Oh Say Can You See..

 Us, at Ft. McHenry, raising a Star Spangled banner on the very site of the original Star Spangled Banner?

In the 200th anniversary year of the War of 1812???

Seriously, field trips do not get any better than this!

Here we have the three older Zoomlians helping take down the night flag, while Leena looks on, holding the day flag.

 We were using a "small" flag because the day was too windy for the full size replica.

"Small," as it turns out, is relative! It was only 12 feet or so...

We all got to help raise it, and the kind ranger took a picture of us.

Then I locked the kids a handy cell, and spent a relaxing hour touring the fort on my own.

Well....maybe not! 

Actually, we all did a scavenger hunt to qualify as "Junior Rangers."  And we wandered in and out of all the buildings and underground bunkers.

Then we walked the battlements and played with looked at all the cannons!

This is even cooler than it sounds!  Ft. Mc Henry is star shaped, and the fort itself is within concentric star shaped earthwork fortifications.  As if that wasn't enough, each level is loaded with cannons from every era the fort was used in!

Which means the War of 1812, the Civil War (used as a military prison - ironically, one confederate prisoner was the direct descendant of Francis Scott Key and was not amused at being locked up there on the 50th anniversary of the song), and World War I (used as a military hospital).

It was a cool windy day and we had the fort almost entirely to ourselves.

 We were very good about not climbing on the earthworks, and following all the signs, but we could not resist, near the end of our visit, rolling down the outer fortifications.

And I will not mention which child cheerily told the ranger in charge that that was her favorite part of the visit.

All the Zoomlians got Junior Ranger badges!

But what will stay with us the most, I think, is leaving the park, looking back and seeing the Stars and Stripes which we raised "o'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave."

If you are visiting us from another country, the American national anthem is "the Star Spangled Banner."  You've probably heard it at the Olympics. It was written (by Francis Scott Key) during the War of 1812 about the (very large) flag flown at Fort McHenry.

After an all night shelling from the British Navy, Key (an American )goes up on the deck of the British ship (on which he has been detained) to see if the American defenders survived the night.  Which flag is flying over the fort?

The Star Spangled Banner!