Baltimore
For Robert's Birthday we decided to spend the weekend in Baltimore. The city is only a couple hours away, and we got there Friday Evening. That night was absolutely freezing. The wind chill was so frigid, that we could hardly even stand being outside for very long.
I had gotten a nice hotel room, but Robert went down and somehow finagled a different room. This room had a completely different living room suite.
It was huge...and right on the corner of the old hotel. There was also this cool old mail slot right outside of our room. You put the mail in here...
Where the mailman picked it up.
Despite the cold, we took the bus up to see the Washington Monument and Lafayette's Statue.
Right next door you could see Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church
A half block away from that was the Walter's Art Museum. This was a free museum and was full of really random, but cool artifacts.
After the museum closed, we took the bus down to the Inner Harbor. There was a German Christmas Market, which we walked around just as long as we could handle the cold.
The next day we went to the National Aquarium. It wasn't as cool as the Monterey Aquarium, but it did have a lot of really cool things there.
Poisonous tree frogs.
At the end of the night, we saw the most beautiful sunset over the Inner Harbor. These pictures were from the window of the Aquarium.
Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel and bus/walked back up to the Walter's Art Museum. On our way there we passed by the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower, which was so cool. In fact, all the architecture was just so amazing. I loved passing by it all, and I just wanted to know all the history behind it.
One stop I really wanted to make was at the George Peabody Library. It is on the John Hopkin's Campus, and it is just a really cool, old library. You aren't allowed to walk up to any of the other levels, but it was pretty fun checking it out.
I wandered over to the old catalogues to check them out.
This was the first thing I pulled out. Secret Service books for Great Britain.
After the library, we drove over to Fort McHenry. This is where the British tried to completely decimate the Americans during the War of 1812. In 1814, the whole British Navy came into the Chesapeake Bay to finish off the last hold-out before they would have conquered those pesky Americans. This is where they all lined up.
Then they started bombing and bombing all day and night. A land infantry was waiting to break through to Baltimore, but they were waiting for the Navy to succeed before going in.
Fort McHenry was highly fortified, and they fought back.
Francis Scott Key
O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the Rockets' red glare, the Bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our Flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled Banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream,
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave,
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation,
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land,
Praise the Power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto—"In God is our Trust;"
And the star-spangled Banner in triumph shall wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
It was a wonderful weekend, and Alaina was so nice to watch the boys for that entire time. The one thing I know for sure is that we want to bring the boys back for another visit. Only, this time we'll wait for it to warm up!
