Think Baltimore, think red bricks!

We made it!  We arrived on July 3rd, Pete and Jeff sailing up the harbor for a grand entrance.  The city is celebrating the very patriotic story of Francis Scott Key writing the words of our national anthem while held captive on a British ship in the harbor.  Ft. McHenry stood sentry for the city and faught off the fierce bombardment, the American flag still streaming in the dawn's early light.  Just as we neared the fort, the staff fired off one of the cannon.  WOW!  The flames errupting from the gun and the noise you felt in the chest, along with the pall of smoke blowing downwind were very impressive.  No wonder the British were stopped short of Baltimore.  Ft. McHenry saved the largest port in the Americas, and the people never forgot it, resisting all attempts to use the land for anything else over these 200 years.  Pete said the cannon salute was for me, returning to my hometown after nearly 25 years.  Yeah, right...I don't think so.  The pictures are of the marine buoy marking the exact spot Key was during the battle, the fort still guarding the entrance to the harbor, SeaSpan at rest in her Baltimore slip, and the red brick rowhouses that start at the harbor and cover the city.  Baltimore is a BRICK city.  Nearly every building and some of the streets and sidewalks are made of red bricks.  Hundreds of millions of bricks; how cool is that??