image candidate for unsolvable puzzle?

Guess what this is........


I was photographing the ore dock when I looked down and saw these vivid designs in the water. I had to act fast as boats were putting in, ruining the calm waves that were reflecting these colors. .

A lot of people have a fascination with these docks, used to load coal and ore into the freighters. It's easy to see why, they are huge. If you can see at the top, those are rail cars that give you a sense of scale. Marquette has two docks, with the upper harbor one still in use today. Most of the time you see pics of the docks with freighters right next to them. This pic of dock only really conveys how big this thing really is. Marquette Upper Harbor Ore Dock

ka-booooooom

lightning over lake superior
NO, it's not Billy Mays here.... ;]
It's not very often we get T-storms up here. In the summertime, the front usually fizzles before it hits us, cut off by the cold air of the lake. But this time, two nights ago, the opposite was in the works with warm air heading over the cold lake, and some of the storms held up quite well, our dog will atest to that. Here's a shot of an isolated T-storm over Superior, complete with startrails.

scenes from Superior

Mesmerizing Big Lake Superior

Lake Superior has finally rid herself of the iceberg shoreline, for the most part. There's still a few bays with some massive ice chunks in them, but those are crumbling fast. I've been thinking to get out on the seasonal roads maybe next week, but with the highlands getting oh, almost two feet of snow the other day, looks like the woods are going to remain snow covered for quite some time.

We had a brief glimpse of spring this morning, guess that's all we get for now. Felt warm 60's ish, no chill in the air. So I thought, good, I'll walk the dog on the beach. Got out there in about ten minutes, then the winds shifted, boom. Fog rolls in, back in the 40's in an instant with the year's first thunderstorms on the horizon. Well, at least it's not snow! and the rain will help melt the remaining stubborn snowdrifts around here! Good riddance.
iceberg sunset

Yep, it's snowing

When you see stuff like this, you feel reasurred the sun will eventually knock down these monster snow drifts if the temps don't cooperate such as today. We're in line for up to a foot of snow today and tomorrow, but I don't think we'll get it in our location, unless the temps stay a little lower than they are forecasting. Now the highlands, that's another story, look out Ishpeming. I suggested Brian not to run the gas out of the snowblower, sort of as an insurance so that we DON'T get a big late season storm. We'll see if that strategy works.
I tried knocking down a drift next to our yard fence a couple days ago in attempts to keep the dog from zipping up the drift and over the fence.... I had a heavy shovel and could barely get the thing into it, it was frozen solid. Pretty much explains why the woods and seasonal roads are still impassable, blocked by frozen drifts.

the birds are back

Saw a few flocks of geese fly over,heading north over Lake Superior, high in the sky on their journey to Canada.
Got a nice little taste of Spring the last couple days. Calm as could be, a few wonderful days of sun and temps without a chill in the air.

It all came to a crashing halt yesterday with a temp drop of 20 degrees in 12 minutes in some places, according to the NWS Marquette.

Such is life on Lake Superior this time of year. When the winds change, it can be a shocking experience. I remember one particular time out at Presque Isle, the parking lot was full with cars and people enjoying the day, then the winds shifted. Kids in shorts and t shirts screamed at the swift change in temps(for real) and ran into the heated pavilion. The parking lot cleared in about 10 mins, lol.

I took my dog for a walk on the beach yesterday and it was comical to watch her barking at the melting and moving icebergs. Makes me wonder what goes on in those doggie brains sometimes? Ah,,, Spring has sprung.

two directions, two seasons

Such was the visual appearance yesterday of arguably one of the most beautiful places in the Upper Midwest, Grand Sable Lake and Grand Sable Dunes in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

I took a ride yesterday to visit the Agate Lady, Karen Brzys, in Grand Marais Mi. She runs the Gitche Gumme Agate Museum, full of jaw dropping agates and other minerals. Also in the museum is a wonderful historical display from the life and heritage of Axel Neimi,original owner of the museum and mentor to Brzys. This is a must see if you make the trip to Grand Marais.

After our visit, she treated me to a portion of a regular hike she takes in what is basically her "backyard", the Grand Sable Dunes.

Grand Sable Lake, April 15, 2009

Looking south over Grand Sable Lake, you could see a solid dirty ice cover yet, winter's last gasp (hopefully! you never know in these parts). Snow wise, the woods are still heavy with it. Still, a few seasonal roads have too much snow cover to be open yet.

Grand Sable Dunes

Hiking in the dunes proceeding north towards Lake Superior(recommended only for those that understand their limits) the sand was soft and warm, with a neon blue sky and sun a blazin'. It's easy to feel like an ant out here, in the Sahara of Northern Michigan. Wind temps were perfect for hiking at around 45 degrees or so, then when you got out of the wind and in the direct sun at the bottom of a dune, it was downright summer like with warm sun and sand. Just a wonderful day to have the opportunity to take in such a beautiful place, leg exhaustion and sandy shoes well worth it.

Lake Superior-anatomy of a big wave

The water color on Lake Superior constantly amazes me. These were taken a couple days ago, images have absolutely no saturation added to color, really no post processing other than a balance of levels.

The five deer watching the five fishermen

Marquette Mi fishing- counted 20 boats before sunrise, with more putting in at the marina.

winter... spring..... winter....?

Was so cold yesterday with the gales that came through the past couple days, that the ice piles reformed in a huge way on some bays on Superior at least 10-20 ft tall. I ventured out to the north side of Presque Isle out of curiousity and saw this- pretty typical for an April "thaw":
Lake Superior in April, Presque Isle

Went around the other side of Presque Isle, and the air was so clear, I could see Granite Island Lighthouse that sits five miles out- about the clearest I've ever seen it:
Granite Island Lighthouse
After I got the breath pretty much taken away by the absolutely brutal winds howling out of the north,(enough to make your eyes run like a faucet), I was tired of fighting the wind and opted for a more sheltered hike from Wetmore Landing to Little Presque Isle. Ice cleats were necessary as the entire trail was pretty much frozen solid with either sheet ice and snow that had thawed to slush then refrozen. Was a beautiful two mile or so hike sheltered from the wind along the Lake Superior shore- I'll have some pics ready probably tomorrow.

I love April

Lake Superior surfing,Nate extending the ride, April 06, 09
Wow, is it roaring tonight- the gales and big waves have returned. April usually signals the return of Lake Superior from it's frozen silence. Today was no exception; when the wind blows, the lake roars, literally. With a gale whipping up waves 10-14ft, the surfers were out as well. Some bays in our neck of the woods are ice free, if the waves have a chance to build big enough and overpower the icy slush fields. Unbelievably, others, such as points east of Marquette, the ice is rebuilding, go figure(it didn't get out of the 20's for highs today), and looks like an undulating rollercoaster of pancake ice waves that pile up ice balls higher and higher into tall ice volcanos.
Lake Superior Blue Slush waves
Even with cold air temps, the gradual rising elevation of the sun and solar warming of the sun will gradually win over, and ice will be no more on the mightiest of great lakes, Lake Superior. Here's a shout out to one of our fans, D'andre in L.A.!
Lake Superior Surfing, Dan and Matt

virtual yooperland... and rest of the world

They're here.
Whitefish Pt Lightouse-google view
Don't have the time to drive to Whitefish Point today? Go there virtually, right now.
Google has come to da yoop. I even found my house for the whole world to see(not too thrilled). It's called Google street view service. Go look for your house, bet you'll find it unless you live on a well hidden remote two track. Google has been driving all over the world with a video cam mounted on top of their car that takes 360 degree images of every road they drive down like every 25 feet or so- with 360 panning available everywhere they drive- up, down, side to side. It is amazing.
Ever been to the Jampot?
It's a bakery run by monks, living in a Catholic Monastery of the Byzantine Rite, in Eagle Harbor, Keweenaw Peninsula. Leave it to Google to capture a couple of these monks leaving the Jampot.
Jampot-google street view
If you come to the Keweenaw during the summer, you MUST try Jampot's Abbey Cake, a fruit cake drenched with bourbon. Everything they have there is GOOD, I like their caramels and carrot cake cream cheese muffins. They have all kinds of jams as well, made from the wild berries they pick themselves.It's a sure thing instant weight gain of five pounds every time we go there!
Proceeding on- to more Googling via street view-
This technology is cool,and compilation of all this information and framework to run all this is mind boggling, but if only everyone used the internet for the good of mankind, know what I mean? I do hope the people in charge of our country's security are taking a deep look at this, but too late now, cat's out of the bag.
Check out the Mackinaw Bridge, you can 360 it to look up, down, all around. All at your fingertips.
mac bridge looking straight up Google street view

Mac Bridge Google street view

Granted, with digital cams nowadays you can get even better pics than this, but you have to physically GO there, and you can't stop on the bridge when driving across. I wonder right now how many people that hate America are combing thru this incredible amount of visual knowledge at their fingertips.

Here's a link of some people in Britain turning back a Google car.

And there have been lawsuits already from disgruntled residents finding out their house has been Googlerized.

When an increase in break ins in affluent neighborhoods is starting to be directly tied to Google street view, this really makes one think if all this info at one's desktop is really a good thing.
I don't have the time, but I'd be interested to see what sensitive areas are being displayed by Google in this street view that you find- that should probably be deleted for the security of the country. A couple months back when I first found out about street view, I toured the streets of Chicago and got an in depth view of Soldier Field, Lakeshore Drive, etc. and was amazed at the detail being shown. Too bad Google can't demand a term of this street view service is to use it in only the best of good intentions.

Ever wonder where a week goes?

Great Lakes Freighter- complete with mirage


What? It's WEDNESDAY already??? No April fools here. Well, that pretty much sums up my week to this point. It's already midweek, already April and I'm still on March business.
Last weekend we went downstate to do an art show and for some reason it really kicked my butt physically and mentally; it took me three days to recover. We also found out the hard way how much lower Michigan is hurting economically, beautiful show,easy set up and load out, beautiful venue, very low low attendance with very few people buying much of anything. This hasn't been the norm to this point, so, I just rechecked our season and we are spread out pretty good across the midwest.... whew.
When doing art shows, especially slow ones, some quotes from people you interact with are memorable. My favorite from this past weekend was, "Were you THERE when you took the picture"? I paused for a moment, thought how many different ways I could answer that, then rather to confuse... just replied, .... "yes".
We figured since we didn't bring the camera, some spectacular photo op would materialize at some point in the trip. The most memorable was on the return trip going over the Mackinaw Bridge and seeing the ice chunks breaking up, along with a freighter on the open water sailing into the distance. Yep, freighter season is now again open, and I look forward to them returning to the Marquette docks.
This time of year you get some wild distortions of freighters on the horizon, especially when the temps warm up and the lake is still very cold. Mirages occur and the freighters take on ghostlike appearances. I've seen it where the freighter mirage actually flips over so you see an image of the freighter upside down-directly on top of the actual freighter- lots of funny distortion too from the mirage. Here's a couple freighter mirages, and will try to find the one as described above.

Yes, this is a great lakes freighter smooshed by a mirage