Wednesday, June 7

This was the first day we could really see the smoke from the Canadian wildfires in DC. It looked a bit hazy Tuesday, but Wednesday morning you could really see the haze.

We both got two eggs over easy and home fries, but I got turkey sausage and Josh got corned beef hash. It was really good; you can’t pass up typical diner food, especially breakfast.

We hopped on the Metro at Crystal City and took it to the Smithsonian stop. Our first museum of the day was the National Museum of Natural History. Again, we ran into a bunch of school groups. A museum volunteer asked what we thought of the exhibit so far, and we said it was great; he said he’ll get visitor feedback during his shift and then write up a report after.

This museum has two floors, and we got through the first floor and half of the second before we went for lunch. The first floor was pretty cool with a section on fossils, the ocean, human origins, and mammals. We decided we’d go back to see the other half of the second floor either that day or the following day.

Our lunch was at Ella’s DC, which was about a 10 minute walk from the museum. We were seated right away and ordered a Caesar salad and pepperoni pizza to split. The pizza was thin crust and slightly burnt, and it was really good.

Ella’s was right next to the American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery, so we decided to stop by there. We walked through some of the first floor, but I was looking forward to the second floor and seeing the America’s Presidents section. This is where all of the presidents’ portraits are. 

And I was on the hunt for Richard Nixon’s. We didn’t see his hanging up in the East Wing of the White House—it’s probably hidden out of shame—but I knew he’d be in the presidents section at the portrait gallery.

Here are a few others I took pictures of: Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington.

On our way out, we saw this painting of Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor.

After the museum, we stopped into Washington Welcome Center to get some souvenirs. I got a crew neck sweatshirt for myself, a mug for my mom, and a coaster for my dad. Josh got a t-shirt and a shot glass. Then we headed back to the hotel to drop off what we bought and so I could grab my clear bag for the Washington Nationals game. We took the Metro from Metro Center to Crystal City.

We had some time to hang out in the hotel before we left for the Metro around 4:30 p.m. By this time, I figured out what Metro lines we needed to take and where we needed to get off to get to the game: take the yellow line in Crystal City to L’Enfant Plaza, get off there, hop on the green line, and get off at Navy Yard-Ballpark. When we got on the green line, we knew were in the right place because everyone was wearing Nationals gear.

We walked around by the water, which was right near the Navy Yard. The gates opened at 5:30 p.m., and we were sitting on the first base side, so we lined up at that gate. It didn’t seem too crowded when the gates opened, like we were one of the first few people inside, and by the time the game started, the stadium wasn’t even half full. (According to the box score from that game, attendance was just over 18,000.)

The Nationals were playing the Arizona Diamondbacks. Neither of us really cared who won, but we figured we should root for the Nats.

We got beers and hot dogs before going to our seats. For some reason, the beers only came in 25oz cans, and the food was a self-serve kind of set-up, like you grabbed what you wanted and then checked out yourself on a tablet. 

Our seats were up in the third tier, and this picture was taken before we were moved—twice.

Okay, so. We got to our section early and just finished eating when a very large group of students started coming up into our section. They had tickets for a bunch of rows behind us, but it already seemed like it was going to be chaotic. The seat attendant for that section came up to us and said if the kids were causing too much trouble for us to let her know and she’d move us. We said okay, and then about five minutes later after more of the students were coming up, she came over and said she’d just move us then.

She passed us along to the other seat attendant in the next section over, and he sat us in his area. They ended up moving another couple from our original section over to where we were, too. We were in those seats for about five minutes before another group of students came into that section. We were moved one final time to the section to the right.

If we had to get moved again, we were going to ask if we could go down with the dogs in the lower section. It was Pups in the Park night, and we did see a few dogs down on the concourse when we were walking around, but from where we were sitting, we couldn’t see any of the dogs. I dropped the ball on that one with picking our seats.

In our new section, it was pretty calm. It filled it as the first few innings went on, but there weren’t any big groups around us. So shoutout and thanks to Lisa and James for looking out for us.

They also had the US Marine Band and the UK equivalent, both of which played during the pre-game ceremony, and it ended with a fly-over.

In this picture, you can really see the haze over the sun. Toward the end of the night, it looked like some of the smoke was hanging in the park.

We got another round of beers—I opted for this seltzer—and pretzels mid-way through the game.

Abe Lincoln won the Racing Presidents run, and I got to see a bullpen cart in action! Unfortunately, none of the bullpen pitchers used the cart, but it still drove out every time there was a pitching change.

During the ninth inning, it was getting incredibly buggy up where we were sitting, so we walked down to the level below and sat in seats right off the concourse to finish watching the game. The Nationals lost 6-2, and after hitting the bathrooms, we walked back to the Metro; we took the same lines we did going there, just in reverse.

Total step count: 19,776

Total miles count: 7.91