August moon over the Blue Heron

This is another "by chance" image that, if I wasn't in the habit of ALWAYS having my camera bag in the car with me, I never would have gotten. This image was captured a few miles north of Grand Marais this evening at 8:35 p.m. I spent afternoon working on my woodpile, stacking the wood so it has as much time to dry as possible before winter. After all that work I was really craving a pizza from Sven and Ole's in Grand Marais, so after a quick shower I hopped in the car and headed to town. On the way in I spotted the research vessel "Blue Heron" a few miles north of town. The moon was also rising, and I drove along the road until the moon and the boat were lined up the way I wanted, then snapped this image through the open driver's side window of the car. The Blue Heron is owned by the Large Lakes Observatory at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and is often on the lake working with water quality issues, fish populations and the geo-physical structure of Lake Superior. Originally built for fishing off the Grand Banks in the Atlantic Ocean, the vessel was purchased by the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 1997 and was sailed from Portland, Maine up the St. Lawrence Seaway to Duluth, where it was converted to a research vessel.