Upper Peninsula

Waiting at Marquette.

For a couple years after the current management took over our St. Ignace hotel They had signs here and there discouraging folks from feeding the gulls. I can understand the reasons--the birds are noisy, and dirty. Certainly some of the customers hate them, and never return to the hotel. On the other hand, the birds are acrobats, and darned entertaining. The feeding never stopped. The signs have gone. ========== The 366 Snaps pic for last September 3 was one of a set of downtown pix I snapped after we ate breakfast at the Galley. Downtown St. Ignace isn't as flashy as downtown Mackinaw City, but it's more interesting. ( Both are quite touristy.) ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 33 Title of " roll :" St. Ignace Other photos taken on 9/3/2012: While we'd planned to walk the bridge , in the end we decided to beat the traffic downstate. So instead of walking, I took nearly a hundred pix of the walkers as we passed 'em by. (And a few of our room, while we packed, and of the sunrise .)

Still (further) behind on the Outtakes project. Should be able to start catching up, now. We'd just loaded the car and eaten breakfast; it was time to gas up and head home. I'm quite pleased with this pic. ========== The 366 Snaps pic (of the bridge) really speaks for itself. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 36 Title of " roll :" Home from Saint Ignace Other photos taken on 6/18/2012: The last day of our little vacation started with a great sunrise .

I'm behind, and playing catch up. Some days you just know what the daily photo will be; last June 16 the collapsed Chief Wawatam loading structure was that photo. This is just painful . More discussion in the (flickr) comments to the 366 Snaps photo. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 20 Title of " roll :" Wawatam Light Other photos taken on 6/16/2012: We wandered along the beach, north of town, and walked the St. Ignace boardwalk. I managed about 600 pix in the process.

Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

In the MacArthur Lock at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan.

Downbound from Lake Superior in Macarthur Lock at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan.

St. Ignace, Michigan.

It's not just the folks on the deck watching the crowd as the ship passes by; we were being watched from this hatch, too. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When lakes boats pick up supplies, some of the stores come in through this hatch. Others are loaded on pallets, and lifted to the deck by onboard cranes. I'll probably show a picture, sometime.... Kinsman Independent at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, in June, 1992.

Kinsman Independent leaving MacArthur Lock at Sault Ste. Marie in June, 1992. She lasted another decade after I took these photographs, ending her Kinsman career with one last Duluth/Buffalo voyage in 2002. In the end, technology changes got her, not age. [But see NIN34's comment, below....]

Kinsman Independent in the MacArthur Lock at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan in June, 1992. A close-up view of the deck of a Classic Laker. The Independent--originally the Charles L. Hutchinson, and later the Ernest R. Breech--was never a big boat, but she was fairly typical of all lakes boats when she was new. By 1992, she was 40 years old and nearly the last of her breed; she'd been superceded by larger boats, and lived in the niches the big boats couldn't service. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes, I know she's technically a ship; she's 642 feet long, 67 feet wide, and can run aground if the water's less than 35 feet deep. For some reason, it's the local fashion to call these large vessels "boats." Not sure why, but the key is that they live on the Lakes. I have always called 'em boats, and likely will continue to do so.

The Corps of Engineers maintains a museum by the locks in Sault Ste. Marie. The museum keeps a log of passing ships; they also get reports of upbound ships as they pass Detour Village, and downbound ships as they pass Whitefish Point. So that's my first stop at the Soo: I want to know which ships are in the system. Had a nice chat with the lady at the museum's counter about this old boat while we were waiting for it to arrive. The new boats are large and impressive, but style obviously wasn't a concern to their architects. While the Independent was hardly the oldest boat active on the lakes, it was an attractive relic of another age. We were both old enough to remember when lakes boats were more common and more stylish, and wishing for something we knew wasn't in the cards. Bridge notes: The yellow bridge in the background is the International Bridge, which crosses the Saint Mary's River between the two Saults. The dark bridge with several kinds of draws and lifts which runs beneath it is the old Soo Line railroad bridge, likewise called "International," which also connects Sault, Michigan, with Sault, Ontario. Kinsman Independent at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, in June, 1992. Camera: Chinon Genesis III

This is the first of a series of photographs of the Kinsman Independent, taken at Sault Ste. Marie in June of 1992.

Kinsman Independent at Sault Ste. Marie, June of 1992. First time we visited the Soo, my sister developed a crush on one of the crewmen on a passing ship. It was from Athens (Greece!), not Cleveland, though. And he was prettier than these guys, and stripped to the waist. Come to think of it, I've probably got a picture, stashed somewhere. Haven't found it yet, though. Give me time.... Camera: Chinon Genesis III