On Monday we decided we would go to Annapolis and visit the Navy Academy. When we arrived at the exit off the freeway to go to Annapolis there were two miles of cars waiting to exit. We waited almost 20 minutes in line and then decided to go to Baltimore! Later we found out that this was Commissioning week. We never did get to go to Annapolis!
Above is a picture of Fort McHenry. This is the famous fort where Francis Scott Key watched the British bombard the Fort and in the morning the flag was still flying. He penned a poem about what he saw. He was on a ship beyond the line of British fighting ships. The Fort looks like a star. It was the main fort guarding the city of Baltimore.
Here are the cannons in one of the star points. The British were too far away for any of the cannons to reach, but they did stop the fleet from entering the harbor and landing in Baltimore.
The bombs that burst in the air, and the description of what they looked like.
The following day we had a “congressional tour” of the Kennedy Center. That meant that we had tickets from our Congress woman and our tour was with only a few people and we were able to visit each theater.
The first theater was the main Opera House. which seats over 2,000.
There are four levels of seating in the Opera Theater
The President has his own lounge in the Opera Theater. It seats 12.
Originally the Kennedy Center was going to be an international Performing Arts Center. Many different nations donated items to the center. All the marble used in the building came from, and was donated by Carrera Italy. The chandelier is made of Waterford Crystal from England. It was beautiful. The sconces on the back wall are also Waterford Crystal. This is one of the many lounges.
The red silk curtain above was donated by China and weighs three tons.
There are lounge rooms that were paid for and donated by different countries. The above lounge was donated by Israel and there are different companies or organizations for parties and meetings.
After President Kennedy’s assassination the center was turned into a monument for him. There will not be any other monument to honor his memory. The above sculpture is six feet in height and is dwarfed by the floor to roof windows behind it.
After our tour we took a ride down to the City and had lunch outside. It was a beautiful day. No rain!
We are getting pretty good on riding the Metro-rail. Today we took the Metro-bus and then the rail. We decided we didn’t like the bus-too many stops. It took us an hour an a half to get from Cherry Hill RV Park in College Park, MD to the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Next time we will drive to the Metro-rail station and park the car at the multi story parking garage!
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