Day 31

Okay. I'm going to do this now. I probably should wait til morning but I'm already a day behind. So don't blame me if there are a bunch of typos or if I forget some key points from yesterday. After all. It is yesterday.

I don't know if I mentioned this yesterday but I decided to rent a car and drive to Washington. Once I made the decision to rent the car I was torn between Boston and Washington. Since I was unable to get a Red Sox ticket and the sites in Washington are more centrally located I went with D.C. The kicker came when I talked on the phone Monday night with my friend Isaac (who lives in D.C. and was in NY for the weekend with us.) It just so happens he landed four free tickets to Tuesday night's Nationals game. So that settled it.

I slept late on Tuesday. Jose left early in the morning, leaving me as the last one left in New York. I packed my stuff up, called a cab, and checked out about 11:15.

My taxi ended up costing 42 bucks. Another fee I can thank Amtrak for. It took me to the Avis in Midtown Manhattan. And this is where I experienced driving in Manhattan for the first time. That was a blast. Now I drive in Chicago all the time and have no problem. Now granted that may have something to do with the fact I know the city much better. But in New York the general rule seems to be just don't hit anyone or anything. Other than that it is a free-for-all. Luckily I didn't hit anyone and continued on my way.

I exited the island through the Lincoln Tunnel. I was in New Jersey. And the first thing I did in New Jersey was blow through the EZ Pass on the turnpike. You aren't supposed to do this in New Jersey. And thus I did not have a ticket for the turnpike. Regardless, my drive through Jersey was very pleasant. People like to bitch about New Jersey but it didn't seem so bad to me. Of course, when I got to the border they charged me full fare for the toll road, but it turned out to only be $6.70 so I can live with that.

An interesting thing about this drive was that I had no way of plugging in my iPod. So I was stuck listening to the radio for five hours. Now I listen to the radio for time to time to keep up on what is being played, but I can't remember the last time I listened to the radio for such an extended period of time. Pretty much I heard about three songs over and over. It was that new Usher song, that "she's my little hood thing" song, and "Lollipop". Now I don't really hate any of these songs but the fact that I heard each one over five times in this time span is proof that the radio is a dead art. It is ClearChannel's fault. Every station is exactly the same. Oh well.

Delaware was quick. And seven dollars. Amtrak.

I ended up getting to my destination, the Shady Grove Metro station, at about 5PM. I got on the Metro into Washington and arrived at the Nationals Stadium at about 5:30. I was ridiculously hungry and thirsty by this time. And I wasn't meeting Isaac and Lauren, who had the tickets, until 6:45. So I planned on finding a restaurant or bar to hang out in for a little while. Well guess what...there are none. There are lots of signs for restaurants and bars that are going to open in 2009. That doesn't help me much. I walked all the way around the stadium. Finally I found a lady with a cart. She sold me a Dr. Pepper and a bag of Doritos for two bucks. That worked for the moment.

Isaac and Lauren showed up right on cue. The fourth ticket went to my friend John Gagnon who I had not seen in quite some time. So basically it was a great group of old friends for this game, which was great. With such good company I even decided not to keep score. Which was a little bit ironic considering this was the first park I have ever been to that provided free score cards to all the guests.

What I will say about Nationals Park is that it is magnificent. They pulled out all the stops in this ballpark. Absolutely beautiful. Apparently if you go upstairs you can see all kinds of monuments and such. Which makes sense. I was too tired to go up there though.

My favorite thing at Nationals Park was that it was the first ballpark I have ever been to that sold a veggie hot dog. Of course I had to buy one. It was 5.25 and it looked like crap. But you must understand...in all my years of going to double digit baseball games every year I have never had the privilege of eating a hot dog at a ballgame. That all changed Monday night. It wasn't bad. Not great. But I enjoyed it anyway.

I also ate some cheese fries.

The game was terrible. The Angels scored six times in the top of the first inning, so it was never even remotely close. But we all had some good conversation and a few drinks and had a great time.

The trip is coming to a close. Just a little while longer. But a little more fun. And there is lots of fun stuff coming up this summer. So rock on.