Fireworks at the Fort

Each year we go on a quest to look for the best place to see fireworks this time of year. There is a great display downtown, but the traffic and scope of the crowd has left us looking for other, smaller venues. This year's discovery was the display on Independence Day Eve at Fort Meigs in Perrysburg, just down the road from my office. We were so excited that we turn the camera over to Aaron for his first group photo credit.
This large monument is found in the middle of the restored Fort Meigs itself. This replica is of a fort used in the War of 1812 against the British and Native Americans.
The interior is filled with numerous long low hills, called traverses, that helped shield the Americans from incoming British shells. The kids loved running up and down these.

We laid out some blankets inside the fort and watched a great display set up on the bridge between Perrysburg and Maumee over the Maumee River. Becky and I have seen fireworks framed by the St. Louis Arch, but these were the most patriotic, if that's the right word, watching them from inside an American fort replica. The trafic leaving was worse than we'd thought it would be, but next year we'll be ready for it. (We'll still get stuck in it, but next time we'll be ready to get stuck in it.)