4th of July Monument Parade

The Gilmans hosted Lynn and Jamie at a parade-side picnic table via Trails End Taproom; great spot! Thank you, Gilmans! The crowd was estimated at 10-15,000 people, and we believe it. We'd never seen such traffic in little ol' Monument. Perfect Americana small-town Independence Day parade. All the photos are here.

Trains...

Planes...

And automobiles!
Gotta have the Shriners in the little cars!

Fina is working at the Colorado Renaissance Festival!

A local successful robotics team.

Hey, we know the one on the right!

Had never seen/heard an Honor Bell before.

Guess who we "met"?
Heidi's running for Governor.

Our picnic table provider was in the
parade. And we sat at a picnic table
just like the one on the trailer!

Gibguscis at the Gaylord

Some good friends from California joined the Regusci clan at the Gaylord Rockies Resort for the 4th of July weekend. They did a day trip to Winter Park today - great fun! All this despite dodging thunderstorms all day. In the photos below, you'll wonder what took us into the boonies. We were delivering the foster kids' blankets to them at their new home.

Winter Park

Winter Park

Resting in a field out in the boonies.
With a For Sale sign...

Heavy rain and hail at times at home today.

Winter Park

Heading up the mountain at Winter Park.

Star-Spangled Banner

We finally got a larger flag pole mounted to the house to display a U.S. flag. Tracy had bought a mountable pole soon after we got to Colorado Springs (5 years ago) but we'd never put it up - till today. What motivated Papa was his new 15-star flag from Fort McHenry...

It's the "Star-Spangled Banner," the 15-star flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. It's the flag Francis Scott Key saw the morning after the attack on Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 that inspired him to write our national anthem. There were actually 18 states at the time, but the making of a new flag to account for new states had not yet happened. In addition to 15 stars, there were 15 stripes. At one point they planned for one stripe for each state as well as one star but gave that up soon after this flag and went back to 13 stripes as it is today. It can also be recognized by a red stripe bordering the blue field at the bottom; on today's flag, a white stripe borders the bottom of the blue. It's "spangled" because the stars are all mixed in their orientations (they're all oriented the same way on subsequent flags). We visited Fort McHenry on our recent trip to Baltimore and saw the actual Star-Spangled Banner from Fort McHenry at the Smithsonian's American History Museum on the Mall in DC.

All of our Fort McHenry photos start here.

Fort McHenry from a water taxi.

A replica we unfurled at the fort.

 

Proudly flying next to Matt's office window.

Baltimore - Thunderstorms

We successfully picked up Fina today from Johns Hopkins. While Fina shared stories from the week, we did some final grocery shopping for tonight and tomorrow's return home. We also headed to the Fell's Point area for a little shopping at Lush, lunch, and a sailboat ride (yes, again, for Fina). But alas, thunderstorms moved into the area and our boat ride was canceled. But we did have a fun lunch at the Loch Bar. Then home for a little binging on Stranger Things! Early to bed as we have a 4am departure to Washington Dulles airport tomorrow morning. The day's photos start here.

Lush

Loch Bar

Baltimore - Duck Duck Goose / Charleston

It was a day of rest... And food! Breakfast at Duck Duck Goose and a fabulous 3-hour dinner at Charleston. All the day's photos are here.

They got it done minutes later.

Duck Duck Goose

Sagamore Sun-Ryes

Charleston

Fina (left) and her foursome at Johns Hopkins

Baltimore - Sailing

First thing this morning we checked out the pagoda at our neighborhood park, Patterson Park. We found it, but it was closed. The big outing of the day was a 90-minute sail with Cool Breeze Sailing Charters. Might have been the best 90 minutes of the trip! And of course, a little breakfast at Pitango (great European-style baked goods, sandwiches, and coffee) before the sail and some brunch afterward at Barcocina (ask for Mike!). All of this was out of Fell's Point. All the day's photos start here.

Baltimore - Naval Academy / Sandy Point / Fell's Point

We headed straight for Annapolis today to visit the Naval Academy. Then a brief stop at Sandy Point on the way back to Baltimore for a little beach time. We finished off the day revisiting Fell's Point. All of today's photos start here.

The Chapel

We had lunch at The Alley in the Naval Academy Club.

Sandy Point looking over at Kent Island.

Fell's Point