Final post from the trip

I forgot to mention this in the Nationals Park review.

The park lost major points for not playing "God Bless America' during the 7th inning stretch.

Really? In the nation's capital? All I'm saying is that the YES network does not even cut to commercial when they play it in that majestic ballpark in the Bronx.  

The Game

The Nationals vs. the Mets was hands-down the best game we've seen during our tour.  However, it was also the hottest game we've attended.  Who knew that 7 pm in Washington D.C. would be 20 degrees hotter than an afternoon game in Atlanta?  Seriously, water was running off of us while we were sitting in our seats.  We were so hot and could not believe the game went into extra innings.  We really wanted to see the Mets win but we also really just wanted the game to be over so we could find some air conditioning.

Had great seats about 10 rows behind the visitor's dugout.

View from our seats:

Infractions

John had 2 major infractions on the baseball stadium visit.

#1 Eating a meal between lunch and visiting the park. Completely unacceptable as we must leave room to sample all the ballpark food.

#2 Eating ice cream and/or sno-cone before the game starts.  A frozen treat is not allowed until at least the 4th inning.

Best picture from Nationals Park

Nationals Park Review

Nationals Park most reminds of us the White Sox stadium.  It's a new style ball park and a nice place to see a game but has nothing special. No local food and no local color. 

Good quality food but nothing unique.  We use an italian sausage standard for comparing the parks. Nationals Park has a good quality 2 link sausage on a roll that holds up in 100 degree weather.  The cute capital themed food stand signs are not so cute.  

The Nationals are so new that they don't have any history of their own so they borrow from past teams present in Washington D.C. or show salutes to great players.  They have an exciting team so I can only imagine how this will change with time.  

Being a new style park, you can circle the park and watch the game from the concourse. However, Nationals Park lost major points for the concourse not being open behind home plate.  

Capital

We made another attempt at some sightseeing in the afternoon.  The temperature was well over 100.  How do people live in the South?

Really hot in D.C.

Went to Marine Memorial and Arlington in the morning.  It was so hot.

Picked up John at Union Station. Spent way too many hours in the hotel bar at lunch.  Here's a picture of us and the bartender with our record setting bar tab.

Washington D.C.

After another uneventful flight, we arrived in Washington D.C.  It is hot - really hot - and under construction.  The lawn on the mall is completely torn up and there is scaffolding everywhere.

We spent most of our time in the Air & Space Museum.

More sightseeing today and game tonight.

John joins us sometime today.  He will be in probation until we decide if he has what it takes to become a permanent member of the baseball touring group.  Stay tuned... I'll let you know the outcome tomorrow.

Staying at the Hyatt Regency on Capital Hill.  Really nice hotel but a dead neighborhood.  We found one restaurant open at 9:30 last night and they could not wait for us to leave so they could lock the doors.

No pictures from yesterday.  Did I mention it was hot?  

Turner Field Review

Overall, a nice ballpark.

Turner Field is a new-style ballpark most similar to Camden Yards.

There is a large gated entrance area before the ticket collection containing statues of the most famous Braves players.

Here we are with Hank Aaron

After the ticket collection, there is a wide area containing the better food stands and tables and chairs.  This is very similar to the center field eating area at Citi Field. This is the only place to get BBQ in the park.  There are plenty of other food stands but those have only your standard ballpark fare: dogs, sausage, nachos, etc.  The food quality was excellent so we gave the park an overall food score of 5 of out 10.  

Something I've never seen at a ballpark is different food pricing for season ticket holders:

On the subject of local color, I really liked the tomahawk chop. The fans really get into it.  Turner Field also displays the retired numbers in the style of the uniform from the year when the player played:

Great seats for the game.  It was hot but our seats were situated nicely under the overhang providing us protection from the brutal sun. Here's the view for our seats:

Between innings race is between Home Depot characters.  Really. 

Best picture so far. No explanation necessary.

Crisis in Connecticut

Somehow, due to some sort of unknown doorknob malfunction, Louis and his babysitters became trapped in the master bedroom.

They called their father and Uncle Brian to rescue them.

Somehow, due to some sort of key malfunction, the rescuers were not able to enter the house through the normal means.

A ladder was procured from sources unknown.

The master bedroom door refused to budge and Eric was called in to rescue the day.

Thanks to everyone who helped to free Louis and his babysitters.

Here is a picture of a trapped Louis.  The picture is fuzzy because the sender was giggling hysterically at the time.

Atlanta Sightseeing

Not much to see in Atlanta.

Visited Coca-Cola World.   Maybe it's because my last trip was China but lame is the best word that I can think of to describe it.

Here's a picture of us with the Coca-Cola Polar Bear.

Word of warning: Avoid the soda called "Beverly" 

What I love about the South

Here is my favorite thing about the South

Having BBQ for dinner tonight. Yum. 

We have arrived in Atlanta.  Uneventful flight. You can't beat flying out of White Plains.  I think this is my first time in Georgia.  I was expecting a big airport and was not disappointed.

The game is at 1:30 today so we don't have much time for sightseeing.  Not that there is much to see in Atlanta.

We are staying at a Holiday Inn by the stadium.  All I can say is it is clean. Surprisingly, our room does not have that unmistakable odor of febreeze-popcorn-vomit that usually permeates an establishment of this quality.  The hotel shampoo is "volumizing." Well, it is the South - big hair, closer to God and all that.

Obligatory pictures of the view from the hotel room.

 

Here's the plan:

Atlanta - Turner Field - July 15, 2012
Washington D.C. - Nationals Park - July 17, 2012