Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Vacation 2009: Fort Macon

Today was our trip to Fort Macon. Here there is a ton of history, on 389 acres, which has been standing since 1834 as a barrier to naval attack. To get a full history of Fort Macon I have supplied a link which covers the years the site was a military installation.

Fort Macon: History

We arrived in late morning and it was already well over 90 degrees and a bit humid. But after arriving there we didn’t notice the heat much as the structure was an impressive site.DSC03824 Here is a shot taken from the inner wall which encircled the inner courtyard. The masonry was impressive and you will be informed of how they built the fort in its entirety. You also have the opportunity to walk through the different segments of the structure so you get the true feel of what it must of been like to be stationed there.

Another shot I took was in one of the vaulted rooms which were used for different purposes but they had some potential for some great shots. Here MDSC03848eg hides in one room which was taken with night vision photography. Each of the 26 casemates surely had some story to tell. And even though it was day time you had to wonder if anyone from the past still walked these rooms.

It was great to take pictures in using different lighting, angles and anything else your imagination could come up with.

Once the crowd was out of the way I was able to get this shot which captured the doorways that enabled you to get to any one of the rooms in that section. The small barred DSC03852 window at the end of the walkway gave the shot an eerie T.A.P.S. kind of feel. Here and there someone would walk passed the window and gave it even more of the ghostly appearance.

We continued on throughout the rooms learning about life at the fort and was instructed on how the men ate and slept, carrying on their daily routines as enlisted men protecting the coast from pirates and the threat of the English invasion. One can only wonder how they endured the heat and humidity in these damp dark rooms waiting for something to happen.

In one room there was an oven which I had Meg open on a video clip because it was in night vision and the sound of the squeaky hinges was too good not to record. Below is the clip (sorry it is sideways…I will fix it later:

Here I added a few more shots of the fort:

The MOney Shot 
The Money Shot”

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Remnant of Confederate Flag”

After our tour of historic Fort Macon we drove over to Beaufort and walked through the various shops looking for a souvenir to keep the day in our memories. After an hour or so we realized we left our precious daughter at the fort…lol.

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g~

1 comment:

  1. i love the sound of the oven, sideways or not ... and also wanted to mention ... did you see the round of stupid articles, and i can't remember if it was in msn.com, yahoo.com or whatever, but last week they noted the 10 or so crappiest places to go in the US and the alamo and san antonio was listed as one such stupid place to go ... they described the alamo as mostly gone, and that if you toured it with the headphone guided tour, you eventually ended up in the gift shop!

    ugh! i just feel like everyone has gone mad! there is so much history there, including a "fresco" painting fading on a wall in the room where all the davy crocket memorabilia is, and san antonio, while known for the riverwalk and yeah a place to spend money on this and that and the bloody other, there IS history there.

    i think the person who wrote the internet news article must be one of those people who takes their kids on vacation, letting them watch disney dvds all the way and then never look out the window, and then when they all get where they are going they don't know what to look for in even the first or last place!

    san antonio was one of the best trips i ever took, the alamo included, the people watching and goofing off all along riverwalk, the botanical gardens and the cave at the outer limits of the countryside. people are crazy to criticize any part of traveling the u.s. or any other place ... and there is my rant ...

    your description of the fort and such, as such, was horrifically terrific, and what it's all about ... you have to be open to where you are and then some!

    glad you are having a good time -a

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