NATIONALS

Ever look at Where's Waldo books?
Well, finding Jack in this picture is a bit of a metaphor for the Washington DC game for the Beloves. We will spare you all of the gory details. Suffice it to say that after 4 hours of being lost -involving bad directions, wrong trains, un-updated MapQuest, unmarked roads, crowded parking lots, and shuttle buses, we finally made it to the Nationals game at the end of the first inning. Given that we usually arrive at least two hours before the game and stand at the gates like the woman in the old Mervyn's commercial chanting "open...open...open..." we felt like we didn't get the full experience of this stadium. The good news is that the game went 12 innings, so we had a little extra time and we did take some time to roam around, and snap a few photos of the brand-new park.

Here is Abe. He is one of several dead-Presidents who roam the park causing trouble, high-fiving small children, and racing around the field between innings (Teddy is especially fond of raking the foul-territory). He stands about 9 feet tall, and Carter just wouldn't get close enough to get a decent picture.

You really can see the Capitol building from here, but you have to go up to the 5th (Yes, 5th!) deck to get a good look. These next two were also taken from there.

Given that they had a blank canvas to work with, and seemingly large resources, our impressions of this park were lukewarm. There was no effort made to take advantage of the monuments nearby, to create fabulous views. The feeling in the concession areas was somewhat claustrophobic. There were not enough concession stands, and lines were very long. For a stadium in a very hot climate, no effort was made to keep fans cool. (Did we mention the White Sox' "rain zones?" Just stand in a nice, cool shower if you need to!) We DID like that the press box was high up, leaving the best seats for fans. And we also liked that there was really no bad seat in the whole place. All in all, a moderate thumbs up for this brand-spanking new baseball park.

The game ended with a spectacular walk-off homerun by the Nationals, which landed nearly in our laps! Jim had ahold of it, along with a guy who was wearing a 1989 Giants/A's World Series cap, and just happens to be from Hayward. While the two of them were busy sorting out which one was going to end up with the prize, an old man walked up and wrenched it out of both their hands... go figure!

Where's Waldo? I think he's got our ball somewhere!

A much-needed day of rest ahead, then to Baltimore (we KNOW how to get to this field!) on Tuesday.