The Atlantic Huron Passes Detroit

Some ships have a found spot in my heart and this ship is one of them.  This is probably the ship that started me on the path of being a shipwatcher.  One of the reasons is because it was part of my favorite pictures.  If you'd like her story, go here.

 I was hoping that the clouds would be a little more interesting tonight and with the wind, I thought the river would be wavier but neither was the case.

 Oh well, the sky was still cloudy enough for me but I think I wanted more stormy looking clouds.

 She starts to pass by my spot.  I think this is one of the better spots from Milliken.

 This one isn't too bad.

 A closeup of her pilothouse.

 And she makes her way downriver.

 Another shot of her pilothouse.

 And Windsor as a backdrop.

 She gets a little closer to the Ambassador Bridge.

And she is about to pass under.

I kind of wish I would have gotten down there a little earlier because I would have caught a couple of other ships.

Happy Halloween

Today is Halloween.   I didn't really have anything planned to post today, so I'm kind of winging it.  It seems to be a standard blog practice to have a post for the various holidays, so here goes.

Halloween is a contraction of All Hallow's Evening or Eve.  Hallow is an Old English word that means saint.  And All Hallow's Eve is the night before All Saints Day.  The holiday itself is Christian in nature but has pagan roots.  The evening before All Saints Day was believed to be the last night that the dead could gain vengeance before All Saints Day.  In order to protect themselves from that, people would wear costumes to disguise themselves.

The Jack O' Lantern is supposed to be a representation of souls in purgatory and trick or treating came about because kids would go door to door collecting soul cakes.  So the traditions for Halloween are kind of a mixed bag of things.

 As I said, I didn't really plan a post, so I tried to do a little mental gymnastics and I guess since pirates are sometimes associated with Halloween, I'd use a plane with the Jolly Rogers on the wing.

 I guess skulls and crossbones are also part of the Halloween traditions, so here's a closeup of the tail.

 Ghosts are certainly part of the tradtion of Halloween....so here's a ghost plane.

And phantom Phantom.  I can never get enough jokes out of the Phantom.

So from me here at Michigan Exposures to you my readers...Happy Halloween.

A Personal Journey

I guess if there is a common theme to this blog it is about journeys.  In particular my journeys to various places.  Those places may be fairly close like Downtown Ypsilanti or the Water Tower, not so close like Belle Isle or further places.  Normally  I don't talk about journeys of the spirit, however in this case, I will be.

One other common thing about this blog is the fact that it includes pictures, namely pictures that I take myself.  Rarely I will use other people's pictures.  It is even rarer that I have pictures of myself but that is because it's kind of hard to take a picture of yourself when you're behind the camera.

So let me include a picture of myself as I stand right now because I've decided to take a big step in my life.  For a long time, my mom has been telling me to lose some weight because she is going through some issues right now and she feels that had she lost the weight at my age, those issues may not be as bad.  Also for a long time, I've been ignoring her.  Then my friends started to get on a weight loss bug, so I figured I would give it a shot.

So I downloaded an app on my phone that tracks my calorie intake for the day and for the first week, I was just seeing where I was and it was an eye opener.  After seeing that, it's no wonder I am where I am.  So I set my goal for a pound a week.  I realize that is going to make for a long slog, but I'm okay with that because a pound a week isn't a huge adjusment.

Well, I started this process about a month ago.  Weighed myself about two weeks ago and in that two weeks, I've lost 9 pounds.  Given that I didn't weigh myself at first, I figure I've lost at least 10 pounds and I consider that a small milestone.

I do like my food but I think I like my photography more.  Given that one of the things I like to photograph is ships and since beaches aren't always hadicapped accessible, I figured that it might be a good idea to get some of this weight off.  I'm hoping that I can get enough weight off so that I can take a ride on the B-17.  A few years ago, there was one on the ground that you could tour and I couldn't fit through the bomb bay, so I figure if I want a ride, I'll have to take some weight off.

So I hope I didn't bore you too much with my tale of woe.

As always, thank you for reading and looking at this blog.

And Whitefish Point Rounds It Out

Whitefish Point is another place I haven't been to in a while.  It is a pretty neat place and it was doubly so because the weather was a little foul.

 The cool thing is that there wasn't any scaffolding on the lighthouse anymore, so I could get some unencumbered shots.

 Another cool thing is that I managed to catch the Algoma Provider on the horizon.  If I had known she was out and about, I might have tried to make it to the Locks, but I think I would have missed her there.

 A shot of the tower.

 A shot of the tower and the foghorn.  Both of these are automated now.

 A shot of Lake Superior.   If you look closely, you can see the Algoma Provider on the horizon still.

 I thought the clouds looked really cool.

 You can't really tell in this picture but the waves were getting pretty large.

 Just some of the pebbles on the ground.

 A shot of the tower from the Beach.  I was trying to get a shot of the clouds behind it because they were really angry looking.

 Looking at another part of the beach.

 Looking up at the foghorn.

 And a shot of the lighthouse and keeper's building without cars, snow fences or scaffolding.

As I was leaving, I took at look at AIS and saw the Atlantic Erie was making her way downbound.  Sadly, my light was waning, so I couldn't get a good shot of her.

At Tahquamenon Falls

Since I got the ship pictures I was looking for, we decided to head over to the Falls instead of my normal destination of late.  I'm kind of glad we did as I've been taking a bunch of ship pictures lately.

 Sadly, I missed the Falls while the colors were still around.  So I got an almost winter shot of the Falls.  I think it may have been snowing a little while I was there.

 A closer shot of the falls.

 One pulled back to get the full expanse.  Even without colors, it is still beautiful.

 As I was walking between the different spots that you can see the falls, I decided to take some pictures of the stuff on the ground.  I really liked this one.

 Another angle of the Falls.

 A little bit closer.

 Pulled back so you can see the cliff on the other side.

 I took this shot with the shutter speed slowed down to get an illusion of motion.

There were quite a few leaves on the ground though.

The Roger Blough Passes the Mackinac Bridge

My favorite ship by far is the Roger Blough.  It has been a while since I've seen her however as she's been doing the Duluth to Gary run lately.  When I saw that she would be passing the Mackinac Bridge on Saturday, I had to go up there and try to get a picture I've been looking to get for a while.

 Fortunately, I have an AIS app on my phone, so I could track her progress on the way up there.  For a while, it looked I might miss her because she seemed closer than she actually way.  A few minutes after arriving, I scanned the horizon and saw a very familiar stack.

 Pretty soon that familiar stack because a familiar pilothouse.  I just love the way ships look disjointed as they are appearing just over the horizon.  I'm not quite sure why this happens though.

 Slowly she became more apparent.

 And soon she was close enough that you could tell that she was the Blough.

 Eventually, she was close enough that I could get parts of the Bridge with her.

 As I was waiting for her to approach, someone approached me and asked me to take their picture.  I told them to wait as this was a shot I drove 5 hours for.  They didn't mind and they started to get their own pictures of her.

 Slowly she crept towards the Bridge.

 And finally, the shot I was looking for.

 Another shot I was looking for.

 And she started to move away with Lake Huron as her backdrop.

And one final shot with the Grand Hotel in the background.

The Wilfred Sykes at Mackinaw

The next ship is a beauty in my opinion.  Since she spends alot of time on Lake Michigan, I don't get many chances to see her.  But I Saturday, I managed to see her again and I wasn't expect to.  She is the Wilfred Sykes.

 So I looked over towards Mackinac Island and I saw a ship.  I couldn't quite make out what she was.  She was still hovering just below the horizon.  As she slowly raised above the horizon, more clues were offered.

 Eventually she was making her way closer, and I could easily identify her.  She was the Wilfred Sykes and I was glad because it was hazy last time.  Here she is passing the Grand Hotel.

 Eventually she got close enough that I could make out her name, but I didn't need that as she's got a pretty distinctive paint scheme.

 A shot of her against the sky.

 As she passes the St. Ignace side.

 Slowly she approaches the Mackinac Bridge.

 And she starts to pass under the Bridge.

 Slowly she moves away.

 One more shot of her alone.

And then she greets the reason why I was up at the Bridge in the first place.