The Hike Around DC and The Amazing Camden Yards

Our Tuesday morning started a little later than we would have liked to due to cell phone snooze buttons and dead cell phone batteries. So we woke up at 745 and got out of VA by 835 just to run into a little morning rush hour traffic. We crossed over the Maryland border at 930 and pulled up next to Camden Yards. I don’t know if it was on the itinerary we gave anyone but we talked about visiting Washington DC before the game. So we took the 10:44 Amtrak train to Union Station in DC which we arrived at 1130. We got off the train and immediately started looking for a map. We thought we had a clue as to which way the Capitol building was (plus Jason even saw the tip top of it) but others had a strange idea to go  in the opposite direction. So we walked a mile the other way turned back and walked another 2. I say we got our morning work out in. So we traveled around the Capitol building about 180 degrees while taking every different picture angle possible. We walked over and jumped in line to enter the National Archives at about 1245. We saw the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. After that Jason has his “Sight of the Day”:

 

Hello again, Jason here. After all that Kyle said there I really wanted to go up to the fence in front of the white house just to get the picture. As we were walking down whatever road we happened to be on,  we see a police and secret service escort screaming down the road and passing right in front of us. So we keep walking after the initial “woah that’s so cool!”s. Roughly 5 minutes later I start hearing helicopter blades. As a joke, I turn to Gray who was right next to me and said “Marine One”. Well, as it turns out, it REALLY WAS Marine One, accompanied by 2 other duplicates. Noticing the awesomeness of my prediction, I started running to get to the front of the White House, only to find that my plan for the perfect picture had been foiled. There were policemen blocking off the view of the front of the white house. I thought to myself that I had to see this helicopter on the lawn, and it was my only chance. There was another sport 300 ft away from the one I was at, to which I quickly ran to. By this time, Josh Gray and Kyle had said “no lets stop and get waters”. Wussies. As it turns out, the helicopter had landed on the lawn like I thought it did. Many-a-picture was taken as well as a video of it taking off and flying directly overhead. It was a great experience.

 

After that, we walked across to the Washington Monument and across from that was the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Monument. Once we got through sightseeing, it was a mad dash to try and catch our train back to Baltimore by 405. We had to ride a few Metro subs to get back but we made it back in time when they had started boarding the train. Once we got back in Baltimore, we still had an hour to kill so we went and found the cheapest gas and food in town, which was an adventure within itself using the GPS.

We finally arrived at the stadium at 630 and I think we were all very amazed at what we walked up upon. 

 Jason’s Stadium Review:

Camden Yards was a GREAT ballpark. Built next to an old Brick Warehouse, it was truly beautiful. Its quirks included some very fun things. Eutaw Street was closed off, but technically still in the ballpark, that’s where they had the shops and restaurants. It was fun to see that they had metal baseball plaques where people had hit homeruns over the outfield wall. Another fun gimmick was when the other team committed an error, the E of the ballpark sign would flash, and the H would flash when there was a hit.

Traditions were few and far-between here, but memorable. Starting off, during the national anthem, at the second “O Say” EVERYONE sings the O, to sport the Orioles. According to a local who you’ll hear about in a minute, it is also a tradition for the stadium to play John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” during the 7^th inning stretch after Take Me Out To The Ballgame.

As a side-note, apparently this is a common characteristic for ballparks, because at Turner Field, the exact same song was sung at the exact same occurrence. Lets hold out for the other 7 stadiums. My dream roadtrip: 9 renditions of Thank God I’m a Country Boy. Yippee.

 

Kyle’s Souvenir of the Game: A Camden Yards “Brick Ball”. It was actually on sale and was called the item of the game around the ballpark. It pictures an almost full panoramic view of Camden Yards.

 We have a special shout out to the very nice family who sat to the left of us and a very Happy 9th  Birthday to Stephen Meyers, which I’m glad we yelled at the Orioles centerfielder Adam Jones enough to where he threw the ball up to him on a flyball third out. Unfortunately the Orioles lost 10-8 in a very close game. We then headed to the campsite at 1045 with a little bit of wetness on the way there. But that wouldn’t be the last of it.