Baltimore- Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014

On many of our trips, we have taken time to visit one particular spot for no other reason than it's mentioned in a song.  This weekend might be the mother of all of those sidetrips.  It's the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Baltimore and the bombardment of Fort McHenry and therefore, it is also the 200th anniversary of the writing of the Star Spangled Banner.  Baltimore has planned a "Star Spangled Spectacular," and I knew I wanted to be there for it.

I would have liked to have come in uniform, but there weren't other guys from the 22nd who wanted to go, and since this is the National Park Service, you can't re-enact without their "invitation."  Even though the uniforms are correct for 1814, I got the feeling that the NPS wasn't interested in having grey coated Americans because there weren't any at the Battle of Baltimore.  I thought about just wearing my 1812 civilian clothes, but there are so many other security rules in place this weekend that I decided it's probably a good idea just to go in regular clothes and be a tourist.  I felt a twinge of regret at the time I left my stuff behind, but in the end it was good it ended up this way because I was able to do so much more today.

Julie had made some other plans with the girls, so it's just me this weekend.  After school on Friday, we picked up a small rental car, had dinner together at Burger King, and I was off to Baltimore on my own.  Lizzie the GPS helped get me there, though she did take me through some of the sketchier parts of Harriburg, PA.  In the end, I got to my hotel room in Baltimore around 1:00 AM.

I woke up a few times, but convinced myself to stay in bed until about 8:00.  Then I got up and made my way to where I was supposed to park.  I had made some reservations for parking online, because I figured it would be hard to find a place.  As it turned out, I was still early enough that there was plenty of parking.  I was supposed to text something or other in order to enter the parking garage, and I borrowed Julie's phone partly for that purpose.  It wasn't really working for me, so I took a ticket anyway, and faced the possibility of paying for parking twice.  As it turns out, many people were having problems with this company's system today.  I was able to return during the day, and got a pass to use instead of paying a second time to get out.

I was parked very near the Inner Harbor area, and strolled down to take a look around there.  There were several tall ships docked, including the Constellation, which is always there, a Coast Guard ship, a ship from Philadelphia and one from Delaware, as well as what appeared to be a Spanish galleon from Spain.  I took lots of pictures and enjoyed the morning.   You could tour the ships on other days, but since they were preparing to go out for the afternoon, most of them were closed to the public this morning.  Only the Coast Guard ship was open, and it had a long line forming.   I just viewed them from the sidewalk along the docks.

There was a big tent among the vendors marked "Official Merchandise," and I figured it was going to open soon, so I waited.  It turned out to be a longer wait then I expected.  While waiting, I visited one tent that had been set up by Parks Canada, with rangers explaining Canada's experience in the war.  The information tent opened, and I discovered the commemorative coin that was being offered for this weekend.  It wasn't for sale though-- you had to work for it.   You get a "passport" and have to collect stamps at various sites throughout Baltimore.  Well, that pretty much determined what I was going to have to do for the rest of the morning.

After I got a Star Spangled Spectacular t-shirt and some pins at the Official Merchandise tent, I went to the Baltimore Visitor's Center.  It was the first place I'd need to get a stamp from.  The woman there also told me how to find the next two places.  The Flag House was just a short ways from where I was parked.  She gave me a map that would also help me find the Maryland Historical Society.

I knew about the Flag House.  Julie and I had visited it on a trip to Baltimore a long time ago, when we were living in Virginia, but to be honest, I didn't remember much about it.  It's the home of Mary Pickersgill, who sewed the gigantic flag for Fort McHenry-- the flag that would become known as the Star Spangled Banner.  I wasn't going to visit the Flag House today, but it wasn't far from the Inner Harbor, and I could get my passport stamped there to get the coin.   I was glad I went.  There is a new visitors center there that has a small but interesting museum about the flag.  Among other items, they have the original receipt for the order of the flag, signed by Maj. George Armistead, the commander of the fort.  In spite of the new visitor's center, there is a rather dated film shown on amateurish equipment, but it does the job of telling the story of how Mary Pickersgill made the flag to Armistead's specifications (a story I would hear told quite a few times today).  I guided myself quickly through the house itself.

My next stop was the Maryland Historical Society for another stamp.  The problem was, I didn't really appreciate how long of a walk it was going to be, nor how the neighborhood changes as you leave the Inner Harbor area.  The woman at the Baltimore Visitor's Center had explained how to take the light rail train, but I didn't understand what she meant at the time, and it didn't look that far on the map.  What made matters worse was I accidentally walked past the Historical Society without knowing it and walked quite a bit farther than I should have.  I finally asked a guy in an Orioles hat how far I had to go to get to Centre Street, and he said I had passed it quite a ways back,.  I also tripped along the way, and fell and hit the ground pretty hard.  I walked away with only a skinned knee-- which is lucky considering how I was having knee problems earlier this year.  It was also raining now, with a light but drizzly mist.  Once I found the historical society, it was much later than I expected it to be.  They had an 1812 exhibit, but I just got my stamp and didn't bother to pay admission here.  I wanted to get to the fort and still hadn't eaten lunch.  I had seen the light rail train passing me, and I could figure out how to get back on it.  After all, I had ridden on subways in France and Moscow.  How hard could Baltimore be?   It took me back to Camden Yards, where the Orioles play.  The Yankees were in town for a game, which added to the large number of people around.  I got some street hot dogs for lunch from a vendor by the stadium, and learned about the free shuttle to Fort McHenry.  It was a short walk to that, and I was on my way to the fort.

The bus dropped us off about a half mile from the fort.  Because of security, almost no vehicles were allowed to get closer.  I went through security easily.  No bags were allowed, and all I had were my cameras and Julie's phone in the big pockets of my shorts.  It was after 2:30 by the time I got to the walls of the fort.  The air show was already going on, but the grand finale with the Navy's Blue Angels hadn't started yet.  I made my way around  to where the crowd was watching the planes and aircraft.  While a Coast Guard helicopter was demonstrating rescue techniques, I called Julie to tell her where I was and that I missed her.  She and the girls had been in a "Zombie Run" that morning, where zombies chase you along a course.  Anna had made it to the end with one flag left, but the zombies got Julie.  She had started with white pants but they were brown by the end.  Anna said it wasn't from the mud.

The rain had stopped, but the clouds were low, and it wasn't certain if the Blue Angels would be able to fly.  They did, however, and it was great watching them.  They came roaring in quite a few times, and we all watched as they passed and turned in precision motions.   They were quite a site.

After the air show I went into the fort and looked around.  It's a small fort, really, similar in some ways to Fort Ontario that we visited this spring.  As I came in, a ranger was starting to call the crowd together for a flag program.  They were taking down the small storm flag, which was representing the smaller of the two that Mary Pickersgill made, and which had flown throughout most of the bombardment 200 years ago.  They were replacing it with a 50 star flag that would fly until the program in the evening.  The crowd also got to unroll "the big flag," which is a replica of the Star Spangled Banner.  It's 30 feet high and 42 feet long, with 15 stars, 2 feet across, and 15 stripes.  After seeing this presentation I started to look through the exhibits in the several buildings.  I didn't remember much from the one time I had been here before with Julie.   The rangers began signaling that the fort itself was going to close.  At 5:00, the fife and drum corps began playing in the parade ground, calling people together to march them out the gate.

As I left, I went through the Visitor's Center, which I had missed on my way in.  It was going to stay open longer.  There was a long, slow moving line of people waiting to get into the gift shop.  I decided to join the line, which circled into and through the small shop.  It was more than an hour to get through all the way to the cash register, but I bought a t-shirt, a coin, some pins, and some other momentos.  (I probably should have waited until Sunday morning, when there wasn't a line at all.)

It was after 6:00 and I needed some dinner.  There was a vendor area nearby and I decided on a sausage and French fries.  By the time I was done with that, I tried to find a place to watch the ceremony at night.  You had to pass through some metal detectors, but the ceremony itself was free. However, the seats had been taken up as the people had exited the fort earlier, so the only thing left was on the ground.  Actually, that's not quite true.  There was a large area in the middle where no-one was sitting, but it was being reserved for VIPs, I guess.  It was frustrating to have that many empty seats, while I was sitting way off to the right on the ground.   A large TV screen had been set up to allow better views of the speakers, but even that was at an awkward angle from where I was.

The program began with the fort's fife and drum corps.  The "President's Own" also played a selection of patriotic music, and the choir from Morgan State University sang.  There were a lot of politicians who spoke.  They all seemed to want to tell the same story again about Armistead ordering the flag from Mary Pickersgill, and Francis Scott Key watching through the night to see if the flag was still there.  I know it was the anniversary, but they all seemed to assume that they'd be the first ones to tell the story.  One former US Senator from Maryland actually did a nice job talking about the history of the campaign, but he was going on for quite a while and had to be handed a note to tell him that he'd gone over his time.  Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is from Baltimore and said she had grown up two blocks from the Flag House, but I swear she pronounced the name "Pickersill" instead of "Pickersgill" when it was her turn to tell the story.

The not-so-well kept secret was that Vice President Joe Biden was there to give the keynote address.  He was apparently supposed to be a surprise.  One of the first speakers addressed each of the politicians by name, but didn't mention Biden, only something about there being someone else here too.  Nancy Pelosi let it slip when she said that Obama had been here Friday and that Joe Biden was here tonight.  I assumed he would be speaking at the other show, where tickets started at $75 and went up to almost $200.  However, when I walked back to go to the port-a-john at one point, I saw I guy who looked exactly like you picture Secret Servicemen from the movies.  He was wearing a suit and tie, had all the body language down, and was standing behind the risers in the rear, not looking at the stage, but facing outwards instead.  When I returned I didn't go to my old spot up front and on the right, but stayed standing in the back.  My view was OK, but certain parts of the stage were obstructed.  When the Maryland governor spoke, he was so completely blocked from my sight, that I thought what we were seeing on the TV screen was coming from somewhere else completely.  I did notice that his podium said "President of the United States" on it. (Correction- It said "Vice President of the United States," but the "Vice" was cut off from the bottom of the screen.)  He introduced Biden.  Truthfully, Biden had the best speech of the night and was the most dynamic speaker by far.  He was a great choice to end the program.  I couldn't see him at all to start with, except on the TV screen.  I shuffled a little to my left, where I could see his suit and red tie, but a camera boom was still blocking his face.   After a bit, the boom went up, but it only revealed that a teleprompter screen was now blocking his face from me, and I could still only see his suit and tie.  I shuffled a bit more, and eventually got a see a little bit of his head, so I can say I saw him in person now.

Jordan Sparks sang the National Anthem after that, and did a nice job.  Then the amazing fireworks began.  I was looking off to my left, towards the harbor, because for some reason I heard those first. The same fireworks were being done in four different places around the harbor simultaneously.  The first jaw-dropping effect was a U.S. flag, done completely in firework explosions.  They followed that with a gigantic "1814" and "2014" in huge digits in the sky.  The music and fireworks were among the best I've ever seen (yes, Julie, including Disney's).  They also spelled "U.S.A" while the song "I'm Proud to Be an American" played and the singer sang "God Bless the U.S.A."  They would repeat the flag and digits once more at the end.   This moment was one of the ones I was really looking forward to.  With the "rocket's red glare and bombs bursting in air," over the fort and the big 15 star, 15 striped flag flying, it was worth the trip down, I think.

Then, when the program was over, all of those people had to leave.  Disney might be used to moving so many people out, but the fort wasn't built for that.  We moved en masse out across the bridge to where the shuttles were about a half mile away.  I was pleased to see that there were maybe 40 school buses set and waiting for the crowd.  The train of buses took a while to get moving though, because the traffic they were pulling into wasn't going anywhere.  I got on what seemed to be the second round of shuttles, and went back to the Inner Harbor and back to my car, though it probably took an hour to do so.  In spite of a few lows, the highs of today were certainly worth the trip.

(Usually I only post pictures that we've taken, but I had to put in at least one of the flag made of fireworks.  Fort McHenry posted this one on their Facebook page.)