....and Ships.

It's not often that I get to catch a ship coming into Toledo.  Usually, they stop up near the mouth of the Maumee River and that's not a particularly good place to catch ships.  There might be some places where I can watch them, but I need to figure it out.

 I knew that the Saginaw was loaded with grain and I figured that meant she would be heading further down the river than usual.  With that, there are some nice places to catch ships.

 The first place was near the Great Lakes Maritime Museum.  It gives a nice unobstructed view of the River.

 And consequently, a nice view of the ships.

 I tried to get a shot of her framed.  I kind of like it except for the rain drops in the shot.

 Next I headed a little further up river.  I was hoping to get some city behind the ship.  It's always nice for a sent of place.

 And I'm fairly happy with the shots.

 I think I really like this one.

 And she slowly passes by.  I think she was doing about 5 knots or so.

One more shot before she passes under the Anthony Wayne Bridge.  I'm not sure which dock she was heading to, but there are two grain docks on the other side the bridge.

Trains.....

After the airport, I decided to head down to Deshler for a little bit of trainwatching.  It wasn't quite as nice as planewatching because it started to rain about halfway down.  Unfortunately, rain does not make for a pleasant time watching trains.

 I think I saw this train waiting by the Intermodal yard as I passed it.  Right after arriving at Deshler, I heard it on the radio and it sounded like they were looking for something on the track.  Shortly, they received clearance from the dispatcher.

 About a half hour later, it appeared.

 And it passed fairly quickly.

 As I was looking down the track, I saw a green light which indicated that a train would be heading east soon.  Sure enough, there it was.  This particular BNSF engine was hauling some autoracks.

 And then there was another intermodal engine.

 It was still pretty cool.

I didn't stay too long because as I looked at AIS, I saw that there was a ship that would be passing through Toledo.

Planes....

My dad ended up coming down today, so I figured we could go so some planewatching, trainwatching and shipwatching.  The weather was only cooperative for the first part though.

 This plane flew in from Dallas Fort Worth Airport last night.  As I was taking this picture, it was heading back to Dallas Fort Worth.  After that, it flew over to Nashville and then back to Dallas.  Tomorrow morning it will head to Florida.   Such is the life of an MD-80.

 As I was taking this picture, this Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ-200) was heading to Green Bay, Wisconsin.  From there, it flew back to Detroit and then off to Chippewa County Airport near Sault Ste Marie, Michigan.  Tomorrow morning, it will head back to Detroit.

 As I was taking this picture, this CRJ-900 was heading to Austin, Texas.

 This CRJ-900 was heading to St. Louis.

This CRJ-200 was headed towards Milwaukee.

View of Cleveland from Wendy Park

Since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to get some shots of the Whiskey Island Coast Guard Station.

 I love the view of the Cleveland Skyline from this park.

 The train bridge.  The train was passing through as I was approaching the park, so I didn't get any pictures of it.

 this was as far as I could get.  Apparently, they are working on the station.  If the article I found is correct, this should be done by the end of the summer. It would be nice to see it in better shape.  I just hope it's more to renovate it rather than convert it something private.

 Another view of the skyline.

 A view of the skyline with the rail bridge.  I kind of like this view.

Another angle of the station from another part of the park.  They definitely need to work on it.

I believe this is the Cleveland West Pier Lighthouse.

And the East Pier Lighthouse.  Sadly, I didn't feel like taking too many more pictures but I was happy with the ones  I got.

Chasing Sam Laud

I decided to take today off.  I was thinking that I might have a chance to catch the Stewart Cort heading into Burn Harbor but that didn't happen.  Then I looked at AIS and saw a handful of ships heading towards Port Huron and I was thinking about going up there.  And then I saw that there were a couple of ships going into Cleveland.  One of them was a ship that I haven't seen in a while and another I was hoping to catch as she was coming in.

 As it was, I messed around too much before leaving.  I decided to do my laundry so that I would have that out of the way.  Especially since it looked like I would be in Cleveland for a while.

 As a result, I wasn't able to catch the Laud coming in but that was okay because I think these make for some cool pictures.  As you can see, it was a little foggy in Cleveland today but I didn't get too many pictures of that.

 It's kind of neat to see a ship unloading.

 Although she wasn't quite unloading yet.

 But I did like all of the train cars in the picture.

 I think her crane was starting to move.

 It definitely was here.  Typically when a ship comes to Cleveland, she has to unload a little at this terminal before she can make the journey up the Cuyahoga.  I'm honestly, not sure how long it takes to do this.

 For a while, it looked like the other ship I was hunting was heading somewhere else.  So I decided to head over there.  When it looked like that wasn't happening, I headed back to Cleveland.  The Laud was still unloading.

 But the weather was a little better.  So I got some different shots.

 It was kind of cool.

 As I was heading back to the car, I heard the stirring of a diesel engine, so I decided to head back. 

 It was pretty cool to see a train engine with the ship.  This kind of reminds me of the poster at the Soo Locks that compares what a ship carries to what a train can carry.  As you can see, the ship can carry much more.

 The engine backs out as the ship continues her unload.

 the engine nearly disappears.

As it was, the other ship wasn't going to appear for another couple of hours and I wasn't sure how much longer it was before the Laud would make the trip down the Cuyahoga.  As I was leaving, I saw a plane overhead and missed my chance for my trifecta.  Oh well, maybe some other time.

Watching the Planes Fly By

Since I had some time, I decided to stop at the airport for a few minutes to get some pictures.  The sun was perfect and the planes were taking off to the north.   I ended up stopping at the little spot on Wick Road.

 First up was a Boeing 717 which is operated by Delta Airlines.  As I was taking the picture, she was on her way to Chicago's O'Hare Airport.  From there, it will fly back to Detroit and then up to Cherry International Airport near Traverse City, MI.  Tomorrow morning, it will head back to Detroit and then will continue on to Indianapolis.

 This Airbus 319 was on its way to LaGuardia Airport in New York as I was taking this picture.

 This American Airlines Airbus 320 was taking off for a flight to the Phoenix Sky Harbor.  As I write this post, it is on its way to Seattle.  From there it will go back to Phoenix and then Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta.

 Another shot of that plane.

 This Canadair Regional Jet was on it's way to General Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee.  Mitchell was a strong proponent of US Air Power and had the B-25 named after him.  From Milwaukee it will head back to Detroit.

 This MD-88 is on it's way to Minneapolis-St Paul Airport.  As I type this post, it is heading to Philadelphia.

 Frontier Airlines has one of my favorite liveries.  Typically they will have some sort of animal on them.  Frontier is based out of Denver, Colorado and was founded in 1994.  They mostly operate in the west but have a few flights out this way.

 This is a Boeing 737 operated by Delta Airlines.

 This particular 767 is operated by Delta Airlines (obviously) and was on its way to Las Vegas.  I will say Good Luck to the passengers.

One of my favorite passenger aircraft is the Boeing 757.  For some reason, I think they look like graceful aircraft.