Oh Say Did You See

Fort McHenry, birthplace of The Star Spangled Banner?

We are rolling along in our US History and have just finished up the War of 1812 in USKids History: Book of the New American Nation and USKids History: Book of the New American Nation. The best of all possible recaps was to go visit Fort McHenry. The three oldest kids were born within ten miles of the Fort, and it's still only 40 minutes away, so this was an easy trip for us.

Despite the fact that it was crowded with school groups, it was a great visit. If you've never been there, Fort McHenry is a star shaped fort made of brick and earth works. It's a remarkably beautiful design, although the reason for the shape has more to do with defensibility than elegance!

One of the best things about touring the fort is that you really get to explore. There are all kinds of underground powder magazines and bomb shelters. The Zoomlians loved it!









I enjoyed locking them in the jail for a while. But I missed them...

We went up on the battlements and had fun with the cannons. Really, what's not to like about playing with cannons?

It was also a splendid view of the harbor.


And a very nice time was had by all!

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!

Fairy Tale Vacation Part 3

 We visited Fort Bedford, a fort built for the French and Indian War, which meant it predates our country!

Also, George Washington slept here.

Interestingly, the original fort was built in the same star shape as Fort McHenry!

 We had a great time touring the fort museum which had historical items from the French and Indian War through World War II.

Somehow they figured out we were home schoolers!  It turned out some of the museum people were home schoolers too, so that was fun.

It just made me wonder what it is that says, "Home Schooled!"  I kind of think it's our enthusiasm for museums.  Or possibly that all the kids ask lots of questions.

Moving right along, we visited a store that's hard to describe, but it's a bit like an enormous thrift store crashed into an enormous craft store. 

We found old tea cups and some other fun things, and we were getting ready to leave when I saw the Emperor with an entourage of Zoomlians coming across the store carrying a blazing turkey.

It turned out The Turkey was not actually on fire, merely gleaming with metallic painted gleamingness. Lots of gleaming.

Me: I don't think so.

The Emperor: Choclo loves it.

Choclo: (blinks large brown eyes at the beautiful turkey)

Me: Where would we put it?

The Emperor: Someplace on the table in late November? It can live in the basement the rest of the time.

Choclo: And when Zorg is in the back basement, reading comic books, he could pet it!

 In other news, I let Oob and Choclo borrow the camera, and they took about two dozen pictures of this very cute bunny.

The rest of the 50 pictures are all variations on: Hey!  Take a picture of me while I do this!

Oh, Say Can You See

 We went to Fort McHenry, yesterday!  It was a rare warm (pushing 60) day in late February, and there was a light breeze coming off the harbor.

Perfect!

We went with two other families, so we got an extra teen (very fun!), a sweet little baby, and a gratuitously cute toddler, as well as a big bunch of kids in the middle.

Naturally, I locked them all up while I explored the fort.  That's why they put the jail so near the entrance.  As you can see, they loved it!

But eventually, they made enough noise that a ranger let them out, and we all toured the exhibits.

We learned a lot from the barracks which have been set up to recreate the environment of 1814, and they were great places to warm up out of the wind.

But, really, it's all about the cannons for us.


 Here's Choclo pretending to be a cannon ball!  Can you tell which one is him?

I guess it's all about the cannons, and the cannon balls, and the powder magazines, and the bombs.  

They have an array of cannons from the War of 1812, the Civil War (it was a prisoner of war camp), and World War I (it was a hospital).

 Almost as good as all those, are going down into the "bomb proofs,"  the early bomb shelters from 1812, then climbing up and walking the battlements.

You can walk along the star shaped wall of the fort, or along the cannon laden earthworks which ring the fort.

Originally, there was a third star shaped ring of earthworks, but that has mostly vanished into history.

Spring Into Adventure!

It's the spring schedule for Adventurers!

As always, spring schedules are entirely weather dependent: not only do some events get canceled by bad weather, others get shuffled when the magnolias/cherry blossoms/azaleas bloom off schedule.  It's all part of the Adventure!

Also, please note that unlike last semester, these trips are all on Tuesdays. 


2/23 Bureau of Printing and Engraving (this is where they print money - last time we went they were printing $100 bills, so we saw over a million dollars cash!)

3/1  Franciscan Monastery  Always a great trip, especially during Lent.

3/8  Fort McHenry Exploring the fort from the Star Spangled Banner is more fun if you beat the crowds by going in March.  Not only do you get to hunker down in the "bombproofs", they have cannons from at least four different wars!

3/15 National Zoo Weather dependent, of course, but early March is often a great time to visit the Zoo.  You get early spring, lots of animals and no crowds.  Also you don't overheat while tromping back up the hill to your car!

3/22 Skip week:  Holy Week
 
3/29 National Arboretum  The magnolias should be in bloom!

4/5   Cherry Blossoms  If I get the bloom time right... otherwise the C + O Canal

4/12 The Walters This will dovetail with the Awesome History Middle Ages class

4/19 The Baltimore Museum of Art or the C + O Canal/Great Falls

4/27 National Arboetum: The Azalea Walk should be at peak bloom.

5/3  Monuments on the Mall (Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, maybe more)  This will be a hike!  It's one mile from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, so we'll see how far we get (and if I can figure out how to park in the middle!)

 5/10  Fossil Hunt  (Shark's teeth) down by the Bay.  This should come right after the last Masters of Disasters class on fossils! I may also do one more shark tooth trip in May when Mxyl and Klenda are done with their college classes.

Wordless Wednesday: Fort McHenry

American History

 Was it last week that we went to the American History Museum?  We've been a bit bogged down with doctor visits and I'm losing track!  Fortunately those multiple doctor visits should be slowing down within the next few weeks.

At any rate, we've been wading through Land of Hope.  I can't say I fully endorse it, not that it isn't full of good stuff, but it's more appropriate for college level work, IMHO. Or it would be great for a kid who was fascinated by American history.








Lots of thoughtful pages completely covered with text with scarcely any pictures.  I've ended up skimming chapters and discussing the interesting points they bring up, and that's been surprisingly fruitful.

They have also been rewatching some of Liberty's Kids while I've been off doing doctory stuff.


 Our visits to Fort McHenry and now the American History museum have tied in very well and helped put some visual interest into the concepts.



I do think that the military history exhibit on the top floor is probably the best designed museum exhibit I've ever experienced, both in terms of telling a continuous narrative and telling a complex nuanced story.






In the book we are still in the early years of the country, but we are seeing the set up of many of the conflicts that continue to the present day, and this exhibit was a great way to tie everything together in an interesting discussion.

Plan for Adventure

A tentative plan, but here it is:

Ready for an Adventure?

There are two issues with planning field trips for the spring semester.  The first is weather: it's hard to predict nice days and blooming trees.  I'll e mail people if weather changes our plans.

The second is easy to predict: this semester is prime time for school groups and tourists at all the major museums.  The crowds make it hard to see exhibits and easy to lose kids, so I plan our big museum trips for early fall.


2/18 Ash Wednesday: Basilica of the Immaculate Conception A great way to kick off Lent!
2/25 Bureau of Engraving and Printing Watch them make money, literally!
3/4 Washington Monument I have a limited number of tickets for 10:30.
3/11 National Zoo Early Spring at the Zoo is very nice.  Many animals are more active in the cooler weather, and there are far fewer crowds.
3/18 Fort McHenry In Baltimore, free parking but $7-10 fee for adults over 18 (not sure when they are changing the rate) The site of some of our favorite field trips!
3/25 Franciscan Monastery The week before Holy Week.
3/30 MONDAY National Arboretum Magnolia Garden, dependent on bloom time.
4/8 OR 4/15 Cherry Blossoms Free parking, $1 per person for the tour tram, dependent on blossoms
4/22 National Zoo (again) Looking at the difference a month makes, seeing the other half of the zoo.
5/1 FRIDAY National Arboretum, Azalea Walk: Lovely hike, dependent on bloom time.
5/5 TUESDAY Shark Tooth Hunt (also a kid birthday for us!)
5/13 TBA, I'm open to suggestions
5/21 THURSDAY Shark Tooth Hunt

Wordless Wednesday: Fort McHenry