Out Amongst the Water Lilies

I went to the Pinckney Recreation Area to get some pictures of water lilies

 Just a pretty generic picture of some lily pads.

 Another angle of some.

 I think the sun was too intense for shots of the lilies themselves.

 Plus, I don't think the lilies are quite ready yet.

 Still some pretty cool pictures to be had.

 And then I saw this dragonfly.

 I had to focus on him for a bit.

 From the angles I could.

 The field of lily pads.

 From a slightly different angle.

 Back to the dragonfly.

 Probably my favorite angle.

And one more.

A Brief Bit of Planewatching

So I decided to do a little planewatching tonight.  Although I didn't really feel like doing much but planewatching isn't particularly taxing.

 First up is United Flight 555 which is one of the flights from O'Hare to Detroit.  Now that I think about, I'm pretty sure I caught the other side of this flight as well.  Anyway, it was pretty cool to hear Triple Nickel over the radio.

 A Spirit Airlines Airbus A319 coming in for a landing.

A Delta MD-90 coming in for a landing from Atlanta.

Delta Flight 2333 which is a Boeing 767 on its way to San Diego.

A Regional Jet headed somewhere.

 A Delta Airbus A319 headed to Memphis.

 Another Boeing 717.

 An MD-88 belonging to American Airlines.

An Airbus A330 on its way to Amsterdam.

 A CRJ-700 on it's way to Charleston.

 Another Delta Airbus A319.  This particular one is off to Philadelphia.

And a Delta 737 that is off to Phoenix.

Remember the Day

Today we celebrate (although I'm not sure celebrate is quite the right word) Memorial Day.  As we are out and about, we should take a moment to remember why we have this day.

 Memorial Day originally came out as a dedication to the Civil War.  It started as Decoration Day in the North in 1868 and Memorial Day in the South in 1866.  As time passed, it eventually became dedicated to all military personnel who have passed on.

 This particular statue is in the graveyard in Ypsilanti.

 A closeup of his face.

 I don't remember if I noticed the last time I took pictures, but there are a few military style gravestones near that statue.  This person fought in the Spanish-American War.

The 14th Michigan Infantry Regiment is one of a couple of regiments that was mustered out of Ypsilanti.  This unit participated in the siege of Corinth, Miss and Atlanta.  It was mustered out in 1865.

 The 27th Infantry Regiment is another unit that mustered in Ypsilanti.    It fought in Vicksburg, the Battle of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg and was part of the Appomattox Campaign.  Over the course of the war, 325 men were lost in combat and another 207 men died of disease.  I'm guessing that this was an unidentified soldier.

 And another one.

 I think this may have been another unit mustered in Ypsilanti.

As I was taking pictures, this guy came by to take pictures of this headstone.  It turns out that this was his grandpa.  As I did the math, it looks like he would have been a teenager when he joined World War II.

Brief Trainwatching in Allen Park

As I was leaving the spot where I was planewatching, I was going to head to the spot on Wick Road.  However, I saw a train that was heading east and I decided to head over to the spot in Allen Park where I can watch trains.

 As I arrived, there was train heading out of the yard.  Just one of the normal switcher cars.

 Not sure where it was headed.

 It is pretty unusual to see a caboose but I have seen a couple.

 The train I wasn't expecting, passes the one I was chasing.

 A shot of her engine.

And a shot of the back engine.

Waiting for the Germans

I decided to go planewatching yesterday afternoon.  I wasn't really in the mood to do much of anything else.  In the process, I decided to look up the Lufthansa flights into Detroit.

 I ended up finding a different spot.  It was an industrial park near the airport.  It seemed like a decent spot for the weekend but I'm not sure how it would be during the week.  First plane up was Delta 757 which was on it's way to Orlando.

 Next I caught a Southwest 737 in newer livery.  I kind of like the look of this one.  I'm not sure where it was heading though.

 Another Delta 757 but this one was heading to Atlanta.

 One of the smaller Regional Jets.

 A Boeing 717 belonging to Delta.  I can't make out its tail number, so I'm not sure where it is off to.

 Another Regional Jet.

 One of the larger Regional Jets.

 An Airbus 319.

 A Delta Airbus A319 that was on it's way to Houston.

 A 737 that belongs to American Airlines.

 I'm not sure what kind of plane this is.  I think it's a 757 but I'm not sure.

 Another Airbus.

 One of the DC-9 derivatives.

 The plane that I was waiting for was the the Airbus A340 belonging to Lufthansa.  I've caught one of these coming in but I didn't have a camera ready at the time. 

 This was Lufthansa 443 Heavy with service to Frankfurt.  It is a daily flight from Detroit.

 I'll have to admit, this was pretty cool but not quite as cool as the 747.

 However, the weather was perfect.

And one more shot.