Mishigami

The name of the state of Michigan, while being named after the lake is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigami, meaning "large water" or "large lake". WOW! you say. Well that is where I was last week so I thought I'd start off with an interesting fact. Now on to the good stuff. I was there for a biomechanics conference. I'm still amazed at how so many "nerds" in one place could actually be so cool :)!

These first pictures are a few from our trip into and out of Canada. It was supposed to be two hours shorter, but it ended up being over an hour longer because of traffic. Well, because we sat about 100yds from the gate out for over an hour, possibly closer to two...FOR NO REASON. Except maybe for the storm, which you can't see in the bridge picture, to move in on us while we were on the bridge, which you can see in the picture with the two flags as we were on the bridge.
Just as we passed the Welcome to Michigan sign you can see we were once again stopped (it took us forever to get across the bridge in the storm) and while we were just sitting there the bridge got struck by lightening just feet away from us...we were VERY glad to get off that bridge!




Sorry for the "picture" on this video; I didn't realize i wouldn't be able to rotate it. But it is the sound that matters anyway. Listen to the song. I think someone goes in and plays the "clock" for a half hour at noon every day. After one meeting a friend and I came out to this...

..on a state college and everything! :)

The following "show" are just some pictures from around campus!

On Thursday of the conference we had a banquet at the Henry Ford museum. As one might expect, there were MANY cars: JFK's limo, a few older cars, a nice old jeep, but there were some other things as well, like an exhibit on Chocolate, the fastest car EVER, the Oscar Meyer Weiner car, and some nice old planes. For those pictures, just personally request, but I wanted to share my two favorites. Firstly, there was a whole section on bicycles. The picture on the left is a bike with 10 seats. Check out the rear chain ring! I'll take that spot! Anyone wanna try it up Hobble Creek with me some day? The second picture (right) is a picture of the inside of the bus Rosa Parks had her famous ride on. It was there in a section devoted to the American experience and growth as a nation. Sitting on the bus and thinking of the story, one gets a feeling for how far we have come, and how far we have to go.