Federal Hill Park is atop the hill overlooking Baltimore's Inner Harbor from the south side. It was an important strategic point for anyone controlling Baltimore.
The American flag on Federal Hill
A view of the Inner Harbor from Federal Hill
There are several historic boats in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. This is the USS Constellation, a sloop-of-war ship commissioned in 1855 that's seen an incredible history. It sits at the very inner corner of the Inner Harbor where it's the most visible of all the ships.
Moored next to the National Aquarium of Baltimore are two ships. The Chesapeake, Lightship 116 completed in 1930 served essentially as a moving lighthouse.
And nose to nose with the Chesapeake is the USS Torsk. Commissioned in 1944, it was one of only ten Tench Class fleet type submarines to see service in World War II and one of only two of those still located in the US.
USCGC Taney, commissioned in 1936 is a United States Coast Guard High Endurance Cutter and known as the last ship floating that fought in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
On the second day after Travis and I had dinner we went back to the hotel to relax a bit while we waited for dark and changed for the cooler weather of the night. Then we walked back up to Federal Hill for a night shot of the Inner Harbor and downtown Baltimore.
The National Aquarium of Baltimore is easy to pick out with its wave lighting.
Looking at the Inner Harbor from the steps in front of the Maryland Science Center.
Two men from the Maryland Science Center were out with a high powered telescope sharing with any who stopped by a view of Saturn. It was very cool to look through that and be able to to see not just a dot, but the rings of Saturn!
On day three I set out in the direction of Baltimore City Hall on my route over to Historic Jonestown and then Little Italy to the East of downtown and the Inner Harbor. City Halls don't look like this out West!
The lawn in front of the City Hall is the War Memorial Plaza and at the other end of the Plaza is the War Memorial building. Constructed as a memorial to World War I veterans, the Memorial now serves all veterans of the State.
Unfortunately, as I walked up the front stairs to get this shot, I realized each doorway was the current home for some homeless. And it didn't smell good. Obviously this wasn't the entrance to the building. I walked around the building and found that old cannons from WWI decorated the outside.
Once I did find the door I saw a lot of memorabilia lining the walls and this replica of the Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington D.C. surrounded be the flags of the 13 original states of the Union.
But the coolest thing there was this giant 12.5x6.5foot diorama of the storming of Omaha Beach in the invasion of Normandy during WWII.
200 students...
2.5 years...
14,000 hours...
1,500 hand formed figurines, hand painted and moulded together from up to 18 individual pieces each.
The detail is absolutely amazing.
They all looked different.
This is the info page on it.
This is the Phoenix Shot Tower. Erected in 1826 it was for making shot. Moulten lead poured through a sieve at the top and dropped into a tank of water at the bottom. It's 234' 3" high, 40' in diameter at the base and 20' in diameter at the top.
This historic home, 9 North Front Street, is now part of the shot tower park. It was built in the 1790's and is one of the few remaining 18th century townhouses in Baltimore. It was home to the second mayor of Baltimore, Thorowgood Smith and has been used for a variety of things since until the city of Baltimore acquired it in 1971.
This is the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House. Built in 1793, it was the home and place of business of Mary Pickersgill, maker of the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key’s famous poem that later became our national anthem. Now it's a museum set up much like the way it would have looked at the time.
This is the Jean and Lillian Hofmeister Museum Building adjacent to the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House. It contains exhibits from the War of 1812, including a fragment of the Star-Spangled Banner flag and a drum used by an American soldier during the bombardment of Ft. McHenry, the battle that Francis Scott Key witnessed and wrote his poem about.
Also part of that property is this map of the states with each state set in varying stones. Some of the states are set in stone from their own state.
As I continued in Historic Jonestown, I really liked how each of the row houses had a character all it's own.
This was not a mapped out spot on my trek, I just came across it and thought it was a cool looking old building. Then I saw the front of the building said: Sewage Pumping Station. Oh. Turns out it was built in 1912 and for a time was the Baltimore Public Works Museum, showing how many of the city systems ran but the museum portion closed due to budget issues. The building that housed the display is still an operating sewage pumping station.
The Civil War Museum is housed in a one room small building and is free to get in. As it happened, we were in Baltimore in the month that marked the 150th year since the start of the start of the Civil War and a lot of commerative things were going on that I had missed by about a week. In fact, while the Civil War officially started on April 12, it was a week later on April 19th that the first blood was shed in Baltimore. And since Maryland was really right between the North and South, it was a horrible place to be at the time. It was the literal example of brother against brother there and the Union had to occupy it under martial law for the duration of the war.
This was on the wall of the Civil War Museum, showing how the Inner Harbor and Federal Hill once looked.
Money that became utterly worthless and so was largely destroyed... so of course now is far from worthless.
National Katyñ Memorial in honor of the Katyñ Massacre which refers to 20,000 Polish military officers imprisoned by the Soviets in three camps and then mass murdered, the truth of which wasn't admited to until after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
From the National Katyñ Memorial I caught the free Charm City Circular shuttle back to the hotel. After dropping off my camera gear and a little break I went shopping! Gallery at Harborplace was a great mall and it was nice to get indoors out of the muggy air. I got some really great stuff, especially from Forever 21 which we don't have in Salem.
On our way to dinner on our last evening in Baltimore we stopped by the Holocaust Memorial Park.
And right behind that triangular plaque is this statue. Experiencing this statue is profound. I don't know how else to say anything more about it.
We had dinner that last night in Little Italy at Amicci's. The next morning we had to leave the hotel by 6am to catch our flight home. Unfortunately we did not get a good nights sleep. First it took a long time to get to sleep and then I wasn't sleeping well all due to the ruckus outside at the nightclub (the honking horns were the best!) that was kitty corner from the hotel. Then, in the middle of the night the fire alarm went off! Since we were already packed to depart in the morning, we went ahead and grabbed our bags on the way out the door just in case. So we hauled those down the stairs from the top floor, stood around outside with everyone else and the poor parents with crying kids waiting to find anything out... and waiting, and waiting... Finally we were let back in... and found out it was an idiot who burned their popcorn in the microwave. UGH! So not much sleep that last night. But other than that it was such an excellent trip!
Almost home! Mt Hood with Mt Jefferson, the Three Sisters and possibly Mt Bachelor in the background.
This post followed the green and covered the green markers.
View Baltimore Trip 2011 in a larger map
Map Key
red - pt 1 - Day 1 National Museum Of Dentistry
yellow - pt 2 - Day 1 National Aquarium
blue - pt 3 - Day 2 Architecture, Walter's Art Museum
aqua - pt 4 - Day 2(3) Churches
green - pt 5 - Day 3 The Inner Harbor and War Related Sites
Lines: my day tours, there are no lines for our evening/night outings or my day 3 afternoon shopping.
I met Travis in Institute at Oregon State University in 2001 and we were married Aug 2002. We have 3 boys, Avery, Carson and Emmett. I love photography and run a business, 
Travis is a dentist at 
Avery was born in Dec 2004 and is now 7 and almost a 2st grader. He loves being a big brother to Carson and Emmett.
Carson was born in March of 2007 and is now 5 years old.
Emmett was born in September of 2008 and is now almost 4 years old.
1 comment:
My father, Burfoot M. Sears was on the lightship Chesapeake on the day I was born. I was born on July 8, 1936.
Raymond A. Sears
963 W. Union Bell Dr.
Green Valley, Az. 85614
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