Bay City Fireworks Festival, photo by Jeff Caverly
“There are those who will say that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind is nothing but a dream. They are right. It is the American Dream.”
-Archibald MacLeish
View the photo background big and see lots more from Bay City’s Fireworks Festival in Jeff’s slideshow!
USS Edson frozen in the Saginaw river, photo by Tom Clark
The USS Edson is located at the Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum in Bay City. The say (in part):
The keel for the Forrest Sherman class destroyer USS EDSON (DD-946) was laid at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, on 3 December 1956. EDSON is one of the relatively few ships of the U.S. Navy named for a United States Marine, in this case Major General Merritt Austin Edson.
Edson was launched on 4 January 1958 by General Edson’s widow, Ethel Robbins Edson, who broke the traditional bottle of champagne over the ship’s bow. EDSON’S final fitting out and sea trials occupied the next ten months, and on 7 November 1958, EDSON was commissioned under the command of CDR Thomas J. Moriarty, USN. She then sailed in early 1959 to the Caribbean and through the Panama Canal to reach her original homeport of Long Beach, California, on 2 March 1959.
For the next two decades, EDSON served as a valuable member of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, earning a reputation as a Top Gun ship and the nickname, “The Destroyer.” Her ship’s crest included a skull copied from the shoulder patch worn by then Colonel Edson’s First Marine Raider Battalion.
Note that the Museum itself is closed for the winter until March!
View Tom’s photo bigger and see more in his Ships & Boats slideshow.
More ships & boats on Michigan in Pictures!
Santa Attack!, photo by Tom Clark
The annual Santa Claus for the Cause in Bay City takes place next Thursday (December 15) from 5-10 PM. It’s a pub crawl and just $10 gets you a Santa Suit and supports local charities.
View Tom’s photo bigger, see more in his whimsical things slideshow, and follow him at TAC Photography on Facebook.
Bay City River Roar, photo by Jeff Caverly
Summertime in Michigan is perfect if you enjoy things that go fast. From the Belle Isle Grand Prix to last weekend’s Bay City River Roar, Michiganders get a healthy dose of go fast. It doesn’t stop on land and see, as a lot of aerial teams are in our skies including the cream of the crop, the Blue Angels in Traverse City all weekend for the National Cherry Festival.
View Jeff’s photo background big, see more action in his slideshow, and view and purchase photos from Bay City & elsewhere on his website.
Santas invade Midland Street 2015, photo by Tom Clark
Tom took this shot of the assembled mob of Santas at the 2nd annual “Santa Claus for the Cause” event last Thursday (Dec 17) in Bay City. They raised over $15,000 for a bunch of worthy charities in Bay City with sales of Santa suits. More about the event from mLive – I’ll try and give you an early heads up for this next year too!
You can view the photo bigger and see more in the gallery from the Santa Parade on his website – follow him on Facebook for more!
Port Crescent State Park, Michigan, photo by Zack Schindler
The Michigan DNR says that Port Crescent State Park:
…is located at the tip of Michigan’s “thumb” along three miles of sandy shoreline of Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay. Some of the modern campsites offer a waterfront view, either of the Bay or the Old Pinnebog River channel. Port Crescent recently added a new camper cabin which sleeps six and has a scenic view of Saginaw Bay. A wooden boardwalk parallels the day-use shoreline offering many scenic vistas of Saginaw Bay. The park also offers excellent fishing, canoeing, hiking, cross-country skiing, birding, and hunting opportunities.
And see the map and book campsites here.
View Zack’s photo background bigtacular and see more in his Fuji X-series slideshow.
More state parks and more incredible Michigan wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures.
UFO “Cyclops” Hovers Over Saginaw River, photo by AmBelCanto
“Where there are people, there are UFOs.”
~ William Konkolesky, Director, Michigan MUFON
The Mt. Pleasant Morning-Sun had a feature this weekend on the Michigan chapter of the Mutual Unidentified Flying Object Network aka MUFON. In the article, Michigan Mutual UFO group watches the skies, MUFON Director William Konkolesky talks about his experiences and then details what a MUFON investigator does:
“We can take soil samples, we have labs that can identify anomalous readings in the soil. One of the things we would be looking for is unusual chemicals in the soil,” he said.
Konkolesky said that although the reported UFOs are often things like “airplanes and Chinese lanterns,” some investigations aren’t that simple. “More than 80 percent of the reports we get a year (turn out to be) identifiable objects and the rest are things that you can’t easily explain,”
Konkolesky said those interested in being MUFON investigators have to apply online, buy the training materials necessary to become an investigator, and pass a certification test. “Some of the things (investigators are taught) are basic things like how to identify an airplane, data collection, and how to interview a witness, just to name a few,” Konkolesky said.
Konkolesky said he understands why some may be skeptical about the existence of fully-functional life on other planets. “If you haven’t encountered the UFO phenomenon yourself, it obviously takes a lot for somebody to feel the need to take it to heart,” Konkolesky said.
View this photo from the 2007 Bay City Fireworks bigger and see more in AmBelCanto’s slideshow.
_JMC1593aw, photo by Jeff Caverly
Sunrise on the Saginaw River in Bay City.
Check Jeff’s photo out background big and see more in his slideshow.
More sunrises on Michigan in Pictures.
086>, photo by mark5032001
Here’s hoping everyone has a safe & fun New Year’s Eve as we all bid farewell to 2012 and enjoy the first moments of 2013!
View this photo from Bay City’s 4th of July celebration on black and see more in Mark’s photos from Bay City.
Fireworks!, photo by Craig – S
My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.
~Adlai Stevenson, speech in Detroit, 1952
The safety to be unpopular is a freedom we don’t always think of, but something we might well consider. It strikes me that in our relentless drive to get everyone on the same page, we’re not able to get anything done. There is a lot to be done and a lot of places we can find common ground to make our schools and communities better and protect the natural resources that make Michigan the place we love.
If it’s total agreement you’re looking for, that’s probably fascism. Democracy is messy.
Speaking of messy, you’ve no doubt noticed bigger booms over the last few days, That’s due to a new law in Michigan that allows the purchase of any federally allowed firework. The messy democratic process is already at work:
City officials across Michigan have scrambled in recent weeks to try to stymie the party in the sky — limiting when residents can set off fireworks in light of a change in state law that allows a more powerful category of explosives to be sold and used in the state.
Warren Mayor Jim Fouts blasted the state law, saying “pyromaniacs” are terrorizing the community, scaring children, pets, seniors and veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder with the louder explosions caused by the more powerful fireworks.
“The state has legalized these ‘consumer fireworks’ and people are going gung ho,” Fouts said. “People, who were hesitant to do illegal fireworks now are empowered.”
State legislators approved the looser fireworks legislation, which went into effect in January, to keep residents from taking their money to other states to purchase fireworks not available here. The new law forces communities to allow the fireworks on the day before, the day of and the day after federal holidays, such as the Fourth of July.
Warren, Grand Rapids, Ferndale, Novi, Birmingham, Royal Oak and other cities across Michigan are already creating ordinances to ban these fireworks during other times of the year.
Check this out background big and in Craig’s Bay City Michigan slideshow.
Here’s hoping you have an explosively fun and very safe Fourth of July! Here’s many more Fourth of July photos from Michigan in Pictures!
Michigan in Pictures 