After spending the morning in the harbor we took a bus out to Ft McHenry. Ft McHenry is the fort that was being fired upon while Francis Scott Key watched and wrote The Star Spangled Banner. The flag that flew during most of that battle was a small storm flag while rockets and cannon were shot all through the night. In the morning the firing suddenly stopped and no one knew if the silence was from a victory or defeat. But at the appointed changing of the flag time Ft McHenry fired their morning cannon and changed the storm flag to the largest American flag at the Fort. For all those watching the fort that morning the huge flag signified a victory for Ft McHenry and the saving of Baltimore from certain burning by the British. The flag had been made a year earlier with special instructions to create "a flag so large that the British would have no difficulty seeing it from a distance." We had the opportunity to help unfold a replica of that same flag, we saw the original in the Smithsonian in Washington. It is one heavy flag! I think I've seen apartments that could fit into the size of the flag. The original flag was sewn by Mary Pickersgill, with some help of course, and we walked by her home on our walking tour. All in all we had a wonderful time in Baltimore!
Some fun sights at the Inner Harbor
In the Visitor's Center. We never figure out what the pink poodle was about.
Mom in front of Mary Pickersgill's house and me at Ft McHenry. The flag flying is their smaller storm flag. The Star Spangled Banner would take up about half of the flag pole and can only be flown in very specific wind conditions for fear of snapping the flag pole.
Inside and outside Ft McHenry
Mom tried out the comfy barracks; two would have shared this bead. Civil war era canon
Holding the replica flag. I'm in the back in the middle.
