Saturday, December 18, 2010

Random Finds

I was clearing out the contents of the MicroSD card from my old phone prior to repurposing it and noticed these two pictures I had taken last month when I was back in the UP for my mom, so I thought I'd share them.
The hospital is right next to my alma mater, Northern Michigan University.
First up is a picture of Northern's inaccurately-named University Center:



I say "inaccurately-named" because of its location: on the edge of campus that's completely opposite of where most of the students are located and likely to spend their time. If you live in the dorms and have to go to the UC, you're in for a hike, especially on a cold winter day.
The hospital is located across the street from the UC.
Ever wondered what $23.9 million looks like? Well, wonder no more as you gaze upon the monumental expense that is the Superior Dome:



There was a time when Northern was in contention to become an Olympic training center, and so, in preparation for this honor, the construction of the Dome was undertaken.
Unfortunately, Northern didn't actually end up becoming an Olympic training center, so the Dome never actually got to be used for its intended purpose.
For a while it was the world's largest wooden dome, but then, shortly thereafter, a larger one was built in Tacoma.
Some time later, scientists discovered a massive, ancient fungus located underground in the UP, which was determined to be the largest and oldest living organism ever found. Then they found a bigger, older fungus in Washington state, so for a while there were a lot of comments about how Washington just wouldn't let the UP have the biggest anything.
Edited to add: My graduation ceremony was held in the Dome.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

NMU hosts the only United States Olympic EDUCATION Center, with athletes training in boxing, freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, speedskating and weightlifting. The USOEC is the only center where high school and college-age athletes can train for the Olympics AND continue their educations. The Tacoma dome seats more and is taller, by 22', but is 6' smaller in diameter, so the Superior Dome could still be considered bigger if you're counting the footprint, not the volume.

Jon Maki said...

Yeah, I meant to mention about the Education Center thing, but forgot.