The Most Epic Baseball Trip Ever
September 2008
[Pre-game]
[Day 1] [Day 2] [Day
3] [Day 4] [Day 5] [Day
6] [Day 7] [Day 8] [Post-game]
“You know, this is the last year we can go to Yankee Stadium”, Daniel told me. “They’re tearing it down. And Shea too.”
Three
years before we had gone to
But heck, as long as we’re going back East, let’s check on Fenway and the Red Sox. It’s not that far. Who knows how long they’ll keep playing there? But the question was, could you really see games at all three places without spending two weeks there. I hit the Internet and got a list of all the schedules and lined them up and it turns out you could. So, feeling a bit greedy, I threw in the Orioles and Nationals schedules too.
And there it was. One week out of the entire baseball season where all five teams had at least one home game that didn’t conflict over a six day period. And during a week in September when Daniel wasn’t working or in school. It was a sign.
I checked with Daniel to see if he was willing to give it a shot and he was all for it. It was ambitious but doable. I spent the spring and summer getting tickets and making plans. It became, as Daniel would describe it later, The Most Epic Baseball Trip Ever.
Day
1:
The trip got off
to an inauspicious start. After getting up very early to make our plane,
a 2+ hour delay was announced due to thunderstorms in the NY area. We had been talking about trip karma and how
we were going to need some to pull this off.
So this was not a good sign. But
due to the storms, all the planes were delayed and the gate attendant said
it was possible our connecting flight in
We arrived in
Once we got off
the plane, we discovered the plane to
There was a baby in the seat ahead of us. She was fussing and the Mom was trying to bounce her a bit to calm her down. But she lifted her a little too high and knocked her head on the overhead bin. Oops. Strangely enough it seemed to take the baby’s mind off whatever else was bothering it and it settled down fairly quickly after that. Or perhaps she had a concussion.
We took off without
further incident. We flew right over
We really didn’t expect the bags to arrive, but they did. Score one for Continental. And the first sign that our trip karma was looking up.
We got to Hertz and checked the Gold Card board. I’m not up there. Uh oh. We head into the office and it’s lined up out the door. Uh oh. But the line moved fairly quickly. Some sort of glitch. It was never explained. But how about a Mustang convertible upgrade for your troubles? Well… sure! Why not?
But Daniel didn’t
think so. Too easy to break into (a
valid point and one I had thought of too).
Too conspicuous to the police. Bad
gas mileage. And besides, the weather calls for rain. And most importantly, at 21 he wasn’t allowed
to drive it. So okay, back to the counter
to swap it for something else. The
counter lady, and a few people in line shook their heads in bewilderment.
But as it turned out, we got a nice Subaru Outback with more space,
more visibility, better gas mileage and a built in
My GPS, which I’ve named Sheila because I set it up to talk with a female Australian accent (why not?) guided us easily to the Howard Johnson’s right behind Fenway. The parking lot looks completely full. But wait, one space left. The trip karma continues. The lights are on for the game that night. Very cool. The excitement of what we’re doing starts sinking in. When we get out of the car we can hear the crowd cheer. Very very cool.
The room has a view of the ballpark from right out the window. Daniel found the game on TV and we had the surreal experience of watching the game on television and hearing the live crowd cheer when something good happened.
Day
2: Maine/Boston – Rays 4,
We awoke earlier than we’d like to what sounded like fireworks going off. Boom. Boom. Boom. At first we thought maybe there was some kind of event at the ballpark. But at 8am? A quick look out the window revealed that it was just the beer delivery. And plenty of it. Each time they unloaded a keg from the truck and dropped it on the sidewalk – Boom. Apparently the Red Sox fans really like their beer because it went on for almost an hour.
We had the day
free since the game started in the evening.
Daniel wanted to go north to
It turns out there’s
not much to see on the interstate to
So we headed towards
downtown
It was now lunch time so we headed into town. Sheila directed us to a place called Brian Baru, an ‘English-style pub’. The building was painted a purplish red and had a giant toucan on the side. Not sure what that was all about but it looked interesting. We avoided the allure of the beer thinking we’d have some at the game (that was before we saw the prices at the park) and had quite excellent pulled pork sandwiches. A couple of locals were getting an early start on happy hour behind us.
We headed back
south. We had passed
We got back to the hotel in plenty of time (a concern) and headed over to the park. Fenway is a great old ballpark. There is some new construction around the edges but you can clearly see the ‘old’ part. And I do mean old. I think a lot of the seats are the original ones from 1912 judging from their condition and comfort level.
We found our seats and were quite pleased. They were about 25 rows up on the 3rd base side between home and third. Great! But… one small problem. There’s a pillar blocking Daniel’s view of home plate. The pillar is not very wide. But it’s just enough to completely block his view of the batter. Of all the things to not be able to see. I was really mad that this wasn’t mentioned when I bought the tickets. But to his credit he was great about it. I offered to switch part way through the game but he said no. What a good boy. He said it was a bit weird to see the ball go behind the pillar, then have to wait for the sound of the bat and the movement of the fielders to know what happened.
We were early so
we walked around a bit to check things out.
We found a wall with a great painting that said Red Sox and had one
of the ushers get our picture in front of it.
We (and probably everyone else) tried to go up on the wall in left
field – the famous Green Monster. But you can’t without a ticket. The security guard said “Sorry, you can’t go
out on the monster” in a thick
The stadium is small. The crowd feels very intimate. And they’re clearly a very knowledgeable baseball crowd. They’d all stand when there were two strikes and two outs. Every time. The vendors all had attitudes (in a good way) and could throw a bag of peanuts a good distance with excellent accuracy. They sing Sweet Caroline after the 7th inning stretch for some reason.
At some point during the game, a foul ball was hit down the 3rd base line. The Ray’s 3rd base coach grabbed it. But despite many pleas, he didn’t throw it to the crowd. Big mistake. They booed him. A lot. For many minutes. They start chanting his name – Fol….ey, Fol…ey. This went on for a couple of innings or more. Poor guy. He should know better.
And there were plenty of innings for it to go on. Josh Beckett pitched for the Red Sox and threw a good game. Seven strikeouts and only one run (although when they did hit him, they hit it hard). But the Sox could only get one run too. They went 1 of 15 with runners in scoring position. The game goes on and on. The ancient wooden seats are starting to cause posterial distress. After 12 innings we decided we didn’t care who won just so long as someone did. But still it went on.
Towards
Finally, in the top of the 14th, Mike Timlin came in and proceeded to give up a 3 run homer. Oops. The crowd had cheered him when he came into the game. He’s been with the team a long time. But they weren’t so happy after that. The Sox loaded the bases in the bottom of the 14th with no outs, but only could get one run out of it and that was that.
We got back to
the hotel sometime after
Day
3:
We slept in.
Which was to become a theme. Daniel’s
friend Megan lives in
We headed into
downtown
We met Megan at the subway station and discovered a bonus friend, Damiana, who was visiting from the northwest. The four of us headed to the pub.
According to my friend, Jacob Wirth is known for corn bread and chowder. The corn bread turned out to be free, which was nice. 3 of us had chowder which was good but not spectacular. But the corn bread – whoo boy. Delicious!
After lunch we took another walk by the commons and up to the Granary burial ground where John Hancock, Paul Revere, Ben Franklin’s parents and Sam Adams (among others) are buried. Most of the stones were so old the names had worn off. It was kind of cool.
It was getting
to be towards 2 and time to go. But thought we’d have a look at
So we headed south
towards
We drove south a bit more and it was time for something to eat. Sheila recommended a pizza place. They had sandwiches too (grinders) so we had that. It was run by a nice older guy who was jawing with a friend of his at the counter. It looked like the friend had been there awhile and was likely to stay awhile longer too. The accents were great and it was fun to listen a bit to the conversation. They were clearly old friends and were having a good time ribbing each other.
And then more driving.
We headed into
We had reserved
ourselves a spot the day before at the Super 8 motel in
We had dinner on
the good side of the tracks in
Day
4 –
The plan for this day was simple. Head into Manhattan to B&H Photo, the Mecca of photo enthusiasts (well, Mecca is probably the wrong term given it’s run by orthodox Jews, so call it the Jerusalem of photo enthusiasts), buy Daniel the macro lens he had his eye on, see a sight or two, get to Yankee Stadium early to ensure we got parking and see the game. (With the new stadium being built, parking was limited.)
While this was a simple and straightforward plan, very little of it actually came to fruition. But it wasn’t our fault.
We headed into
We headed into
B&H. It is quite an establishment.
Everything you could ever dream of in photo,
video and computer gear. A huge place,
teeming with people. We found our way to the photography area and
He ended up having
to buy it and have it delivered. Essentially buying it online while standing
in the store. He arranged, at additional
cost, to have it shipped to our house in 3 days so it would be there when
we got home. But as it turned out,
it didn’t make it and we ended up shipping it to
Anyway, we checked on some used stuff but no luck there either and decided we’d had about enough of B&H. We paid for our purchase at a long row of little cubicles where they take your money. Daniel said it reminded him of the little gnomes at Gringott’s Bank in the Harry Potter movie. It seemed apt. And it was certainly disappointing to walk up to the window, hand them a credit card, sign a bill for a large amount of money, and leave, without anything to show for it. But I must say, they really seem to have it together there. The whole place seemed to hum like a well oiled machine. They must do a staggering amount of business.
We left the store
and wandered around a little but the weather was threatening, we didn’t have
enough time to go off to a museum or anything, and we figured out we weren’t
near anything interesting where we were. So Daniel suggested we try Katz’s deli. He’d been there on the
First, we had to get the car. An hour of parking? Only $23. A bargain. I’m sure the bastard ripped us off but I couldn’t work out the cost structure in time to fight it. We hit LOTS of traffic heading down to the lower east side where Katz’s is located. A bit stressful but we found it. And convenient parking right near by again. Rain was starting to fall. Nothing too serious but we were beginning to get worried about the game.
Katz’s was packed. All the tables were full. And they were lined out the door. We each got pastrami sandwiches on rye and we managed to find a table and settled in to enjoy. It was delicious. And a fun spot. They ship their meats all around the country and I suppose, the world. The sign above the meat counter says “Send a salami to your boy in the Army”. It’s also on the back of their T-shirts. I couldn’t resist and bought myself one.
It was still a
bit early for the game so we decided to head back to
We got checked into the Holiday Inn in Ft Lee, which was not too bad and had a bit of a rest. We had the curtains closed and when it was time to go, Daniel had a look outside. Uh oh. It was raining pretty hard. But what choice did we have? We had to go. So another $8 back over the GW bridge and over to Yankee Stadium. We got there plenty early to make sure we could park. And we oriented the car facing out so we could get out quickly. That worked out about as well as the rest of the plan but that part comes later.
We wandered over and had a look at new Yankee Stadium. Which frankly looks a lot like the old one. I’m sure it’s nicer on the inside though. There really wasn’t much else to see outside the stadium and not really a great neighborhood, and it was raining. But we had to wait for the gates to open.
You would think we were going into the Pentagon or something. Our backpacks got checked, as they did at every stadium. But we also got wanded, front and back, and patted down. Open your phone and show me it works. Take your camera out of its case. Are you now or have you ever been a communist, etc. (Well okay, not that last part.) Makes you wonder what the crowd is usually like there.
We managed to convince them we weren’t a threat and got inside. We tried to get to the monument park in center field where they have the plaques for the famous players but by the time we got to that part of the stadium it was already closed because of too many people in line.
So, we found our seats, up in the top tier. We were about 20 rows from the top of the stadium. Just far enough down to not be under the roof overhang. It was still raining pretty hard. So we went up to the top row to stay dry.
And then we sat.
And waited. And sat some more. The rain sometimes looked like it might be letting
up but it never did. We waited there
for almost 3 hours while they thought about it. We avoided the $9.50 beers but ultimately gave
in and had the $8 hot dogs. Luckily
the big screen was showing “Yankeeography” with stories about the Yankees
– Babe Ruth especially. And big
Ultimately, the game was rained out. A major disappointment since this was the last chance to see a game there. After all, it was to go to Yankee Stadium that we originally planned the trip. We started making justifications like well, we said we’d go to all the parks, not that we’d see a game. But it’s just going to end up being one that we didn’t get. At least we got inside.
The announcement said they would play the game tomorrow. A night game after the already scheduled afternoon game. They were going to clear the stadium out after the first one. We’ve got tickets to the Mets tomorrow though. So we started thinking about it. We could go to see the Mets, then race over to Yankee stadium and see the night game.
But really, could
we? We’d probably get to the game late.
Parking would be an issue. And
we really have to leave town before the game would be over if we’re going
to get to
I kept trying to
figure out a way. I really didn’t want to let it go, but it just
didn’t work. As I think about it now,
I suppose we could have skipped the Baltimore game in order to see the Yankees
game. After all Camden Yard will still be there awhile.
If I’d thought about that at the time, I wonder what we would have
done? We probably still would have
passed. Because at some point we’ll
have to come back to
So once we decided we weren’t going to go, then it was a question of what to do about the tickets. We went down to the ticket office where a very unhappy Yankees employee was stuck with the job of explaining to a large crowd of angry people how they would have to deal with refunds. Basically, they really wanted you to go the game the next day. If you couldn’t, they’d offer a game next season (after the public could buy tickets for the games). But you had to come to the ticket office to do it. That didn’t work for us (and some others) either. The last choice, and it sounded a bit sketchy, was to send them back in for a refund. That seemed to be our only option.
So we headed for the parking garage where the cars were lined up to leave and stayed that way for a very long time. They just didn’t move. We never did find out what the problem was. But there we sat. Pointed to easily join the line when the time came mind you, but sitting nonetheless.
We of course headed
the wrong way when we got out, but ultimately found our way back to the hotel.
By this time, we had a pretty good idea how to get on and off the
We had dinner in
the restaurant while watching the Red Sox beat
Day
5: New York to Baltimore -- Braves 3, Mets 2; Mets
5, Braves 0
We woke up and
checked the weather. A bit overcast but mostly sunny. Good news. We knew it was a day game and just
assumed that meant a
We also discovered
an added bonus. A second game. The Mets had also been rained out the night
before, like the Yankees. But their
rain out policy was different. They
would play the regular game and the makeup game.
And those with tickets to the regular game could see both. Those with tickets to last night’s game were
out of luck. No game at all for them.
They had to get tickets to another game in the future.
Well, lucky for us, we had tickets to the original game so we could
now see two. Except we couldn’t because the second game wouldn’t
start until after 7 and we had to get to
(As it turns out, the game was scheduled to be on Fox and they couldn’t change the start time, which didn’t allow time to clear the stadium for the 2nd game.)
So one last time
over the
Surprisingly enough, we found free parking at the Queens Museum of Art and it was right by the giant world sphere that was the centerpiece of the fair. It was very impressive and much larger than I realized. The fountain underneath it was empty but was being put to good use by roller bladers and bike riders.
We wandered around the park a bit. We came across lots of squirrels and a couple of flocks of geese. We wandered over to what I think were observation towers. You might remember them as the spaceships in the movie Men in Black. They’re looking a bit worse for wear, rusting and decaying. But they appear to be undergoing some sort of renovation.
It was quite warm
out and we were working up a good sweat. So
we stopped into the
We walked over to the entrance to the tennis association but the gates were locked. We got a look at the outside of Arthur Ashe stadium which was much larger than I expected.
It was still a few hours before game time but we had run out of things to walk around to so we headed over to the stadium. Shea is a relatively old stadium (1964) and doesn’t have the appeal of a Fenway or Camden Yard. But it has a certain flair even so. It’s kind of dumpy but still has some charm. I’ve learned later that it was quite innovative for it’s time. The first multi-use (baseball and football) stadium, a fancy (at the time) scoreboard, etc.
The gates hadn’t opened yet so we hung out near the player’s entrance. We saw a number of players go in but I couldn’t tell you who they were. There was a small but very avid group of fans who ran from one to the next trying to get autographs. I’m not convinced they knew who they were either. The players all got out of their cars with a cell phone to their ear. We think it was a ploy to avoid the autograph seekers. We never heard them actually talk into the phone. But to their credit, they all signed at least a few.
We got in and headed to our seats. I knew we were lower down this time around so we were hoping they would be good. We were in the Loge level. And it turns out what that means is the level underneath the upper tier. Which was great from a shade and rain protection standpoint, but we were high enough up that the upper level blocked our view. It was a bit cave-like. We could see the field but not above it. It was like watching in Cinemascope – long and narrow. When someone hit a fly ball it would disappear for awhile, then reappear somewhere near a fielder. So when the fielder was running for a fly ball, we could never really tell whether he had a decent chance at it. But they were relatively close to the field, right behind first base, and like I said, in the shade which was very nice.
Johann Santana,
the Mets ace, was pitching. If the game hadn’t been rained out the day before,
we would have missed him. And, with the change to the rotation, we’d get
to see Pedro Martinez in
The fans at Shea were definitely different from the ones at Fenway. They really didn’t seem to care too much. Even though the Mets were up 2 runs, and in a tight pennant race, the only thing they really seemed to get up any enthusiasm for was yelling for fielders and grounds people to throw foul balls to them. That they really got excited about. Of course everyone wants a baseball from a game. That happened at every stadium. But these guys were by far the most vocal about it.
Now the Mets were
in a fight with the Phillies for the National League East title.
Last year they had had a 7 game lead with 17 games left and ended up
losing and not even making the playoffs.
And it was starting to look like the same again this year.
Still, like I said they were up
The second game
started around
We managed to find
our way to the proper interstate, despite Sheila’s attempts to send us through
lower
We finally got
through the traffic and onto the
And with that we
left
So on down the
We got there around
I must admit they
weren’t as good as the last time we were there.
But it was late and I imagine the steak had been cooking awhile, and
we had to stuff them down pretty quickly so we couldn’t really savor them.
But still a darn good sandwich. Fifteen
minutes later we were back on the road to
Around
All in all, a very
good day. Much better than yesterday.
Day
6: Baltimore/Washington --
We were about 20
miles from
I took a quick look outside to check for rain but no worries. It was hazy but sunny. The only mistake I made was not going outside to check the temperature before getting dressed and packing up. We got out to the car and realized it was going to be quite hot and humid. I should have put shorts on.
Camden Yard is
great. Really pretty.
The warehouse behind the park is very cool looking. It was very wise to incorporate it into the design. We wandered along there a bit. We found the spot on the wall where Ken Griffey hit it during the all star game home run derby.
We went to find our seats. As the usher showed us where to go it just kept getting better. We’re in this section? Field level right in line with the pitcher? Cool. We keep getting closer and closer. Eight rows up from the field behind the Orioles dugout. Amazing. We hardly needed the telephoto for pictures. And the seats are padded! Given the states of our poor rear ends with all the driving, 14 innings at Fenway and 3 hours at Yankee Stadium, that might have been the best thing about the park.
The throwing out
of the first pitch was interesting. It was Radio City Music Hall Rockettes in Santa
outfits and mini skirts. Not something
you see every day. They were promoting
some sort of event in
The vendors were shouting clever slogans. “If you want it fancy, you have to get it from Clancy”. “Hot Dogs. If you want it hot, get it here. If you want it cold, go in there.” (inside) When the national anthem was sung, when they get to part that goes “Oh say does that star bangled…” the crowd yelled ‘O’s’ (for Orioles). Kind of clever.
We had called my
father the night before to let him know we had just enjoyed a Pat’s Steak.
He had recommended the BBQ meat place at the game.
We found it. I had a BBQ Pork
and
We were so close that we decided we needed a camera with a shorter lens to go along with the telephoto. We’d use Daniel’s camera for the wider angle shots and mine for the telephoto. While Daniel was messing with my camera trying to get the resolution set the way he wanted, he accidentally formatted my memory card. For those of you still uninitiated into digital photography (if there are such people left), that’s the equivalent of taking the one 500 shot roll of film that you’ve used for ever picture from the trip so far, and exposing it to sunlight.
Luckily for him
I had copied all my pictures off to my laptop the night before, even though
it was
- Mr. Foreman have you reached a verdict?
- We have your honor.
- How say you?
- We would have done the same thing. Not guilty.
- Thank you. The defendant is free to go.
After the game we went back and retook the ones that got lost for the most part so it turned out to be no big deal and taught us both a valuable lesson in data protection.
The game itself
was a home run festival. We hadn’t seen many (one or two) up until then.
But all kinds of them were going out of the park on this day.
The Orioles crowd was more into it than the Mets crowd was. But the turnout was fairly low so it didn’t generate quite the excitement that the Fenway crowd did.
We were headed
down to
We had been trying
to figure out someone on the east coast we could sell the Yankees tickets
to and Daniel had been texting with his friend Patrick who is attending the
We had about an
hour in
The tour was really interesting. The campus is very pretty and there’s lots of history too, just from the building names alone which are all named for famous Navy men. The academy has the world’s largest dormitory (and it’s massive and sprawling). It houses all 4000 some students. The rooms themselves are quite small but I suppose they’re preparing the students for life aboard ship.
The buildings are all stone with lots of ornamentation. And of course naval cannons everywhere. Inside there are big vaulted ceilings. Lots of memorabilia, “the ensign from the USS whatever” etc. like the flag that says “Don’t Give Up The Ship” from Admiral Perry.
We went into Memorial Hall and saw its sobering display of graduates killed in action. Including even some from as recent as 2006. I’m sure it makes the cadets stop and think now and again about the gravity of what they’ve signed up for. It did for me.
We saw the two Heisman trophies won by Navy Midshipmen, the Bob Hope Auditorium, some of the classrooms, the library and lots more. We also learned a bit about some of the traditions and obligations. How, for example, on the first day, all the new cadets are marched into the main entrance of the dormitory and the doors closed behind them, clearly cutting them off from family and friends out in the courtyard. And how they’re not allowed to go through the front door again until they’ve graduated. And also, since it was sunset and at sunset the flags are lowered (striking the colors), we discovered that while that is occurring, everyone stands at attention. All in all, it gave me the sense that the officer corps of the Navy was going to be in good hands.
We thanked Patrick
for the tour and headed off to
Day
7: Washington -- Nationals 7, Mets 2
We slept late. Again. We pretty much never really got on east coast time. We had breakfast and decided to take the Metro over to the Mall for a look around. The first problem was finding the Metro. The desk clerk said “a block up the road”. Well, we went a block up the road and saw nothing. But we persevered and ultimately, about 6 blocks and a right turn later, we found it.
We came out in
the middle of the mall, right by the Smithsonian “castle” building.
The first question, which way to head? Towards
the Capital or towards the
As we got close
to it, we saw a building with a whole series of wind powered machines and
displays of brightly colored globes, so went over to have a look.
It turned out to be the
In fact, when we walked in, carrying our cameras in front of us, the man at the front desk said “Are you going to take pictures?” Well, anytime anyone has ever asked me that question at a museum or sporting event or anything else, it’s because you’re not allowed to take pictures. I could tell Daniel had the same thought. We looked at each other and started hemming and hawing, and I could tell Daniel was thinking the same thing I was. How can I convince this guy I’m not going to take pictures when I’m standing here holding a camera? Well, he spared us the embarrassment because the next thing he said was “Here, let me show you the best spots”. Which he proceeded to do and he was quite right.
The Garden was a very pleasant surprise and yet another example of being open minded as you wander around and explore.
We left the Garden,
took a pass by the Capital, then headed down the other side of the Mall to
the
But what’s this?
Oh yeah, the new(ish) WWII monument.
Neither of us had ever seen it before.
It’s nicely done. There are
two sides, an
Speaking of the Vietnam Memorial, that’s where we went next. And it never ceases to impress. Such a simple idea but powerful.
From there we went
up to the Lincoln Memorial. It’s much more ‘tomb-like’ than the others but
it’s so iconic. There was a flock of
geese in the reflecting pool in front which made for an interesting photo
with the
And from there
we continued around to the Korean War Memorial.
I like this one a lot. It’s different. There’s a wreath there from the
By now we were getting pretty tired of walking but we still had to get back to the Metro station. No stations down at this end of the mall so there was nothing for it but to walk back to the middle. We ended up walking the complete loop, which we were quite proud of.
We got back to the hotel to pick up the car. We were allowed to leave the car in the hotel garage until 5 which was perfect (more good karma), especially since we didn’t know what we would have done with it otherwise. And despite having no idea how long it would take to get to the mall, walk around the mall and get back, we got back right around 4:00. Perfect.
We found the address
of
When we came back I figured we should ask one of the garage attendants where to park. He said, “Well, there’s the place up the street that’s valet parking for $40. But I bet you’d like something cheaper.” Well, yeah I would. “Well”, he says, “I can get you in hear for $20”. Oh really. Well all right then. “Where’s you car?“, he asked. Across the street. “Well, don’t just pull in here. Don’t want ‘them’ to see you”. Sure okay. That would be bad I guess.
So we drove around a bit and came back. I pulled in and ‘them’ was in a golf cart off to the side. Our new friend started walking up the garage ramp a bit to get past them (I caught on), leaned in the window with the ‘official list’ and told me he was pretending to check me in while I slipped him the $20 below the window where ‘them’ couldn’t see, and we were in. It was right next to the park. You walked right into the center field bleachers. We were a little bit concerned that we’d come back and find the car (and our luggage) towed away, or the car booted or ticketed or something, but no. It worked out great.
The stadium is very nice. This is the first year it’s been open. It’s not Camden Yard nice but good. We were early and the seating wasn’t open yet. So we stopped into a Playstation booth and played some Guitar Hero. Daniel is pretty good. I had never done it before but gave it a shot. I did okay but not ready to quit my day job, as they say.
We had good seats along the first base line. There was a huge high def scoreboard that looked beautiful. And in fact, during the game, the view on the scoreboard was a little better than the view from our seats. The players were bigger!
The crowd was fairly small. After all, the Nationals have one of the worst records in the league. Second only to the Mariners (who were awfully hard to root for this year). We figured the Mets would dominate. But no. The Nats (an unfortunate nickname if you ask me) got an early run or two and held the Mets to 1 hit. Then they broke it open for a 7-1 lead. They ultimately won 7-2. More good news for the Phillies. (And as I write this a couple of weeks later, the Mets have completed a dive from first place in the East to not making the playoffs at all, for the 2nd year in a row. It’s tough to be a Mets fan these days.)
During the game,
one of the players struck out on a high fastball.
I said “Got him with the high heat”.
After the game we headed back to see if the car was there. No worries. And no traffic getting out of the garage. After all, everyone else was parked at RFK. We got right onto the highway and headed out to our hotel near Dulles.
We got out there
around
We watched the 2nd half of the Eagles-Dallas game. The Eagles blew it in a shootout 41-37. We’re headed home tomorrow but once again we can sleep in since the plane leaves in the afternoon.
Day
8:
We took it slow.
It had been a long week and we didn’t have to rush.
We watched a little
The flight to
At one point, a passenger on the plane, who was apparently a Continental employee made a phone call to someone inside. The conversation went something like “We just landed at gate 20 and I don’t know what the hell is going on here but you should get a supervisor down there right now”. Whether that did the trick or they figured out whatever it was they were doing (or just got tired of playing with the tow truck), they finally got us where they wanted us and let us off the plane.
We just made it
to the inter-terminal bus before it left and managed to get to our
We made it to
Since the trip was a Tuesday to Tuesday, I had to go to work the next day. I would have much preferred to take the rest of the week off. And it took about that long to recover. (The best vacations are the ones where you feel like you need a vacation when you get back!).
Daniel was headed
back to