Happy Canada Day

To all my Canadian readers...

...Happy Canada Day.

Michigan Exposures Hits the Road Day 2

So the main reason for my trip to the Soo was Engineer's Day.  This is the day where you can get on the other side of the Locks.

And it lets you get a view like this.

Michigan Exposures Hits the Road

I headed up to the Soo today.  Tomorrow is Engineer's Day.  I'm hoping that I will see a couple ships anyway.

My dad was driving, so I got a chance to get a picture of a ship as I was heading over the bridge.  This is the Vlieborg of Wagenborg.  Not sure where she was headed though.

Night of the Boeings

So I decided to go planewatching tonight.  It is going to be a few days since I can go planewatching since I'm going up to the Soo this weekend.

 As I was heading to Metro Airport, I saw this guy setting up to land at Willow Run.  So I had to stop to get pictures.

 I kind of had a good spot to get a decent headshot.

 It wasn't a great spot for the full on beam shot though.

 And then I headed over to Metro Airport.  I was hoping to catch a 747 but first I caught this A320 that was arriving from Minneapolis.

 An MD-88 coming in from St. Louis.

 A CRJ-700 arriving from Indianapolis.

 An A319 coming in from the city of Brotherly Love. 

 A 747 races an Airbus.

 This 747 had a weird track on Flight Aware.  It left Detroit at roughly 5:00PM and was supposed to head to China.  It had some kind of issue and had to return to Metro Airport after flying a few circles around northern Michigan.  The circular pattern was so that it could burn some fuel to get under the maximum landing weight.

 I hope everything is okay with this plane.

 A DC-9 arriving at Willow Run from Laredo, TX.  This particular plane was built in 1966 and that makes it older than me.

 A CRJ-900 arriving from Dallas.

 A CRJ-700 coming from Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City.

 A CRJ-200 flying in from Escanaba, MI.

 A 737 that arrived from Denver.

 An MD-90 arriving from Milwaukee.

 Another MD-90 arriving from Florida.

 A 737 that came to us from Atlanta.

 A Boeing 717 coming from New Orleans.  I think it was pretty cool that I was able to catch the strobe light.

 A 757 arriving from Seattle.

 The almost beam shot of her.

 Another 757 coming in from Las Vegas.

And a better beams shot of her.

Seeing the Fed Ex 505

As I was pulling into my parking spot at home, I heard a jet flying over.  So I looked up.

It was the Fed Ex MD11 bringing the nightly delivery to Detroit Metro.

Eastern Michigan Announces New Athletic Director

I saw an announcement that Eastern Michigan was going to announce their new athletic director.  It was actually at a time when I could go, so I decided to head over there to get some pictures.

 They had representatives from most of the Eastern Michigan sports.

 Eastern Michigan President James M. Smith making the announcement of the new director.  I saw various tweets last night that Eastern Michigan had made their selection but I dismissed them as rumor.  Then I saw an article in the Detroit News.  President Smith made a comment that he was kind of surprised that they were able to keep it under wraps that long.

 The new Athletic Director is Scott Whetherbee (I'm going to have to make sure I spell that name correctly for a while).  He was raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan and worked in the ticket office at Western Michigan University.  He went to Ferris State on a baseball scholarship until they killed the program.  Then he finished his academic career at Ball State where he got his bachelor's degree in sports administration.  He bounced around a few college athletic departments until he landed at Mississippi State where served as Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs.
It sounds like he may be a good fit for Eastern Michigan because he's managed to bring success to many programs that live in the shadows of larger programs.  I think he also comes to Eastern Michigan at critical juncture.

I wish him the best of luck at Eastern Michigan and I hope he builds on the previous athletic directors.

Catching up with the Mesabi Miner

After seeing the eagles, I took a look at Marine Traffic to see what was cooking on the river.  One of the ships that I saw was the Algosteel and I was hoping to catch her since this may very well be her last season.

 Sadly, I missed the Algosteel by about 10 minutes but the Mesabi Miner was making her way downbound.  It has been a little over a year since I've seen her.  So it was kind of nice to catch up to her.

 I'm not sure where she was heading from but she was heading down to Toledo.  I think she may have been carrying a load of coal from Superior, Wisconsin.

 The first of two headshots.  The lighting was just about right for me.  I think the atmospherics were just about right to as I didn't get much distortion on my pictures today.

 The Mesabi Miner makes her way off Lake Huron in order to enter the St. Clair River.

 From this point, she is about 3 hours from Lake St. Clair.  Then it is roughly two hours until she passes Belle Isle.

 From Belle Isle, she is in the Detroit River for about 2.5 more hours.

 And then I think it is 3 or 4 more hours until she reaches her destination of Toledo.

 There were just enough clouds today and they looked pretty nice.

 It's always cool to see 1000 feet worth of ship.

 A shot of her bow.

 And a shot of her plimsoll lines.  Lake levels are much higher this year.  I think this means that they can load the ships heavier this year.

 A shot of her pilothouse.

And one more shot of her as she continues on her way.

Watching an Eagle Get Breakfast

After catching the 757, I headed down to Magee.  Like I said, I wanted to be there early enough to see the eagles when they were the most active.

 The first thing I was a rabbit.  I wanted to try to get closer to it....

 ...but alas.

 It was cool to see the eagle out, but unfortunately he wasn't in the best position for pictures.

 "Hey, quit paying attention to those eagles over there...I'm a much nicer looking bird."

 Another shot of the eagle.  It was almost like he was drinking his coffee and reading his newspaper before going out "shopping".

 I think this is a muskrat.

 The eagle finally left the tree to look for breakfast.  I wasn't able to get a decent shot of him leaving, but since I was looking in the right direction, I was able to get a pretty cool shot of him coming back.

 The eagle was getting molested by the other birds as it was bringing the fish back to the nest.

 "Flaps set.  Gear down.  Clearance to land."

 I think there were three eagles in the nest, but the other one was staying hidden.

 He looks out over his domain.

 I'm not sure what he was looking down at.

 I think this was a heron.

 I would have liked the shot better if he were in the water.

 But I really like this shot.

Magee has two eagle nests.  I was beginning to think that this nest was abandoned and then I saw this young eagle peek out.