Fort Monroe National Monument was between Machicomoco State Park and Edith’s house, so Kate thought we should stop by on the way. On an unrelated note, they have a national park cancel stamp. Coincidence? You decide. (Panda Express was on the way too, so it seemed a fair trade.)

Across the street from the visitor center was a large brick building with a giant magnolia tree and a sign talking about the forts that predated Fort Monroe.

The visitor center is in Wisser Hall, across the street from where we parked.

The front steps of the visitor center has high water marks for 1933 and 2003.

Kate went into the visitor center and straight to store to get cancel stamps. John took some pictures of the educational plaques in the lobby. The visitor center was actually a lot larger than we realized. We did not explore much due to limited time and a symposium being held at the visitor center and fort.

We planned to just stop in to get the cancel stamp from the visitor center, but, shockingly, Kate wanted to change the plan and go inside the fort. It was only for a minute … or fifteen … or thirty.

Beside and behind the visitor center were more educational signs.

The fort is largely intact, and it is the largest stone fort in the USA. It has a moat, so it is basically a civil war era castle.

To get inside, you walk across a small bridge into the postern gate with a very low doorway.

And then you see the sign:

Or, maybe, that was sarcasm. You will have to go to the fort and see for yourself.

You pass a set of cannon emplacements on the way through. There were tables set up in part of the room; it looked like a symposium talk was planned there.

Past the wall cannons is the corner of the fort.

Just past the 3 inch ordnance rifle**, you can walk the streets of the fort, go up the steps to the wall, or visit the cistern.

John mentioned that the cistern looked like a solid brick outhouse, and Kate went there.

Fortunately, it was not literally “went” there, but she has a bad habit of pooping in public.

And, there is a pet cemetery on the wall.

And there are a lot of pets there; the cemetery spans the wall.

Some of the pet graves are fairly recent.

The fort was very large and in very good shape. Exploring the fort will make a nice day trip the next time we are here, and we can visit Edith afterwards.

* Abnormally Large Blossoms would be a great name for a Country or Punk Rock band.

** Three Inch Ordnance Rifle would be a great name for a band or nickname for a man working on his self esteem.