The Sunset in South Haven

I thought I was going to go to St. Joseph after Grand Haven.  It was getting late though and I wanted to catch one more lighthouse.

 The sun was starting to set as I was about to pass South Haven, so I decided to stop there.

 Sadly, there was some low cloud cover, so I didn't get the full effect of the sunset.  However, I can't complain too much because I was able to get some pictures of the lighthouse.

 The sky was still pretty though and the lighthouse was mostly deserted.

 I think I had to mess around with this one for a bit.

 I love the reflections on the water.

 I wanted to try to get the vaunted curve with the catwalk lights.

One more shot before heading home.

While I am getting better, I am still not quite 100% better yet.  I think I was pushing it a little too much yesterday on my whirlwind.  Most of it was driving though, so I guess that wasn't too bad.  I'm sure things will get better as I get better though.

A Stop in Grand Haven

As I said in the last post, I decided to head over to the western side of the state.  I was hoping to get some angry Lake Michigan shots.

 Sadly, that wasn't to be the case.  It was also the case, that I was shooting into the sun, so my pictures weren't quite as good as I hoped. 

 I tried to use the manual mode on the camera.  I think that helped a little bit.

 I think this is a merganser duck.

 I was able to mess with the camera a bit.  Sadly, there were a few people there yesterday.  It was a nice day and that seems to bring the people out in droves.

 I was able to get the color of the lighthouse, but the sky is a little washed out. 

 Another shot of the duck.

 One more shot of the lighthouse.

 As I was getting back in the car, I saw this seagull perched on the light.  I love the patterns on the seagull.

He started to yell.

A Whirlwind Tour of the State

There wasn't much river traffic after the Oberstar passed by.  Well there was, but it was much later in the day.  It was a pretty nice day yesterday but I heard it might be windy on the western side of the state, so I headed over there.

 It has been a while since I've been to Fallasburg.  Like I said, it was a nice enough day yesterday, so I figured I would take a jaunt over there.

 I was not expecting the water to be so calm though.  There was barely a ripple and I think that makes for neat pictures.

 I decided to take a little walk.

 I love this sign.

 The view from the other side wasn't as nice since I was shooting directly into the sun.

One more shot before moving on.

Hanging Out With the Honorable James L. Oberstar

I have alot of time to make up for boatwatching.  Because of my stint as a guest at St. Joes and Redies, I missed the end of the shipping season last year.  Now that I'm better, I don't want to miss the beginning of the shipping season this year.  I managed to catch a couple of ships last week and I saw that there were a couple out and about yesterday.

 I didn't catch the first ship of the morning.  I missed her by about five minutes or so.  But I did manage to catch the second ship.

 The Honorable James L. Oberstar had just delivered her load of taconite to the Rouge Steel Plant in Dearborn.  I seem to remember saying how many cars could be produced from one load of taconite.

 She can carry 31,000 tons of cargo.  It takes roughly 1.2 tons of taconite to create one ton of steel.  This means that one of load of taconite creates 26,000 tons of steel.

 An average car requires about 1.2 tons of steel (and other material), which means that the Oberstar carries the material for 21,500 cars.

 It takes roughly four days for the Oberstar to complete this cycle.  She is joined by her sisters.

 I guess what I'm trying to say is that people don't realize the impact of the Great Lakes on the United States economy.  Which is why I don't understand why the building of the new lock is being held up.

 A bit of water kicks up in the wind.

And she heads up to Marquette, where she will pick up the equivalent of another 21,500 cars.

Chasing the Dream but Catching the Queen

I saw that the Royal Jordanian and the Air France 787s would be heading to Detroit Metro tonight.  Even though it was raining, I decided to head over there to catch some pictures.  I actually like some weather in my shots.

 The planes were coming in from the south, so I headed over to the parking deck to catch them from there.  This 757 was taxiing after it arrived from Atlanta. 

 A Spirit Airlines A319 arriving from Orlando.  Even though Spirit is one of the budget airlines, I do like their livery.  It is nice to see some other colors besides white.

 An A330 belonging to Delta arriving from Amsterdam.

 It makes the turn towards the gate, giving me a headshot.

 I think this A319 was arriving from Charlotte.

 A Socata TBM 850 preparing to take off.  It was heading to the Eagle Creek Airpark in Indianapolis.  This plane was developed jointly by the Mooney Aircraft Company and the French Company Socata.  It was designed from the Mooney 301 which was low powered.  This plane had its first flight in 1988.  It is equipped with a Pratt and Whitney PT6A-66D turboprop rated at 850 hp.  It has a maximum speed of 330 knots.

 A Delta Embrear 170 getting ready to take off.  There is a CRJ in the background.  This plane was heading to Lexington, KY.

 A Delta 757-300 getting ready to head to Orlando.  Looking at the weather map tonight, it looks like they are not going to have a fun ride tonight.

A Jet Blue A320 wearing Boston Red Sox livery arriving from Boston.

 The 757 making it's takeoff roll.

 A Delta 737 getting ready to head to Fort Lauderdale.

 An MD-88 arriving from Tampa.

 A Cessna Citation Excel getting ready to take off.

 An E145 arriving from LaGuardia.

A 757-300 arriving from Orlando.  I like the fact that I caught some vapor trails as it landed.

A headshot.

 A Spirit A320 arriving from Atlanta.

 N585NW taxiing to the gate.

 After missing the final Delta Queen Flight, I thought that I would never see a 747 again but it appears that Lufthansa is flying them to Detroit right now.

 That makes me very happy, because I like this plane.

 A beacon shot.

 A Spirit A320 arriving from Tampa.

 Unfortunately, they had both Dreamliners land on one of the 4s.  I was not in a position to get a good shot of it.  But I still caught the Royal Jordanian 787.

 A Delta A320 arriving from Fort Myers, FL.

 A Spirit A320 arrving from LaGuardia.

 A 757 arriving from Cleveland.  I think this might have been a charter flight, but I'm not sure who it is carrying.

 The A350 arriving from Atlanta.  I think this might have been a repositioning flight.

And one more shot of her.