Boat #11, United States - Know Your Arctic Explorers

Feeling bored or uninspired? Try googling Elisha Kent Kane and learning a little bit about an arctic explorer you've never heard of. This guy led a pretty fascinating life. Kane and his men were trapped in the arctic ice for 21 months. Facing a third winter on the ice they made a daring 83 day march which ultimately led to their rescue. Of course all during the harrowing two year icy siege the Inuit in the neighborhood were happily hunting, eating well, and occasionally guiding a lost and frostbitten explorer back to his poorly insulated ship. Makes you wonder who the real explorers were.

Boat #22, United States

David Glasgow Farragut and his foster brother David Dixon Porter were two very important figures in U.S. naval history. Farragut was in command of the Union fleet that overtook New Orleans on April 25, 1862, a turning point in the Civil War.

Boat #26, United States

I've said it here before, but it always amazes me that a tiny piece of paper like this can survive in tact for over a century.

Boat #50, Riding the mighty Colorado River

In 1869 John Wesley Powell led the Powell Geographic Expedition, a three month long trip down the Green and Colorado rivers. He and his companions became the first white men to pass through the Grand Canyon.

Boat #53, Golden Gate (sans bridge)

Here we have the scenic Golden Gate of San Francisco, pre-bridge. In 1937 the Golden Gate Bridge was constructed. At the time it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. We Michiganders know a thing or two about bridges. In 1957 we completed construction of the Mackinac Bridge and subsequently set off a decades long feud over how exactly a bridge should be measured. The Mackinac Bridge, AKA Big Mac, connects the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan. From anchorage to anchorage (meaning from beginning to end) it was the longest bridge in the world. However, the Golden Gate Bridge has a larger distance between towers, which is the more typical way of measuring a bridge. If you ask me I think that the Michigan way of measuring makes more sense. Ours is bigger, plain and simple.

Boat(s) #83, Ice Sailing in Madison, Wisconsin

Yes, those are sail boats on a frozen lake. This weekend Erin and I had the pleasure of visiting Madison, Wisconsin where, apparently, people are not deterred from their favorite water sports by a little cold weather. Very inspiring. I was in Madison to receive the Charlotte Zolotow Honor Award for the text of A Sick Day for Amos McGee. The Charlotte Zolotow Award winner this year was The Big Red Lollipop by Rukhsana Khan. The award is given out annually by the Cooperative Children's Book Center on the campus of the University of Wisconsin. The librarians at the CCBC could not possibly have been kinder and more gracious with their time. Madison is a great town populated by great people (governors and legislators notwithstanding). Head on over to Erin's blog if you'd like to hear a little more about the weekend. Meanwhile, happy ice sailing Madisonites (or is it Madisonians?).

Boat #84, Hawaii

Boat #132, United States

Boat(s) #142, A Tour of Detroit - Canoeing at Belle Isle

Belle Isle is a 982 acre island park that sits smack dab in the middle of the Detroit River. It's the largest island park in the country and at 982 acres it's larger than Central Park in New York City. The park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of Central Park. To reach Belle Isle you drive (nobody walks or bikes in Detroit, it's considered blasphemous) over the scenic MacArthur Bridge:Unlike most locations in Detroit, Belle Isle is still in use today. When I was in college I used to attend a weekend pickup soccer game on Belle Isle that resembled a UN summit—Poles, Czechs, Russians, Africans, Lebanese, Mexicans, and of course white kids from the suburbs, all playing together. It was a far cry from Belle Isle's sordid past. Notice anything creepy about the picture below? Look hard. Yep, only white people.

Detroit was way ahead of the rest of the country when it came racial tension. Throughout the early twentieth century Belle Isle was unofficially considered a whites-only resort. On June 20, 1943, two decades before Watts, a race riot broke out on Belle Isle. The riot lasted for three days, killing 43 and wounding 433. Federal troops were brought in to quell the violence. It was no small event so it's peculiar that it seems to have been lost from popular history. Most likely it's because the narrative of the riot doesn't jibe with that of other more well known riots from the latter half of the century—Watts and Detroit in the sixties, L.A. in the nineties. We typically frame those riots as a rising up of the oppressed black minority. The Belle Isle riots were something much much uglier—the white majority instigating violence to create a sense of terror. Ugly stuff. No wonder we'd rather forget.

Boat #143, A Tour of Detroit

This week we're on a postcard tour through early 20th century Detroit. Detroit is (in the humble opinion of your tour guide) the most interesting city in America—the city you have to understand if you want to understand the story of this country in the last 100 years. Detroit today is like a time capsule. More than half of its population (over 2 million at its peak) skedaddled to the suburbs over the last 40 years. As a result, things look pretty much the same as they did 50 years ago, or even 100 years ago. Things are a little dusty, sure, and a tad weathered. But the building and sidewalks, boat docks and warehouses are mostly still there, empty, just waiting for people to come back.

So this week we're coming back to Detroit. We arrive via the Steamer Greater Detroit. The SGD was the largest steamship operating in the Great Lakes in its day. It ran overnight passenger service to and from Buffalo, NY.

Tomorrow we'll be visiting lovely Belle Isle.

Boat #156, Ahoy, Pilgrims! Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Above is the only Mayflower stamp that I own. As far as I know there are only 4 or 5 Mayflower stamps in the history of U.S. postage (and only 1 in the last 35 years!). Odd. It seems like a more stamp worthy event. Anyway, enjoy your day. 365 Boats will be taking the weekend off. I'll see you again on Monday.

This is Not a Boat #13, A Celebration Day for Amos McGee

Today is day five, the final day, of our celebration of A Sick Day for Amos McGee being named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of 2010. We've celebrated in elephants, in tortoises, in penguins, and in rhinoceroses. Today we celebrate in owls. First, two stamps:

I found this image of a baby saw-whet owl and I just couldn't resist posting it as well:

And then of course we have Erin's owl:

And I'll leave you with an image of the whole gang waiting for the bus:

Thus concludes our celebration of Amos. Thank you New York Times!

Boat #186, United States - COLUMBUS DAY!

I bought this block at the time of its printing back in 1992, the 500th anniversary of Columbus's "discovery" of the New World. It puts me in a nostalgic mood for the days a person could travel from Portugal to the West Indies for only 29 cents.

Boat #211, United States

More rowing today, though a bit more leisurely...

Boat #212, United States

In conjunction with the rowing team tryouts that have been going on for the last two weeks near my house...

Boat #216, Ann Arbor

Today's boat isn't a stamp, as you can see. But as a postcard it still fits very much into the postal tradition. Besides, stamps with an Ann Arbor theme aren't so easy to come by. I have yet to see a boat of this size floating around in Argo pond, but perhaps a hundred years ago they were as common as the kayaks and canoes are today. I think it'd be great if you could rent a steamboat from the Argo Livery.

Anyhow, it's a great weekend to be in Ann Arbor. Today, Saturday, is the Homegrown Festival in the Kerrytown Farmer's Market—great local food and good, free, live music into the late evening hours. Tomorrow, also in Kerrytown, is the Kerrytown Book Festival. Stop by the festival at 3pm to hear local bookstore owner Nicola Rooney (Nicola's Books) interview Caldecott award winner David Small. Perhaps even more exciting, stop by Nicola's tent at 1:00pm and get your copy of A Sick Day for Amos McGee signed by the author, Philip Stead, and the illustrator, Philip's lovely wife Erin. Philip is quoted as saying, "This will likely be my most poignant signing to date, as I've been feeling under the weather for the last two weeks."

Boat #218, Connecticut

Today we begin a mini 2-stop road trip along the East Coast. Tomorrow: Maryland.

Boat #224, New York City

Boat #225, Panama Canal

Boat #239, American Shoals Florida and West Quoddy Head Maine

Another lighthouse (with a bonus Coast Guard boat) from the same set as yesterday's close up of the Hatteras lighthouse.

And also, this classic candy stripe lighthouse from West Quoddy Head, Maine.