Unusual Happenings Witnessed on the Beach

The other night I had a hike and a picnic with friends, Jamey and Lois.  I'll post the hiking and sunset photos tomorrow, but today I will post pictures of two unusual things we saw while on the beach east of Grand Marais.

First we saw pollen in the water that very much looked fluorescent.   It was unusual, eerie, and beautiful all at the same time.

Then as we were watching sunset, we noticed the contrails formed by planes flying over Lake Superior. Contrails are clouds formed when water vapor condenses and freezes around small particles (aerosols) in aircraft exhaust. Some of that water vapor comes from the air around the plane; some is added by the exhaust of the aircraft. 


First we noticed a contrail formed from a plane traveling toward the northeast. 

Then we noticed what appeared to be a vertical contrail.  We were not sure if a plane was crashing or what.

 

Then when I zoomed in on one of my photos, I noticed that in fact the contrail was from a plane and that the vertical appearance was caused by our perspective.  The plane was going down in altitude, but it was traveling directly away from us.

Boardwalk Sunset

On Friday night after watching the USA women's soccer game in the World Cup, I stopped by the boardwalk to get photos of the sunset.

A freighter was travelling by....

A few friends were having a beach fire.  They invited me down, which I did for a few minutes before I went home and worked on mineral art.  Andre had some kind of fire additive that entertained us with color!

Flowers, Bed & Breakfast, and Fantastic Clouds

While visiting Jamey and Lois Fite's bed and breakfast the other day, I took a few pictures of their flowers.  If you are visiting Grand Marais and you want to stay at the best place in town, please call the Agate Cross Bed and Breakfast at 906-494-2990.

 

Their yard is beautiful with flowers, a pond, raised garden beds, and more....

 

 Once in a while onshore winds from both Lake Superior and Lake Michigan cause intra-peninsula convergence clouds to form.

Beach, Flowers, and More

This has been a busy week.  Since it is the last week before I start the summer hours at the museum, I have spent all of my time making mineral art.  Plus I was asked to write an article about agates for the Historical Society of Michigan.  The rain and cold weather also did not help convince me to get out and get some photos.  But yesterday was nice and I decided to go do the steps at First Creek for exercise with friends, Jamey and Lois.  Since I have already taken many pictures at First Creek as of late, I have to get more creative.

The dogwood is all over the place at the top of the steps...

Another new bloom....

The three vessels traveled by Grand Marais, moving from east to west.  There was a tug pulling the next two vessels.  It looks like the kind of crew that worked on the Grand Marais breakwall over the last couple of years.

The sentry trees above First Creek....

Driftwood on the beach west of town...

Grand Sable Dunes...

Looking east.....

There are lots of new maple trees at the bottom of the steps.

Heading back up the steps....

Interesting Lake Superior Beach Photos

For exercise lately I have been going up and down the steps at First Creek with Jamey and Lois FIte.  Someone damned up the creek so it has pooled.

Looking west....

Another First Creek photo...

Agate hunters to the east...

An old stump in the woods next to First Creek...

Lake Superior Beach Fire

The other night was a beautiful evening so some of my friends and I decided to have a beach fire.  There were a few bugs, but for the most part we were able to enjoy the evening.

Lois agate hunting......their dog, Bear, swimming....

Jamey being Jamey and Logan with a color commentary...

A loon swam by and was checking us out....

Dinner:  hot dogs, beans, Cole slaw, and rice pudding.

Notice the giant mosquito...

 

 

On the horizon this bizarre looking ship motored by.  It seems too long for a freighter plus it was sitting very low in the water.  Any ideas?

A sand cliff peninsula was a few miles to the east of our fire....

An interesting bug...

An approaching cloud bank obscured the sunset right at the end.  Then the mosquitoes got worse so we bee-lined it the car.