Lake Superior Evening Cruise

Here are some photos from the Keweenaw cruise we took over Labor Day weekend (see earlier posts for some more description of our trip to Michigan's Upper Peninsula).

Here's a lighthouse just at the end of the Portage River, when it opens out to Lake Superior.

Here are some houses along the lakeshore.

Sunsets are gorgeous, no matter which body of water, no?

I just kept taking more and more photos, since I thought the scenery was so beautiful!

Sometimes Mike doesn't like his photo taken, and this one didn't seem to bother him.

Now we've returned to Houghton, after our wonderful 2-1/2 hour cruise. I hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of it!

Keweenaw Cruise

We also took a river cruise along the Portage River out to Lake Superior. Here is a photo of the ship, the Keweenaw Star.

Here's a house on the Hancock side of the Portage River.

And here's a church on the Houghton side of the river.

This is the bridge connecting Houghton and Hancock.

Quincy Mining Company

So, this is the name of the company that owned the mine we visited. Here are photos of the shaft and the mechanical units that moved the materials up from the ground. It was all pretty spectacular, considering that this technology was late 19th and early 20th century. Of course, I don't recall all the information that I learned that day; I think Mike the mechanical engineer would have to help me out.

Keweenaw Mines

Mike and I traveled to the Keweenaw Peninsula, which juts out in Lake Superior. We stayed in Houghton for two nights, and one of the highlights of our stay was exploring an old copper mine. Hancock, Houghton's sister city across the Portage River, was home to a copper mining industry that saw its heyday in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In fact, mining companies recruited foreigners, including many Finns, to work in the mines. Considering that the Keweenaw Peninsula has similar weather to that of Finland, the Finns probably more easily adjusted to their new homes than other immigrants not used to such harsh winter conditions.

So, here are Mike and I, all ready to go into the deep, dark depths of the mine. We had to wear jackets, as the mine was about 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and hardhats to protect our heads.






After taking a vehicle on a track down the hill, we then took another tractor-driven vehicle inside the mine. This was not the way the workers entered it, but it was still cool to go down there.

Here's Mike in the mine. It was really cold there, and the guide even gave us a bit of a demonstration about what it was like to work in this kind of mine during the 19th century, when the only light available came from a candle. Of course, electricity changed everything, but it was still really harsh work.

Mackinac Bridge

Finally! I have a couple of moments to post some photos of Mike's and my trip to the UP over the Labor Day weekend. I'll start from the beginning....with the Mackinac Bridge, which connects the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan. What many do not know is that this bridge is actually longer than the more famous Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. In fact, it is the third longest suspension bridge in the world. At 26,732 feet, it far surpasses the Golden Gate, which is 8,981 feet.

The Mackinac Bridge was opened in 1957 after three years of construction and forms a significant piece of Michigana. In fact, a photo of it is on our Michigan driver's licenses.

Here's where I got my information. First, you can visit the Mackinac Bridge website at http://www.mackinacbridge.org/ and the Golden Gate Bridge website at http://goldengatebridge.org.

A New Fall Semester

I just finished my first week of teaching for this fall semester, and let me tell you, my numerous first-year students have exhausted me! I'm teaching two sections of PLS 103, Issues in World Politics, and I've never had so many first-year students in my fall classes. How is this different, you ask? Well, it's the numerous e-mails asking where to find the readings, how to find the on-line library course reserve, how to log onto Blackboard (our course website), and even to find the reading questions. Most of this is contained in my ever-so-lengthy syllabus (10 pages -- YIKES!), so I was surprised that so many students did not heed my warning given on the first day of class: "There's no such thing as a dumb question, unless the answer can be found in the syllabus."

So, I must resolve to maintain my patience and not get too exasperated at the first-year students, who are merely trying to find their way during their first week of college. Yet, they still must try to figure these things out on their own, right? I'm not that much of a hand-holder, so I've made a bit of a compromise: I posted a FAQs discussion board so students can post questions, and even fellow students can post answers, and I asked them to do so, to help me out. Hopefully this will reduce the number of e-mails in my Inbox.

On a better note, a student from Thailand with whom I worked very closely last semester gave me a cute little business card holder made of Thai silk, which was super sweet. And another student came by my office to chat with me about what he had read about Russia recently and told me that he was telling students to take my Russian politics class next semester. He's one of my best advocates, to make sure that I get enough students in that course so it won't get canceled.

In other words, it's all about keeping things in perspective, right? We tend to focus on the negative (or at least the annoying), while positive experiences are pushed to the background. That is my lesson learned this week, and I'll have to try to keep things in perspective, as I deal with the 100 students that I am to teach this semester. :-)

Speaking of the positive, tomorrow morning Mike and I are leaving for Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I'm hoping I will have beautiful photos to post in the near future!

Thanks Captain Obvious

This is a phrase I use all the time, so when I saw this at http://icanhascheezburger.com/ I laughed and laughed!

If you ever want to giggle a bit, take a look at this site. It makes me giggle every time, and it's not just me cracking myself up. It's the kitties!