May 21: Havre de Grace

All I can say is that the sunshine is certainly fickle. We cast off from Baltimore around 10:00 AM Tuesday in the cold and pouring rain. We took a few pictures of Fort McHenry as we headed down the Patapsco River, and noticed that you could see your breath as we sat in the unheated upper deck. I had a fleece jacket on under the blanket I had brought up from below.

It rained all the way to Havre de Grace, a small hamlet at the mouth of the Susquehanna River. Havre de Grace was two votes short of being selected as our nation’s capitol in 1789 when the legislature made the selection. It is strategically located – currently two highways and two train tressels cross the Susquehanna River there. In the afternoon it cleared up and we rode our bikes to see the Lock House built in 1840 for the Tidewater canal. There was a wonderful wood plank promenade built along the waterfront over natural areas where I enjoyed taking pictures of the stately blue heron on the rocks. We saw the white conical Concord lighthouse there, it was dedicated to John O’Neill, a local hero from the War of 1812 and the first keeper of the light there.