A Day for the Dads

For the past week, my home town of Baltimore has been holding a Star-Spangled Sailabration, honoring the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Baltimore in the war of 1812 ~ the battle that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star-Spangled banner, our national anthem.

Over 40 tall ships and naval vessels have sailed into the Baltimore harbor and many events have been held to celebrate the bicentennial of this famous battle.

Yesterday on Father's Day, my family went to Fort McHenry. I've posted about the wonders of Fort McHenry before here.  Even though the event was free, we had to pre-register and get tickets. The tickets stated that all attendees had to be in the park between 8am-10am even though the show didn't start until 1pm.  They were expecting crowds of 25,000.

Here's DH Jim and my sister battling the crowds to enter Fort McHenry at about 8:30am...



Thanks to our early arrival we did excellent seats and settled in to read, do puzzles, and play cards while we waited...

  Even though we were perfectly situated, I'm not sure this picnic area was...
 

The wait wasn't too bad for the adults...

But some of the adults were forced to get creative in keeping the kids occupied...

Finally at 1pm, the Navy Seals performed a demonstration of an Extraction.  Evidently there was a Highly Valued Individual (an HVI) hidden in the crowd.  Undercover Seals came onto land to locate and extract the HVI.  They used the Zodiac boat to come into shore...you can see it below being hauled onto a Navy Mark V.

The whole time they were attempting to extract the HVI, there was simulated combat with resistance on  shore.

The Zodiac was protected by the firepower of Navy RIB (rigid inflatable boats)...

I have to admit that it was cool to watch these amazing boats and men in action.

Let's just say that the testosterone was flowing.  It was the perfect machismo event for Father's Day.



After the mission was complete, the air show began and there were non-stop aerial demonstrations which led up to the entrance of the Blue Angels, the Navy's flight demonstration team...



The show was an amazing demonstration of flight skill and talent...

Check out this picture below.  Though it looks like the profile of one plane...



It's actually two fighters flying on the same horizontal plane, one inverted.  You could see the two better as they flew away...



Honestly, they were a delight to watch...



And the idea of pulling Gs, flying inverted, all while flying in formation mere feet from one another...



Well, it's just hard not be excited and impressed.



Add a HUGE second dose of machismo to the day.

Jim and Jack loved it.

My brother loved it too.  But I think he liked photo-bombing my pictures even more...

Hey, I'm just amazed that he can still jump that high.  He's not 7 feet tall...he was just jumping up and down behind Jim and Jack hoping to make it in the shot.  He's the same brother who did assisted handstands in front of the Eiffel Tower...



After the show was over, we all came back to my house for a cookout.

Sorry I don't have too many pics from the event, but I was busy being hostess.  It was my goal to do everything so that Jim could relax with all the Dads.  Thanks to my sister and my SIL, we succeeded!  That's not easy to do since Jim is one of the biggest helpers in my entire family and hates to sit still while others are working.

That being said, he did insist that he still Man the Grill...

After dinner, all the Dads piled into the old car that Jim inherited from his father when he passed away. That's my Dad in the front seat and my two brothers in the back.

Any my BIL Jim on the other side of the back...

It's a 1953 Silver Wraith Rolls Royce.  Now.  I know what you're thinking...Jim must be from a pretty wealthy family, right?

Actually, his parents were Department of Defense school teachers and spent most of Jim's childhood living on a base in Wiesbaden, Germany.  His father bought the used Rolls at a great price and they drove it for years as their family car...traveling all over Europe in their free time.

Can you believe that?  Their family car.  When we got it a few years ago, it needed some restoration.  It's finally up and running.

Well.  It was running when Jim put it in reverse to back out of the driveway.  The engine died when he switched to the forward gear.  A quick crank and a jump start...

And they were underway...

See that little flag light sticking out of the side of the window?  That's actually the right turn blinker.

When they got back from their joy ride, the men all sat down and finished watching the U.S. Open.

All in all, I think it was a very macho day.  Navy Seals, guns, fighter planes, old cars and golf.

Jim said he had a Great Day...

That's good because no dad deserves it more than him.