EUROPE & DC '23 • Day 2: Washington DC

SPACE & BASEBALL

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NATIONAL AIR & SPACE MUSEUM

I was sorely disappointed last year when we visited DC and the Air & Space Museum was still closed for renovation. So this was my first museum priority for the trip!

First Moon Suit

There is so much cool stuff to see, and so many things that spark memories of watching that first moon landing in 1969. Being an astronaut and going to space seemed about the coolest thing possble to a kid in the 60s and 70s. One of my most memorable Halloween costumes was an astronaut suit my mom made. All silvery material with a store bought helmet. And lo and behold, they had my helmet on display with many other space related toys and games! It was well loved for many years!

Only a few years after we landed men on the moon, Star Wars premiered. Who could forget that fist opening scene with the Imperial Cruiser filling the screen and chasing Princess Leia's escape ship?

Even the Air & Space Museum Loves Star Wars!

To be honest, I didn't do a lot of reading in the museum. There is just too much to look at. But it was so cool to stand next to the actual spacesuits and capsules from those daring missions and ponder how we successfully landed men on the moon several times with the technology available then. It really boggles the mind.

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WASHINGTON NATIONALS

Added a new baseball park to my list today. Not that I plan on hitting every baseball park in the major leagues, but it is fun to go to a new one from time to time. I've now seen games at Yankee Stadium (NY), Shea (NY), Fenway (Boston), Nationals Park (DC), Camden Yards (Baltimore), Qualcomm and Petco Park (SD), Dodger Stadium (LA), Oakland Coliseum (Oakland), Safeco Field (Seattle) and of course Candlestick and whatever we are currently calling AT&T (Pacbell, Oracle.........) these days. So that's 12 so far. Wrigley is the only one left that I really want to make an effort to see. I imagine I'll get around to the Rockies and Diamondback parks at some point, and I should probably see the Angels play to complete the west coast parks. But I digress.

We were seating down the right field line pretty close to the field. Right at the beginning of the game, a woman 2 rows in front of us was busy taking some video of the players on the field and wasn't paying attention. The right fielder threw a ball into the stands with a high lob and it hit her right in the face. I thought initially it just got her on the bill of her cap but the next thing we knew, she had quite the nosebleed. It took a long time to get it stopped and even after she came back from first aid, it was still bleeding a bit. Hey, but her Mom did get the baseball and they came back with a bag of swag!

I had good time chatting with a couple of Mets fans that came down from NY just to check out a the ballpark and a couple games. Good baseball fans.

The Nationals Park is decent but not awesome. It doesn't have the history of the old parks, or the great design of the better new parks like Camden Yards and AT&T (Giants). The wide concourse areas commonly found in newer stadiums were great, but the design of the park is overly complicated. 4 Levels, all these cutouts between sections of the upper decks and a spectacular view of the parking garage make for a not so memorable impression.

The area around the park is really festive though, and on a beautiful night like tonight, it's great to sit outside for some beer and pizza before the game. There are lots of bars and music and people walking around and even though the park was only about half full, the fans seemed pretty enthusiastic. Lots of jerseys, chants and buzz in the crowd. They played the Marlins tonight and ended up losing in the 11th (8-5). With no vested interest in the outcome, we left after 9 with the game tied.