The Year That Was 2013

Wow, I can't believe that another year has flown by.  It seems like it was just yesterday that I was doing my 2012 in review post.  In terms of number of posts, this was one of my least productive years but I think I made up for that in terms of quality.  I felt like my photography was starting to grow this year and I feel like this blog is pretty well established.

 As has been tradition for this posts, I will start by posting a picture of M-Hat V.  This hat hasn't seen as much travel as some of my other hats because I've spread out the travels amongst my hats.  Still, this hat has seen the Empire Builder and Canada, so that counts for something.

 The pictures are in chronological order but I may talk about somethings out of order.  January brought me back to basketball pretty hot and heavy.  The Eagles gave me quite a bit to be exicted about as they went a little deeper in the MAC tournament than they have in the past.

 I also finally got the ice covered lighthouse pictures I've been looking for.  I'm gonna have to try to get some other ones this week, if the weather decides to cooperate with me.  It's supposed to get back in the 20's this week.  This is the Grand Haven light.

 February pretty much just had me sticking pretty close to Ypsilanti, so I didn't really have much to show for it.  I did like this picture of the Wolverine however.  I also had some pretty good basketball pictures.

 March brought me back to the covered bridges.  I posted this one because this is the bridge that was burned down earlier in the year.  Hopefully, they will be able to replace it.  I guess this shows that stuff is fleeting.

 March also took me up to the Soo Locks and I was able to get a picture of a freigther passing through the ice.  It made a pretty neat sound as it did so.

 April brought me some lighthouse pictures.  I was able to complete the Lake Michigan Lighthouses of the Lower Peninsula.  This particular one is Mission Point.

 April also took me to Canada for the first time in forever.  I thought Niagara was pretty neat but I was more impressed with the Welland Canal.  I will have to find my way back there in the next year.

 May brought me to Belle Isle where I found out about the Cherry Blossoms there.

 May also took me on the Empire Builder to Seattle.  Sadly, the weather wasn't very cooperative, so I didn't get to do quite as much as I had hoped but it was still pretty neat to experience the rails again.

 The Coast Starlight to San Francisco and the California Zephyr.  I could probably say the same thing for San Francisco that I could for Seattle.

 June took me out to Grand Haven where I got to witness a re-enactment.  I really should make it a point to go to more of these.

 The end of June brought me to my second Engineer's Day.  I was sort of waffling on whether I wanted to go there or not but I did end up going.  I'll have to say it was worth just for this view of the Gott.

 I also took the Mackinac Island Ferry over to Mackinac Island.  The ferry I took gave me a view of the Bridge that I'd never seen before.

 July brought me to the Canada Day Fireworks.  I think this was the only year the shot them from this part of Sarnia, so it gave me a pretty good view from the Maritime Center in Port Huron.

 In Bay City, they had the tall ships festival.  This particular vessel is the Niagara.  I would sort of see her re-enact her role in the Battle of Lake Erie later in the year.

 August brought Thunder Over Michigan.  Despite the boneheads in Congress and their sequestor, it was still a pretty cool air show.  It would have been cooler had the Thunderbirds been there though.

We had our company picnic on the Diamond Belle and that gave me the opportunity to get some ship pictures from the water.

 In September, I took a trip up to the Soo Locks and went through the Locks for the first time on the Soo Locks Boat Tour.  I will have to try this again on a day when there is more freighter traffic though.

 October brought me back to the Fallasburg Bridge but I was hoping to get better autumn pictures.

 It also found me on the rails with a day trip over to Chicago.  I took the boat tour there as well.  It was a pretty neat tour where they talked about the architecture of Chicago.

 The fall had me at a few Eastern games.  The Eagles did not look so good in football.  This was a picture from one of the brighter moments of the season, where they beat the Western Michigan Broncos.  The would finish the season at 2-10 and would fire their coach.  From what I've read about the replacement coach, I expect bright things for the Eagles in the future.

And December brought me back to boatwatching.  I was able to welcome an old friend after not seeing her in a while.

I think it was a pretty good year for me.  I got a picture in a book called "Football Nation" that was put out by the Library of Congress.  I also got a picture in the December issue of Esquire and they actually paid me for that one.  Like I said at the beginning, I think that my photography is finally starting to grow.

So what does 2014 hold for me?  Find out when I decide to post that in a couple of days.

Ypsilanti's Three City Halls

Ypsilanti was first settled in 1823 by Major Tom Woodruff and was incorporated in the Territory of MIchigan as Woodruff's Grove.  Another town was established on the western side of the Huron River in 1825 and was known as Ypsilanti after the Greek Hero, Demetrius Ypsilanti.  In 1829, the  two towns merged under the named Ypsilanti.
The title of the post may be a little misleading.  Ypsilanti does not have three city halls but it has had three buildings which served as City Halls throughout its history.

 In 1858, Ypsilant was incorporated as a city and this building served as it's City Hall.

 There is a small plaque commemorating that fact.

 It's a pretty small and unassuming building.  Doesn't look like much of a City Hall.

 Currently this building serves as a studio for the sculptor John Pappas.

 In 1912, Ypsilanti moved its City Hall to the Quirk Building.  This building was built by Daniel Quirk, Sr. and he was the founder of the Peninsular Paper Company.  It was donated to the city by his son.
Currently the building has various offices.

 Ypsilanti's current city hall was built by the Ypsilanti Savings Bank in 1877.  At the time, it had a pretty nice sloped roof.  In the 1940's, the top floor was removed along with the roof.

 In 1967, an aluminum facade was added to the building and was pretty ugly if I remember correctly.  In 1977, the city bought the building for $400,000 to be used as a city hall.

In 1991, the aluminum facade was removed but nothing was done to add the roof or other things back.  That's kind of a shame because I think it would look like a pretty nice building then.  At anyrate, it still looks nicer than Ann Arbor's.

The Wolverine Passes Through Depot Town

If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you know that I like trains.  I found a place where it sort of tracks Amtrak trains.

 The train was running a little late today, which  I guess makes up for missing it last time I was doing this.

 Although I wish there was still more snow on the ground.

 Because I think the pictures I have where the Wolverine is kicking up snow look pretty cool.

 The Wolverine passes the Depot.

 A shot of its engine.

 A closer shot of the engine.

 She continues on to Ann Arbor and points beyond.

One more shot.

Wandering Around Ypsilanti

I wanted to do some pictures today but I didn't want to do something that was too involved, so I thought today would be a nice day to catch a Wolverine.  I also thought it would be a nice day to do another project I've been kicking around.  That will be in one of the next posts.   Since that project required some travelling around Ypsilanti, I decided to take some other pictures from around Ypsilanti.  Enjoy.

 Since I was going to wait around for the Wolverine first, my first stop was in Depot Town and that pretty much sticking around between the freight house and the depot.  I kind of like the freight house.

 This makes me think back to the days of waiting for the train to come in.

 More of an over all shot of the freight house.

 Almost a train eye's view of the freight house and depot.  I kind of liked this shot for the tracks going through it.  The freighthouse was constructed in 1878 and the Depot was constructed in 1864.

 The Depot used to be a three story building but there was a fire in 1910 and it was reduced to 1 and a half stories.  In 1939, a freight train careened into the side of the depot and caused extensive damage.  It was rebuilt to its current configuration.  In 1984, Amtrak discontinued service to Ypsilanti (although there are rumors that it might start again).

 I'm not sure what kind of plane this is.  I'm thinking it is an Embrear commuter jet but don't quote me on that.

 A more or less overall shot of the freighthouse.

 A caboose from a New York Central train.  New York Central owned the Michigan Central and was the main freight service that passed from Detroit to Chicago (also passenger service).  In the early 1960's, it fell into hard times and merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad and becoming the Penn-Central.  It remained in hard times and was taken over by the government as Conrail (although there is some debate whether some financial shenanigans helped its downfall).  Later Conrail sold its tracks to either Norfolk-Southern or CSX.  Norfolk-Southern owns the lines through Ypsilanti.

 The City Body building.  City Body has been around for a while.

 Looking up the Huron River.

 Part of a memorial that honors the soldiers who fought in World War I.

The other part of the memorials honors the men that served in the 107th Field Signal Battalion of the US Army.  This unit was formed by men from Wisconsin and Michigan.  They fought in the Meuse-Argonne Battle (well they laid signal lines which I would imagine was pretty dangerous work).

 A shot of the building that you first encounter if you enter Depot Town from the West.  Currently it houses Fantasy Attic which is a place where you can buy various costumes.

 Not sure what these buildings are.

 The ever present Depot Town Clock.

 Another shot looking down the street.

 I'm not sure what all is in this building but I like the looks of it.

 The part of the block with Sidetrack.

 Next I headed down to Downtown Ypsilanti.  This is the building that houses YPsilanti Cycle which is a higher end bicycle shop.

 This block of Ypsilanti has housed many different businesses.  Currently it is a restaurant.

 The Michigan Heritage building was built in 1905.  I don't have much information on its history.

 Looking at the sign for the Ypsilanti Convention and Visitors Bureau.

 Looking at one of the blocks in Downtown Ypsilanti.

 St. Lukes Episcopal Church. This is a mid-Victorian Gothic Revival Church and was built in 1858. It is Ypsilanti's oldest existing church.  There used to be a spire on this at one time but it was removed due to age.  The church would like to put one back.

 I believe this house was built in 1872 for Dr. Watling who was a dentist. His wife was instrumental in creating the Ladies Library across the street and he was instrumental in creating the dental school at the University of Michigan.

 The Ladies Library started as a house built by Edwin Mills in 1858. Later this house was occupied by Mary Ann Starkweather and she donated it to the Ladies Library. It is an example of Italiante architecture.

 A stained glass window on the Ladies Library.

 This is the current house of the Ypsilanti Historical Museum.  One of these days, I need to pay it a visit.

 This house was built by Daniel Quirk, Jr.  He was the son of Daniel Quirk, the founder of the Peninsular Paper company.

 It is a pretty cool looking house.

I have more details about it on another post.

 Another shot of the Historical Museum.

 Another shot of the cool looking building.

I'm still not sure about this one.

I didn't put all of the details in this post but if you want more information, go here.