Riding the Diamond Queen

Every so often when I'm down by the River, I will see one of the Diamond Jack boats pass by.  One day I looked it up and decided I was going to take the cruise.  So I finally pulled the trigger and took the cruise today.

 The boat would be taking pulls up to the dock at Milliken State Park.  She is the Diamond Queen and was bought by the Diamond Jack Company almost 20 years ago from the Arnold Ferry Lines.  She used to be the Mohawk when run by Arnold.

 She is registered in Detroit and flies the American flag.

 A closeup of her logo.

 The boat pulls away from Milliken State Park and gives me a view of the Ren Cen I've never seen before.

 This used to be a drydock for ships.  The building behind it was used to build engines and stuff for them and they would be taken down to the Rouge River Shipyard.  The State of Michigan actually owns the building and plans to turn it into some sort of recreational building.

 The Tri-Centennial Light which has appeared numerous times on this blog but this time the picture is from the water.

 A view of the Chene Park Pavillion from the water.

 This used to be the Parke Davis Research building.  It has since been converted to a hotel.

 The former Detroit Lighthouse Depot.  It is now part of the Coast Guard facility.

 The Bristol Bay.  She's been on this blog before.

 A view of the MacArthur Bridge that I never get to see.

 As we started to pass under the Bridge.

 The Whittier Hotel.

 You wouldn't think the city is going broke from this view.  This is the Manoogian Mansion.

 One of the Detroit Power Plants.  Back in the day it used to have seven smokestacks and was called the Seven Sisters by the Freighter captains.  They used to use it as a landmark.  As you can see, it is now two stacks and is called the Two Brothers.

 Unfortunately, I was on the wrong side of the boat for some of the sights.  In this case, I had to take a picture of the Livingstone Lighthouse from across the boat.  I kind of like the picture though.

 This is the regional headquarters for the Canadian Mounties.

 One of many mansions on the Windsor side of the River.

 The Hiram Walker distillery. 

 The Headquarters for the distillery.

 An old railroad ferry dock. 

 One of the parks in Windsor has a bunch of sculptures.  This one of the elephant is pretty cool and looks pretty detailed.

 Another sculpture.

 This is a memorial dedicated to the Canadians that served in the US military during the Vietnam War.  Canada wasn't officially in the war but allowed some soldiers to serve with the US military.

 Looking up at one of the towers of the Ambassador Bridge.

 Zug Island.

 The headquarters for the Detroit District of the Army Corps of Engineers.  This is almost in Fort Wayne.

 Part of the Mistersky Fuel Dock.  This is occasionally used by US ships for fuelling.

 The Federal Hunter. 

 The former Boblo Docks.

 This is an angle on a ship that I don't normally get to see.

 A closeup of the bridge.

 Looking at the front of the bridge.

 This is a view of the docks I don't normally get to see.

 Just so you know she's a salty.

 A shot of the full bow.

 A shot of the full ship.

 The Curtis Randolph fireboat.

 We've never seen this boat on this blog before.

 Another shot of the fireboat.

 Looking at the other tower.

 The Detroit Post Office.

 Joe Louis Arena.  Allegedly, this might be getting replaced.

 I kind of wish there were less people on the boat because I would have liked to get a picture of the skyline from the Windsor side.  Oh well, guess I'll have to do the cruise again.

 While not as impressive as the skylines of New York or Chicago, the Detroit skyline is still pretty neat.

 Another view of the skyline.

Looking up at the Ren Cen as we are about to dock.

All in all, I had a pretty good time on the Diamond Queen.  I definately want to do the Wyandotte cruise someday and I would like to do this one again so that I can get the views from the other side of the boat.  There were some interesting bits of Detroit history that I didn't know.