MHSD Outing, May 28, 1990

Detroit's waterfront, May 28, 1990. The more I look at this photo, the better I like it. Every Memorial Day weekend, the Marine Historical Society of Detroit sponsors a tour from Detroit to Port Huron and back. The 1990 tour used both Bob Lo boats, and both were fully loaded. This photo was taken from the bow of St. Clair just as the tour began. Or mebbe from Columbia's bow. It's been a long time.... ================== Now, with both big boats inactive (I did not say retired), MHSD's tour necessarily uses smaller boats....

Best LARGE . Shot from BobLo boat St. Clair (I think) on May 28, 1990--a Marine Historical Society of Detroit cruise from Detroit to Port Huron and back. This remarkable gingerbread community on St. Clair Flats appeared as a unexpected delight for many of us on the tour. Apparently they call this the area "The Old Club," though there's little information on the web about the place. The buildings are in Michigan , but face Ontario's Walpole Island . And, much to my surprise, there seems to be no other color picture of the place on Flickr as nearly all the "Harsens Island" pics are of passing ships, rather than the marvelous buildings. I do find this nice old B&W , though, scanned by Scott Wier ( South of Bloor ). He also has several other scanned photos of these and other buildings, evidently dating from 1920 or so. Just gorgeous. ========================= Aw, heck, Joel. Explain the "I think." As I recall, our tickets said Columbia, but we ended up on St. Clair. But it may have been the other way around. (Hey, this was 20 years ago.) Naturally I didn't have the good sense to snap a photo of the other boat. Silly me.

Another shot from the 5/28/1990 MHSD excursion on the St. Clair River. Here's Armco, with Ontario Power's Lambton generating station in the background.

Another from my May 28, 1990, voyage on St. Clair: Tanker Gemini, apparently at Sarnia.

One last photo (for now) from the 1990 MHSD Detroit-Port Huron excursion aboard the big BobLo boats. This is HCMS Saguenay, a Canadian Forces destroyer helicopter escort. She must have been on a farewell tour, as she would be decommissioned days after I took the photo. She's now an artificial reef , presumably for the use of divers, off Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

Memorial Day weekend, 1990, from the deck of Boblo boat St. Clair . Taken on the annual river outing of the Marine Historical Society of Detroit . My memory says the boat at the coal dock was James Barker , but I consider that unreliable. I'm gonna be paying for my fast film habit forever....

Photo taken from one of the BobLo steamers on 5/28/1990, during a Memorial Day river tour (Detroit to Port Huron and back) sponsored by the Marine Historical Society of Detroit. I've forgotten which steamer, unfortunately. We had tickets for one of the boats and somehow ended up on the other....