Baltimore

On Wednesday we decided to go to Baltimore instead of back to D.C. We made two stops in Baltimore: Fort McHenry and the National Aquarium.

First, Fort McHenry. This is the fort that was attacked by the British during the War of 1812 and kept their flag flying, inspiring Francis Scott Key to write the Star Bangled Banner. This place was great, it far exceeded what I was expecting. I think one of the reasons for that was what they did after their little information movie. This movie explained the circumstances of the attack and the attack itself, but as the movie was ending they played the Star Spangled Banner and while that was playing they lifted the screen so we could see the fort with the flag flying overhead through the oversized window. It was very moving; it was beyond words to be sure. The star-shaped fort itself was very cool. I could just picture turn of the century troops marching along the walls and down the corriders. We really enjoyed our visit there, even though it wasn't too long. Here are some pictures.

Baltimore Harbor from which the British fleet shelled the fort.

Yes, this flag has only 15 stars because that was how many states were in the Union in 1814.

After the fort we headed over to the aquarium. Most of our pictures didn't turn out very well here because of the water so I won't post too many pictures. The aquarium had a huge open tank for rays and a couple sharks and even a sea turtle. They also had a really cool dolphin show.

The dolphin show was a lot of fun.
The last thing that we did at the aquarium was a 4-D theater show. This meant that in order to make it 4-D, they had the normal 3-D glasses but they also sprayed water at you, sprayed bubbles or snow at you, they had wind, they had a poker in the seat to spook you at just the right time, and a little thing by your ankles that moved back and forth as if rats were running by your feet. It was very fun, though it was kind of scary at times. That was about it for that day. We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed it.

Quote: "I'm not going to trust them anymore." --me in the 4-D theater, after the wagging tail under my seat caught me by surprise while they were showing bats flying around on the screen.