Star Spangled Banner Festival

This year is the 200th Anniversary of the Battle for Baltimore in the War of 1812.  As Jason jokes, this is "right up my alley."  Our field trip group organized a tour for us of some of the tall ships that came into the harbor for the weekend.  So we went down on that Thursday morning to see them before they were open to the public.  That sounds all exclusive, but there were still a lot of people down there.  The ships weren't open to the public, but there were lots of groups that had access that morning.  Still, we didn't have to wait long.
 We got to explore a Spanish Galleon, called El Galeon Andalucia, that the girls thought was really cool!  This ship sailed from Spain to get here and the crew all spoke like Antonio Banderas.  There was a really interesting movie in the cargo space about how they built the ship in Spain as a recreation.

Celee and Lyla also got to go aboard the Pride of Baltimore II.  This patterned after a merchant ship turned privateer during the War of 1812.

Since we had to get our stamp for Ripley's we took a picture too.  During the Star Spangled Banner Festival, you could get stamps at certain places around the harbor and city.  If you got 10 stamps, with some from the right places, you could turn your passport in for a War of 1812 commemorative coin.

The girls also got to do some cool activities at the NAVY's STEM tent.  They got to try to manipulate small objects they could only see through the monitor. There was a model of an aircraft carrier, where they could see how planes take off and land.  There were even ipad games to fly helicopters.

My favorite ship was the Dutch pinnacle.  The Kalmar Nyckel is a recreation of a ship that took four trans-Atlantic trips to bring colonists to New Sweden.  This ship was cool because it's steering mechanism was different from the wheel because it was an older style ship.

While we were in the harbor we also got to watch the Coast Gaurd dock their ship.  They probably don't always have a crowd watching their every move when they normally dock.  The poor dude that threw one of the ropes missed the first time, so then the crowd gave a collective "Awww!" before he threw it again to cheering.  I wonder if he was embarrassed? :)

The girls were super excited that the Blue Angels were practicing over the harbor while we were on our way home.  I really hadn't planned on coming back down to the city during the weekend, but I knew that the Blue Angels were going to put on a wonderful show and I hate to miss this once in a lifetime event.  We won't be around for the 300th anniversary! And we still needed a stamp from Fort McHenry to complete our passport and get our commemorative coin.  

Gwyn had a birthday party to go to, but Celee and Lyla and I went down to Fort McHenry on Sunday.  It wasn't hard to get there, but we did have to board a bus in the harbor to get to the Fort.  And then it was pretty crowded.  There were bag checks and all kinds of security everywhere.  But we made it to the Fort without having to throw away anything we brought (there were lots of purses, backpacks, and food in the trashcans).  Inside the fort, a ranger led the girls in some War of 1812 musket drills.  The Blue Angels started their show toward the end of his demonstration though, so the kids attention was a little distracted.  The Blue Angels are loud!

So we walked to the point to watch the show.  It was amazing!  Those planes fly so close together it's crazy!

We just happened to be walking behind the fort when they did the star burst formation.  So cool!

Lyla didn't like how loud the planes were, but we all thought the show was well-worth the trouble of getting to Fort McHenry that day.  Getting home was a little more complicated.  You had to take the buses back (I guess there was the option of walking the 2 or so miles back to the harbor) and everyone in Locust Point all left at the same time after the Blue Angels were done.  So we sat on a school bus for around 45 minutes not moving.  Then we crept the 2 miles back to the harbor.  We had taken the light rail down, but because I told Jason how easy it was to get down there when we came, he and Gwyn drove down to pick us up.  Not so easy getting down then though.  It got a little harry between the bus taking so long to let us off, figuring out where to meet Jason, and the one-way crowded streets.  But we did finally meet up.  We had all our stamps.  And then we didn't make it to the Historical Society in time to get our coins.  Bummer!  Thankfully there was the option to mail them in and get it later.  

The War of 1812 is such a weird pointless war.  At the end, the US and Great Britain decided to put all the borders back the way they were at the start, so there was really no territorial impact from the war.  Just a lot of dead and wounded and property lost.  I guess we established ourselves as a for-real nation that European countries couldn't just do with as they pleased.  But it all seems so wasteful to me.  Most wars do.  I'm glad we got to experience the Bicentennial Celebration though.  I think it's something the girls will remember - and they certainly got their fill of the War of 1812 this year because that's what we were studying in history too!