Every summer Bayprint closes the week of July 4th. This year, Nancy and I took a trip that that turned out to be very different and very special for us, so I thought I would share it with you.
Here you see the suave and sophisticated business owners, fully prepared for their adventure.
We flew to Washington, DC on Independence Day. You may know that I am an Honorary Consul of Lithuania, and our first stop was the Lithuanian Embassy, where we attended a day-after reception for participants in the Lithuanian Dance Festival.
After returning to our hotel we changed into the outfits you see above and headed to a special event at the National Museum of American History, one of the many Smithsonian museums on the National Mall.
The first thing you see when you enter the museum is the original Star Spangled Banner, the flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore. A lawyer named Francis Scott Key was onboard one of the British vessels, negotiating a prisoner exchange with the British. It was from this vantage point that he witnessed the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air. The poem he wrote after that battle was quickly printed up (no, not by Bayprint) and distributed throughout Baltimore, where it was sung to the tune of an old English drinking song.
You know the rest.
That flag was made exceptionally large for that battle so people throughout the city would be able to see whether it would still be flying over the fort after the battle.
How big?
30 feet high and 42 feet across. Here, all the attendees participate in a flag folding of a replica flag.
As you might guess, it’s not easy to fold a flag that size.
A scout troop might have done a better job, but they wouldn’t have been any more moved than we were. After the flag folding, we all sang the Star Spangled Banner. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
To top off the evening, we headed to the roof of the museum (see what I did there) to watch the fireworks.
A steady rainfall may have subdued the visuals, but it couldn’t make us leave that roof. Here’s a bit of the finale.
The next day we drove to the Jersey shore to visit Nancy’s cousins and see their dwarf goats.
After a few very relaxing days on the shore, we visited Nancy’s hometown of Flemington, NJ before making our way to Washington Crossing Historic Park in Pennsylvania. A docent tour showed and taught us about the sites and events that led up to the Battle of Trenton, a major victory in the Revolutionary War.
It was a very busy and yet a very relaxing vacation. It also brought us in close contact with our nation’s history and reminded us that, warts and all, the USA is a very special place for all of us lucky enough to be here.
And yes, we are very glad to be home in St. Pete. We look forward to seeing you soon.
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