Our Day at Ft McHenry

I don't know how many of you know about Ft McHenry - I didn't know much about it until we moved out here to Maryland. Ft McHenry was made famous during the War of 1812, during the Battle of Baltimore. During this battle a young lawyer named Francis Scott Key, was sent by the United States to a Brittish war ship to negotiate a prisoner exchange. During his time on the ship, he witnessed the attack on Ft McHenry where he was inspired to write a poem that was later put to music. We know this song as "The Star Spangled Banner", which later became our national anthem.

Yesterday, we took my Mom and Rusty to visit the fort. While we were there, the park ranger pressed us into service. We were asked to come help raise the flag over the fort. This was a powerful experience for me since this was the spot that the colors waived during that battle nearly 200 years ago. The coolest part was that McKayela and Halee were that ones that got to raise the flag!
As you can see, the flag that we were raising is huge! It is a replica of the original that Lt Col Armistad ordered for the fort. He wanted the biggest flag ever!
This is a shot of Halee and McKayela with the park ranger. The flag they are holding is actually the night time flag - which is much smaller than the one that they hoisted.
Here's a picture of McKayela, Halee, Rusty and my mom on the side of the fort where the USA was firing it's cannons at the English ships.

We really have had a busy week - from a field trip with McKayela to Annapolis, to my graduation, to Nora being hospitalized, to a tour of the USNS Comfort (a huge Navy hospital ship), and to the tour of Ft McHenry.