A Cool Surprise Visitor Tonight at the Aluminum Aviary

 So I was perusing the Michigan Planespotting pages and I saw that we were expecting an unexpected visitor tonight.  It happened to be after work, so I decided to head over the airport catch it.  It was an airline that I never would have expected to see here.

Not this one.  There are plenty of Delta planes that visit Detroit.

This particular one was arriving from Phoenix.

I got to the airport in time to catch Devil 505.  That made me happy.

505 is the Fed Ex flight from Memphis.  I think it arrives every day except Monday.

I was hoping to see the MD-11 but a 767 is pretty cool too.

A 737 coming in from Cancun.

It was followed by one coming in from Las Vegas.

It was also a pretty good night for 757s.  This one was the first of three.

This particular one was coming in from Mexico City.

It is the -200, which is the smaller one.

Another livery I was not expecting to see.  SkyWest is one of the regional airlines that serve as Delta Express.  I think they have this livery for flights they use for multiple airlines.

This particular one was coming in from Alpena, Michigan.

This is an E190 belonging to AeroMexico and it was coming in from Queretaro, Mexico.  That is roughly north of Mexico City.

Another CRJ700.  This one was coming in from Pellston.

This is the plane that I was waiting for.

It is a 787 that belongs to Iraqi Airways.

It was carrying the Prime Minister of Iraq who was coming to visit Chaldeans in Dearborn.

It flew from Baghdad to Houston and then from Houston to here.

Apparently it will be flying to Andrews Air Force Base next.

And then presumably home to Baghdad.

I'll have to admit, this is not a livery I expected to see.

A 737 from Delta arriving from the land of Hendrix, Coffee and Nirvana.

This was  737 MAX belonging to Southwest Airlines.

It was coming in from Denver.

I felt like I was living on the edge given all the news lately.

But it was pretty cool to see.

One more shot.

Another 757.

This particular one was coming in from John Wayne Airport which is in Santa Ana, California.

It was cool to see another 757.

One more shot.

But I was not done catching 757s yet.

This was another Fed Ex flight from Memphis.

I like this 757 because I think they look nicer with out the winglets.

But I like 757s period.

Had to take a couple more pictures.

And one more before heading home.

A Couple of the Steel Mill Buildings

 As I was taking pictures of the Barker, I looked across the river.  I liked the look of a couple of the buildings.

For some reason, this reminded me of one of the buildings on the Diego Rivera mural.  I'm not sure what building this is though.

One of the other buildings.

Some Turtles on the Rouge River

 While I waiting for the Kaye Barker, I looked down and I saw some turtles.

I kind of like this shot with the baby turtle on the back of one of the turtles.

Painted turtles are pretty cool.

These turtles were a little larger but a little further out.

Back to my original turtles.

I think they heard me and started to swim off the log.

And the Lovely Kaye E. Barker on the Rouge River

 The ship that I wanted to catch was the Kaye E. Barker.  She is one of my favorites because she looks so nice.

She was coming down from Marquette with the usual load of taconite.  She was coming on the heels of the Lee A. Tregurtha.

I saw that she was coming down last night and I figured out roughly when she would be passing.

I was happy to find out it was going to be some time in the afternoon.  That seems to be when the light is the best on the Rouge River.

I mean she is fairly well illuminated.

I started here at the Jefferson Bridge.   I don't usually catch ships passing the Jefferson Bridge but I found a nice spot to catch them.

I met another boatnerd here.

I thought the sky looked pretty cool.

I headed over to the Fort Street Bridge.  I decided to use my drone here.

It was a little on the windy side though but not too windy.

Because I had my drone, I was able to watch her pass through the rail bridge.

I think this is a fairly unique rail bridge.

But I'm not quite sure how unique.

But she is coming into view.

I kind of like this shot.

Next she was passing through the Fort Street Bridge.

It's a kind of cool looking bridge but I think the one she replaced looked cooler.

I lowered the drone a bit.

And then a bit more.

Probably my favorite angle because it is almost like looking up at it.

And then I headed over to the Dix Avenue Bridge, I think I like the views here the best.

A cormorant passes her.  There are quite a few cormorants on the river.

It almost looks like they are divebombing her.

It wasn't calm enough to get reflections in the river.

The sky looked pretty cool though.

One more shot from this side of the Bridge.

Trying for a different angle.

I kind of like how the lines lead into her.

She passes.

One of the crew making sure she has enough clearance through the bridge.

One of her holds.

Her hatch crane.

The back of her pilothouse.

More of her passes.

Her plimsoll lines.  I think the lakes might be a little lower because she's not as loaded as I've seen her before.

A couple other hatches.

The control room for the self unloading crane.

One of her boats.

Her stack.

Another shot of her stack.

A pair of auto inflating lifeboats.

Another boat.

The Stars and Stripes flying in the breeze.

She starts to make the turn for her slip.

Probably one of my favorite views on the Lakes.

A stern shot.

One more before moving on.