Catching the Arthur M. Anderson

 After catching my planes, I headed up to catch the Anderson.  She stopped for fuel, so that gave me an extra two hours to catch her.

Sadly, I just missed her in Marine City, so I headed up to the next place which was St. Clair.

I think it is just as well because it was raining pretty hard in Marine City as I got there.  It wasn't too bad here as it was just misting.

I was able to catch the Anderson as she headed up north for the first time this season.  I was hoping I would be able to catch her as she came back, but I think there is still ice on the St. Marys River which delayed things a bit.

So her first revenue trip of the year was down to Cleveland.  Unfortunately, the times didn't work out for me, so I wasn't able to catch her on the way down.

However, I made it a point to catch her on the way back.

She is heading up to Two Harbors.

Where she will probably load taconite.

Hopefully, I will be able to catch her on the return trip.

The beam shot.

She continues on the way up.

Next I headed to Marysville.  It was getting a little mistier.

I wasn't sure I would be able to get pictures of her.

But I kind of like the effect.

The bow shot.

She continues to pass by.

This is probably my favorite angle.

And then I switched to my other lens.

the almost beam shot.

And she passes by again.

Then I headed up to Port Huron.  This is probably my favorite spot to catch ships.

It works for either upbound or downbound ships.

You just have to switch sides of the park.

She was kicking up a bit of a wake.

The bow shot.

She makes the turn for the channel.

AGain, I think this is the view that I like.

She moves on.

Framed by the Blue Water Bridges.

Close up again.

Another shot with the bridge.

A shot of her pilot house.

A beam shot of her pilothouse.

Her deckhouse.

Her stack.

Her flag blowing straight back.

She enters Lake Huron.

My camera pulled back to get a little more of the sky.  It looks alot better than when I started.

A Common Merganser

 After getting airport pictures, I headed up to get pictures of the Arthur Anderson.

In a loll between shots, I was able to get pictures of this common merganser.

A Rainy, Windy Day but a Cool One

 The weather looked pretty nasty when I woke up this morning but it started to settle down.  I saw that the Arthur Anderson was heading back to Two Harbors, so I figured I was going to catch her.  I also looked at the planes coming into Detroit Metro and saw that I could catch a 787 and 757 within minutes of each other.    I kind of like catching planes on rainy days because they make nice patterns as the wings slice through the moist air.

As I was heading to the airport, I saw that the planes were coming in from the south.  The best place to be when that happens is on the parking deck.  As I parked and looked at Flight Radar, I saw that they were coming in from the north.  I was thinking of moving to my other spot but I decided I don't have many pictures from this angle, so I stayed.  It was a good thing.

First up was a CRJ-900 coming in from Syracuse.

This is a pretty good vantage point to catch planes taking off.  This A321 was kicking up water as it was getting ready to head to Atlanta.

One I was not expecting but still happy to catch.

This A330 was coming in from Amsterdam.

Sort of a shot of the skyline in the background.

You can see the tower for the Gordie Howe Bridge.

A CRJ-900 coming in from Green Bay, I think.

One of the planes that I was waiting for.

This is the 787-9 belonging to Lufthansa.  I love how the wings of the 787 flex up in flight.

It was coming in from Frankfurt.

Another shot of a non-descript skyline.

Reverse thrusters applied.

It starts to taxi to the gate.

One more for the beacon shot.

An Embrear E175 coming in from Columbus.

I liked this shot because of the reflections.

Oh yeah, the reason why it was good I stayed here.  Apparently, the winds were reaking havoc on things.  So they switched to the 27s.  I like the 27s because it gives a different angle.  This CRJ-900 was diverted from Cleveland I think.

An A319 heading to Miami.

An American Airlines 737 heading to either Charlotte or Dallas.  I couldn't make out the tail number.

An A321 heading to Fort Myers.

A CRJ-900 from Albany.

This CRJ-900 was heading to Elmira.  I liked the shot with the United plane waiting in the background.

Airborne.

A Spirit Airlines A321 coming in from LaGuardia.

A Delta Airbus getting de-icing.  It was hovering around freezing, so I guess I understand this.

An A321 heading to Palm Beach.

The other plane that I was waiting for.

It was a 757 coming in from Tampa.

Touchdown with a bit of smoke.

Taxiing to the gate.

One more because I like the 757 and its my blog.

An A330 coming in from London.

Touchdown.

An A321 heading to Atlanta.

A 717 heading in from Philadelphia.

An A350 taxiing to fly to Incheon.

An A350.

This one was coming in from Haneda.

Beacon shot.

A bit of smoke as it touches down.

The front wheel coming down.

A 717 coming in from Buffalo.

And an A321 as it heads off to Fort Lauderdale.