Sunday, June 22, 2014

O Say Can You See?

While we were in Baltimore, we decided to take the water taxi over to Fort McHenry.   When the British attacked Baltimore Harbor during the War of 1812, this fort successfully defended the city.  The bombardment of the fort is what inspired Francis Scott Key to pen "The Star-Spangled Banner".  

 The kids liked traveling by water taxi.  I liked it too because it was a good way to see different parts of the harbor.
 Before entering the fort, we popped inside the visitor's center where we found a lot of information regarding the War of 1812, the attack on Baltimore Harbor, and the composing of the National Anthem.

 Here is the family shot in front of one of the ramparts- just to prove that Brian and I were actually there.
 The kids loved exploring the fort.
 They especially liked the old jail room.
 There was a beautiful view of the harbor from the fort.  As I get older, I find that things that I used to think were lame are now cool.  I have become especially fond of visiting sites of historical significance and trying to imagine what people in the past would have seen. I can just imagine a soldier looking out over the harbor from this point and seeing this view (minus the modern ships).
 Here we have the inner courtyard of the fort.
 As we walked around the fort, I kept thinking about the words of The National Anthem.  It was neat to actually see things that I have been singing about for years.
Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?



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