Just Some Shots of the Bridge

 Just some shots of the Bridge while I was waiting.

I think the Mackinac Bridge is one of the most beautiful out there.  Besides being more solidly engineered than the Tacoma Narrows Bridge built just before her, she has a pretty graceful look about her.

I liked the way the towers looked in the water, so I took a picture.

The lights were starting to come on as I got to the other side.

One more before moving on.

It was a long day but I had fun.

The Algoma Innovator Passes Under the Mackinac Bridge

 As I was crossing the bridge to head home, I saw a ship off to the west about ready to pass under.

I had some time, so I headed to the other park to get a picture of her.

The sun was a little lower, but I liked the colors.

The ship in question was the Algoma Innovator.

She was headed to Bruce Mines but I'm not sure where she was going after that.

The Burns Harbor Passes Under the Mackinac Bridge

 After catching my ship at Detour, I headed to St. Ignace before heading home.

I decided to have a pasty for dinner but it wasn't a very good pasty.  It had too much pepper.  As I was setting for dinner, I saw that there was a ship about to pass.

I decided to get a picture of her.

It was the Burns Harbor heading to her namesake harbor.

I'm assuming that she was carrying taconite.

Anyway it was pretty neat to see.

The sun was just about perfect too.

Catching the Arthur Anderson in the Dark

 I was having a hard time getting to sleep on Saturday night.  I was up and down all night.  As I looked at Marine Traffic, I saw that the Anderson was through the locks, so I decided to head to Mission Point.

The Arthur M. Anderson is one of my favorite ships.  She will end up moving higher on that list if the Blough does end up getting scrapped.  I will hate to see the Blough go but I can understand why they would do that.

The Arthur M. Anderson was coming down from Duluth.  I presume with a load of iron because she was heading to Gary.

When I thought about doing this, I was actually hoping there would be more light.

So I had to mess around with the ISO settings on my camera.

And the level I had to set it to meant that my pictures would be grainy.

It was still a pretty neat experience.  It's amazing how quiet her steam turbine engines are.  It was just the sound of the river and nothing else.

I think I like this picture the best.  They look much better at this smaller scale though.

About 8 hours later, I decided to catch her at the Mackinac Bridge.

Unfortunately, it was a little hazy but that's okay as I still got pictures of her.

I kind of like this shot.

I continued to follow her as she moved over the water.

I'm kind of surprised how much smoke is coming out.

She continues on her way.

I like fact that the background is relatively clean.

One more shot.

Obscured by Clouds

 It was still a pretty nice evening.  I wanted to get pictures of the Bridge with my drone.

Before taking off, I checked the FAA app to make sure that I was good and it said, "Cleared for Takeoff".  I didn't get too close to the bridge though.

While I was flying, I figured I could get a picture of the lighthouse too.

I kind of like this one.

I decided to get some pictures with my regular camera.

I was kind of happy to to do that because it was a nice sunset.

And then the fog started to come in.

Made for some nice pictures.

I haven't been able to get pictures like this in a while.

So I kept snapping.

As I was getting back to my car, I saw that the bridge was almost completely covered.

One more.

The Arthur M. Anderson Passes the Mackinac Bridge (In the Fog)

 So on Saturday, I decided to head up to the Soo.  It is Engineer's Day weekend.  I couldn't make it for Engineer's Day but I wanted to head up there.  There are usually a ton of boatnerds up there for the weekend and I wanted to catch up to them.

I saw that the Arthur Anderson would be passing under the Mackinac Bridge, so I got up early enough to try and catch her.

Except I didn't think that there would be a thick fog.  I haven't seen it like this in a while.

I decided to walk over to this end of the part.  I was amazed at how quickly the bridge disappeared into the fog.

As I was taking pictures of the bridge, I was getting some hope that the fog would lift.  I thought I was seeing more of the bridge.

Sadly, this is all I got as the Anderson passed.  Maybe next time.

The Mackinac Bridge at Dusk

So I had to get one more set of pictures before continuing home.

 I stopped at the park to get a couple of dusk shots.  The lights were starting to turn on and I wanted those.

The sky looked pretty cool but it looked cooler as I was heading back.

The Fog Shrouded Straits of Mackinac

So I left the Soo after catching the Hollyhock.  I decided that I would have dinner at a hot dog place in Mackinac City.  It is pretty good.

 As I was passing over the Bridge, I looked out and saw that the fog was obscuring the other shoreline.  I thought it looked cool, so I decided to head over to the park to get pictures after dinner.

 The sun was starting to set, so the Bridge had some pinks to it.

 I kind of liked how the fog was obscuring the far shoreline.

I decided to get one more picture.