OpSail 2012

The week surrounding Memorial Day is Fleet Week in NYC.  Navy ships come up the river and dock in Manhattan and there are sailors in white everywhere.  Well, this year is the 200th anniversary of the war of 1812 and the writing of the Star Spangled banner.  In honor of that it is OpSail 2012.  Tall ships and war ships from all over the world sailed up the river on Wed. and docked in Staten Island, Brooklyn and Manhattan.  Our family went down to the water early Wed. morning to watch the parade of tall ships come under the Verrazano Bridge.

 Looking over the list of ships and where they are from.

 You can see Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island behind the ship.  It was captured and held by the British in the Revolutionary War but used by United States in the War of 1812.

 After the parade moved beyond Bay Ridge the boys and I got in the car and went to our normal grocery store in Red Hook.  It just happens to be on the path of the parade and within view of the Statue of Liberty and we got to see several of the ships again from there!

 After grocery shopping we rushed back to Bay Ridge to find a parking spot close to the water in time for the War Ship Parade.  We made it and got to see most of them pass by!

 I can't believe I caught a picture of the Blue Angels flying over!

 The ships docked and are now open for viewing.  We took a friend from church, Noah, and went to see the ones docked in Red Hook, Brooklyn on Saturday.

 The Spanish Ship

 The Japanese Ship

On the Spanish ship.  The poor tour guides from the different countries, who didn't speak English very well, had to answer all Daniel's questions! :-)

 On the Japanese ship....

 On the US Coast Guard Cutter.

 On the French Ship. 

 We ran out of time and didn't get to go on the Mexican Ship.

 It was a fun day and everyone was tired.

We also didn't have time to go on the British War ship.

We've been blessed to have so many fun and FREE things to do this month!