Our Nation's Capital

I recently realized that I had never been to the World War II Memorial in Washington DC.  With two brothers who went to college in Washington and having spent a year in a half in college there myself, I had done most of the touristy stuff in Washington.  But the World War II Memorial opened just a few months after I left Georgetown.  So I wanted to see it.  I also wondered why it took so long to be built.  Why were there memorials for the Korean War and the Vietnam War before one for World War II?  Anyway, I finally got there last weekend and of course, I combined it with a baseball game.

The plan was for me to leave straight from work on Friday afternoon and go to the city to get the bus to Washington that night.  The weather forecast the day before was calling for heavy rain late in the day on Friday and I had to walk to the train station and then to the bus.  I didn't feel like walking in heavy rain.  So I rescheduled my bus for the first one in the morning on Saturday.  The problem with that was that the only train that would get me to the city in time left Huntington at 3:47 in the morning.  It was the second time I've ever taken that train.  The last time was when I was going to Boston to see the Celtics in February 2010 and snow cancelled my bus the night before.  Let me tell you, Penn Station at 5:00 in the morning on a Saturday is a very weird place.  But I didn't spend much time there.  At my brother Tom's suggestion, I took a walk to Times Square.  I got there around 5:30.  It was all lit up, but it was mostly empty.  It was a good way to kill time before my bus at 6:30.  I got to my brother Sean's apartment around 11:30.  The game wasn't until 4:10, so I could have taken a later bus, but I wanted to get to the World War II Memorial before the game.

The City that Never Sleeps was pretty much asleep at 5:30 on a Saturday morning.

After lunch, we took the Metro to get to the memorial.  It's very nicely done.  It's right at the end of the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial and across the street from the Washington Monument.  I've often thought about how things would be different if we had lost that war.  This was a very clear case of good versus evil and there was no guarantee that good would win.  Good won because of the resolve of Churchill, the stupidity of Hitler (invading the Soviet Union was a really really dumb idea), and the military might of the United States.  There's not much more I have to say other than including some pictures:

I made this picture a little bigger so you can read it.  The Lincoln Memorial is in the background.

Great quote from General George C. Marshall.  The United States is the greatest country in the history of the world.

1,465 Americans were killed during the D-Day invasion.

I can't imagine what it must have been like to find out we had won the war.  That must have been an amazing feeling.

Each star represents 100 Americans who died during the war.  Over 400,000 Americans gave their lives to save the world from evil.  The Civil War was the only war in US history that was deadlier.  It was almost four times deadlier than World War I, which is the third most deadly war in US history.

From the World War II Memorial, we took the walk to the Lincoln Memorial.  I've been teaching my kids about the Civil War so I figured I'd get a couple of good pictures to show them.  I think the last time I was there might have been in 2002 with one of my favorite teachers in high school, Mr. Klein.  I must have gone there at least once in the 90s when my brothers were in college.  I don't remember going there when I was at Georgetown.  But when I was a senior in high school, we went on a trip to Washington for JSA with Mr. Klein.  We definitely visited some of the memorials one night and I assume the Lincoln Memorial was one of them.  Anyway, I've said that Washington was the greatest American of all time, but I definitely think that Lincoln was the greatest president of all time.  Washington was a great president, but I think his greatest contributions to the country came before he was president.  Lincoln is the Babe Ruth of presidents.  He was the greatest and nobody else is all that close.  He saved the country and ended slavery.  It's a shame he only got to be president for about six weeks out of his four years, one month, and eleven days without the Civil War going on.  He got replaced by one of our worst presidents.  I've thought about how things would have been different if Lincoln had finished his second term.  I think he would be very highly thought of no matter what because of the Civil War, but there's no guarantee that Lincoln would have handled Reconstruction better than his successors handled it.  But it does seem highly likely.  Congress would not have been able to battle Lincoln the way they battled Johnson.  Anyway, the Lincoln Memorial is great.  I kind of wish the Washington Monument was different.  The Lincoln Memorial has a statue of Lincoln.  The Jefferson Memorial has a statue of Jefferson.  The Washington Monument is just a big tall building.  I feel like there should be something more to it.  But one thing that I do like to it is that because it is so tall in a city full of small buildings, you can see it from so many places in the city.  I guess you could argue that you could add more to the Lincoln Memorial, but I wouldn't.  You have the statue in the middle, the Gettysburg Address on the wall on the left, and his second inaugural address on the wall on the right.

The greatest president in the history of the United States

The Gettysburg Address.  Lincoln thought it was a bad speech.  History has proven him wrong.  I absolutely love what Ken Burns has done to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.

The Washington Monument with the Capitol in the background from the Lincoln Memorial

After the Lincoln Memorial, we were on our way to Nationals Park.  It would have been cool to go to the top of the Washington Monument.  I haven't done that since the 90s probably.  But it just reopened and the weather was great, so I assume that would have taken a really long time.  It was my third trip to Nationals Park.  The only current stadiums that I've seen more baseball games in are Citi Field, Dodger Stadium, and Yankee Stadium.  I've seen one more sporting event at Fenway Park (three baseball games and one hockey game).  That brings up two tangents:

1.  One of the reasons that I wanted to make this trip was that I haven't blogged about Nationals Park (my last trip there was in 2010 when the Dodgers beat the Nationals in 13, we got two presidents races out of it).  The only other ballparks that I've been to that I haven't blogged about are Shea Stadium, old Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park (for a baseball game), Wrigley Field, and US Cellular Field.  It's too late on the first two, but I would love to go to another game at Fenway Park and Wrigley Field and blog about those experiences.  I don't need to go to another game at US Cellular Field, but if I was in Chicago and the White Sox were at home, I'd go.  If I could have blogged about my 2009 trip to Boston (day drinking on the Freedom Trail with John and a Red Sox victory over the Orioles), that would have been a great post.  If I could have blogged about my 2009 trip to Wrigley Field with Jon, Dennis, Tim, Kevin, and Joe (a Cubs victory over the Cardinals and then Dennis made us miss our train), that also would have been a great post.  Hopefully I'll get around to seeing baseball games at the two oldest stadiums in the Majors again, but it most likely won't be this year.  I've got too much going on to go to Chicago and Boston is unlikely because John's wife is due with their second child in early August, so I doubt this summer would work for him.

2.  The Winter Classic will be in Washington in January (hopefully I'll be in New Orleans or Pasadena to see Notre Dame in a playoff game in football), but they haven't announced where it will be played yet.  Nationals Park and FedEx Field seem like the two most likely candidates, but RFK and Camden Yards have been mentioned also.  I guess you could make the case for Camden Yards, but they should just play it in the nation's capital.  That would leave Nationals Park and RFK as possibilities.  RFK is the only one of the four stadiums that I've mentioned that I haven't been to, but I have to imagine that it's not nearly as good as Nationals Park.  So yeah, just put it in Nationals Park.

Back to the game.  We got there fairly early and took a lap around the lower concourse.  After visiting for the third time, I think this ballpark is underrated.  The Nationals don't have much history, but they do give a nod to Washington baseball history with statues of Walter Johnson, Frank Howard, and Josh Gibson in the outfield.

Walter Johnson was the greatest pitcher of all time.

It's a shame Josh Gibson didn't get to play in the Major Leagues.  He was one of the great home run hitters of all time.

The thing that I really liked about Nationals Park is that it executes "the nation's capital" theme very well.  It's red, white, and blue all over the place (they painted the floors on the concourses red for this season).  You have the presidents race.  The concession stands keep the nation's capital theme going (District Drafts, Senators Sausage, South Capitol Grill, etc.)

George Washington before the game

Another good thing about Nationals Park was the concessions.  There were good options all around the stadium.  Somehow, I made it all the way to May 17 without having a Sam Adams Summer Ale on tap.  I was able to solve that problem at Nationals Park.  Sean had a Sam Adams Rebel IPA.  We both had crab grilled cheese.  I would have liked if it was a little more cheesy, but it was still good.

Finally.

Crab grilled cheese

As for the game, we were there to see Sean's favorite squadron, the Ny Mets, take on the Nationals.  It was Bartolo Colon against Gio Gonzalez.  The Mets took control early, scoring five runs in the first three innings.  Juan Lagares hit a home run and took a home run away from Jayson Werth.

We had good seats, up high behind home plate.  We were below the press box, which is ridiculously high at Nationals Park.  The only thing I didn't like was that we were in the first row of the section, which meant we had two bars and glass in front of us that were kind of in the way.  If we were in the second row, they probably wouldn't have been an issue.

I do enjoy the Presidents Race.  The old thing was that Teddy Roosevelt never won.  Apparently that changed on the last game of the 2012 regular season.  He won for the first time that day and won all of their races in the playoffs that year, but the Nationals blew their first round series against the Cardinals.  William Howard Taft is a recent addition to the Presidents Race.  I asked Sean why they picked him and he thought it was because anybody after Taft would be controversial.  That's why I'd go with James K. Polk, our most underrated president.  Anyway, Abraham Lincoln won the race on this day.  Other stadiums have their own races (animated Subway trains, sausages, even power tools or something in Atlanta), but the Presidents Race is the best.

Abraham Lincoln widened his all time lead.

One thing they need to fix at Nationals Park is clock in right field.  There was a clock that had the Nationals' logo and two bats as the hands.  Sean told me it broke and they can't fix it.  They took off the bats so now it's just a Nationals' logo surrounded by 12 stars.  Come on, this is the Major Leagues, you need to be able to fix a clock.  Other than that, I liked Nationals Stadium more than I remembered.  I might have to move it up my rankings (I'll revisit that later in the season because I have another stadium that needs to be reranked and several more stadiums to visit this year).

How hard is it to fix a clock?

Back to the game.  Colon went eight and the Mets held on to beat the Nationals 5-2.  Despite the not very competitive game, it was a great day at the ballpark.  The weather was great.  I wore shorts and long sleeves and was not at all too hot or too cold.  It was my first day game of the season and the stadium was nearly full with a crowd of 41,225.  I wish more games were played during the day, with great weather, and a big crowd.  The next game I went to would check off none of those boxes.

A panoramic shot with the Mets celebrating a victory.  The stadium was still pretty full.  I'll give the Nationals fans some credit for that.

Sean and Apu went home happy.

It was a fun trip to our nation's capital.  I should be back in the fall, hopefully for Notre Dame's eighth win of the football season.