pass up a chance to get a picture of the train itself.  Sadly, there wasn't enough light, so this may be a little on the blurry side.

 One of the things I like about scenery in the mountains is that it almost looks like someone's train set.  Although I've never seen a train set with the sun peeking out from behind it.

 We also pass by some really neat bridges.

 I'm not sure what part of the mountains we are in but it is pretty beautiful.

 I would be half tempted to move to this part of the country.

 This was a spot that I wish we could have stopped at.  I would have loved a better picture of the river.

 I almost got my wish in this picture.

 I really like the way the clouds are hanging over the mountains.

 Another idyllic mountain scene.

 It's amazing just how much land in the United States is dedicated to agriculture.

 And a BNSF train passes by.

 Another shot of the mountains.

 We also pass by the Naval Base in Everett.  Last time I passed through, there was an aircraft carrier.

 Instead, I just see a frigate.  In this case it was the USS Ford which is named after Gunners Mate Patrick O. Ford who was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross in Vietnam.  He was a gunner on a River Patrol Boat and he rescued a few of his mates after his boat was damaged by a Viet Cong RPG.

We also spent a fair amount of time along Puget Sound. 

 This is one of the Washington State Ferries.  The company itself is the largest ferry company in the United States and the third largest in the world.  This is one of 22 ferries that operate in the Puget Sound.  All of their ferries are green and white.

 I'm not sure where Puget Sound ranks in terms of shipping traffic, but I have to imagine it's up there.

 One more shot of Puget Sound before we started to peel away.

For this shot, I was messing around a bit.  I wanted a rails in motion type shot.  What do you think?

And with this, we conclude our trip on the Empire Builder.  I hope that you enjoyed this posts.

Continuing on the Empire Builder - Day 2

So I fell asleep shortly after we left Minneapolis and I pretty much stayed asleep until the next morning.  That morning brought us to North Dakota.

 The funny thing about North Dakota is that we are starting to get into the mountains, although it doesn't really look like it.  I guess this would be considered as a plateau or the great northern plains.

 For the most part, the towns along the Empire Builder look roughly the same.  All I know is that I wouldn't want to break one of the rules on the train and find myself stuck in one of them.

 Evidently, there was some pretty serious flooding in the area just before we were passing through.

 If you aren't passing a wheat field, you're passing a cow pasture.

 And of course, trains.  This train is still painted in the older ATSF scheme.  I thought it looked kind of cool.

 One other thing about North Dakota is that it is going through a oil boom at the moment.  These appear to be new tank cars.  This boom is causing unemployment to be much lower in North Dakota than many other states.

 A pair of BNSF engines.

 One of the nice things about train travel is that if the train is running ahead of schedule, there are more stops to get out and stretch your legs.  This is the train station in Minot, North Dakota.  I think there is or used to be an Air Force Base nearby.

 This would be another typical scene in North Dakota.

 This is the lovely town of Stanley North Dakota.  It is the county seat of Mountrail County and has a population of just under 1,500.  It is located on the Bakken Oil Field but the oil there has been tough to extract.  The town was founded in 1902.

 We also passed several grain elevators.

 As we started to get higher in elevation, it started to look more like mountains.

 One of the things I like about taking the Empire Builder is the number of Gate Guardians at the train stations.  This particular one was used by the Great Northern railway and is in Williston, North Dakota.

 I'm not sure if this is a gate guardian or an active engine but at any rate it's message is still valid.  Don't try to play beat the train.  It's a game where one loss will do you in.

 Another set of grain elevators.

 I'm not sure if this is the Missouri River but I know that we paralleled the river for a while.

 I didn't think Norfolk-Southern serviced this part of the country, so I took a picture of the train.

 We were starting to get in a more mountainous area.

 These remind me of the mountains I would see on the Zephyr.

 More mountains.

 I think this may be Glasgow, Montana.  It was founded in 1887 by James Hill as railroad town.  The town grew in the 1930's with the formation of the Fort Peck Dam.  During World War II, it was home to Glasgow Air Base which housed B-17 Bombers.  The base was closed after World War II.  Its population is around 3,500 people.

 I'm not sure what town this was but I liked the church.

 I'm not sure what this was but I kind of liked the look of the scene.

 A shot of one of the Eastbound Empire Builders as it passed us.

 I think this may still be the Missouri River.

 As is this.

 Our next long stop was at Havre.  It is a major railyard for the BNSF railroad.  Consequently, I was able to get many engine pictures.

 A pair of engines.

 I kind of liked the looks of these.

 This is the station and a BNSF local headquarters.

 A shot of our train.  This is pretty typical for the distance trains of the west.

 This particular station gave us the opportunity to get closer to the guardian.

 A shot of the front.

 And just in case you forgot who originally owned this line.

 And then we were on our way again.  This is a plateau.

 And the fool on the hill.

 And just a shot of the vastness of the west.  I guess you never realize just how vast this country is unless you take a trip like this. 

 And we started to get closer to the Glacier Mountains.

 The weather wasn't terribly cooperative though.   This pretty much meant I was shooting at a higher ISO than I really wanted.

 A river passing under us.

 A golf course as we approached the mountains.

 I'm not sure what hotel this was but I kind of liked it.  Sadly, I couldn't get a much better picture than this one.

 I'm always amazed at the beauty of the mountains.

 And doubly so when you put a lake or a pond in front of them.

 I just wish the water were a little calmer.

 One of the mountains peeking up over the woods.

 This was a monument to one of the engineers.

 I kind of wish I knew what this mountain was called.

 A shot of our train as we pass through the mountains.

 Even though this is a crappy shot, I wanted to post it because it has an avalanche shelter in it.  These are used to keep the rail open in the event of an avalanche.

 Another shot of the mountains.

 And the river passing through.

 This is a spot that I wish I could have stopped at.  This is making me want to make Glacier my destination next year.

 Another track.

 This is the gate guardian at the Isaak Walton Hotel.  I was hoping I would get a better shot of it this time...nope.

 Same for the hotel.

 And we slowly move out of the park.

 The snow capped mountains fading out of view.

 Moving to more relatively flat land.

 And another river passing through.

 We had another long stop at one of my favorite stations along the route.  That is the station at Whitefish, Montana.  This is a statue of the Billy Goat which was the symbol for the Great Northern Railroad.

 A shot of the station itself.  It was opened in 1927 by the Great Northern Railroad.  It is one of the busiest stations on the Empire Builder.  In 2002, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

 And a shot of our train as the sun started to set.

 Another gate guardian.

And the sun as it set over the mountains, signifying the end of another day on the train.