Spectacular Sailabration!

Wow! What an amazing weekend in Baltimore! As I mentioned the other day, we’re beginning two years of celebrations to mark the 200th Anniversary of the War of 1812. This weekend kicked off with a visit to the Inner Harbour to see the tall ships which had arrived over the previous few days. The harbour-front was crowded with loads of people from every walk of life, strolling and enjoying the gorgeous ships, and in some cases, their equally good-looking crews.

Children were splashing in fountains, and people were sitting on the harbour wall, enjoying the scenery.

We stopped by to visit our friends who have a house right along the harbour. We went up to their fifth-floor deck and had a fabulous view of the city. I had fun playing with some of the settings on my camera – this is the miniature effect.

You can see some of Baltimore’s older skyline and the Coast Guard ship, Eagle, as well as the Ferris Wheel they put up for the weekend.

As we strolled back towards the Harbour, we noticed City Sand, a project of the Baltimore Architecture Foundation, where I sit on the board. We hire a sand sculptor to come up from Florida and give lessons to the architects competing in the City Sand competition.

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On both Saturday and Sunday, I went to watch the US Navy’s Blue Angels. If you’ve never seen one of their shows, it’s quite spectacular. On Saturday, we were under the flight path of the jets, and they literally sneak up on you. They move so fast, that they’re here and gone before you hear them.

There are six planes and they almost play cat and mouse. While the four fly in formation, the other two are off to the sides, just hanging there, waiting to come screaming in from behind.

They all rise straight up until you can’t even see them, and then they come straight down, pulling out to the sides at the very last second.

The noise is deafening, but so much fun!

On Sunday, I watched the Blue Angels from a different angle and was able to see more of the acrobatics. Two planes would fly straight at each other and as they met, they’d each turn 90* and fly right past. Or one would fly upside-down right below a plane flying right-side up, like in the picture below. OMG.

It was so impressive to watch and listen to them scream across the skies of Baltimore – for the first time, ever!

I made a little video of them flying around, but I haven’t uploaded it yet. The Blue Angels looked like they were having tons of fun swooping and zooming around in the clear blue skies, and I know that the hundreds of thousands who watched them had a ton of fun, too!