Spending a week in one place might not seem like road trip behavior but Washington D.C. is a pretty cool place to do it. I’ve always wanted to have time to explore around D.C. and am just sorry that I didn’t schedule a White House tour far enough in advance. D.C. started with a party in Maryland with a bunch of Brendan’s friends. Mike and Emily were nice enough to put us up and happened to have both rock band and the third season of Weeds(TV show I enjoy, season I had missed) After Mike and Emily left to go on vacation, the good times moved into the city, just a few blocks away from the capitol. The Eastern Market was the area of town that we were staying in and I’m glad that we spent our time there. This area has a ton of great bars and restaurants for nightlife, easy access to the metro for tourism, and the century old Eastern Market.

This is an awesome combination of Flea and Farmer’s markets that is open every day and has been in operation since 1873. Markets like these are dangerous places for me because the food is all so good and so plentiful that I can find a reason to buy just about anything. I picked up some food for the next week or so as we’ll be leaving the couch/refrigerator part of the trip and starting to camp. Even some of the local animals were getting into it.

The Pour House and Ugly Mug were two of my favorite watering holes with really nice people to chill out with. The Mug is where I watched the Yankees come back to beat the Red Sox in slow and painful fashion. I’ll have to remember to never go there again. I met some great people at the Pour House (who’s contact info I lost) that have done a ton of traveling and have friends for us to stay with across the country. We talked about international travel as well, with one of the girls on her way to Columbia. She had roomed in college with someone from Berlin, NY which is a small town near where I grew up. She knew the names of people that I worked with and their friends…it was bizarrely cool.

Wednesday, I spent the day working on the blog before heading up to Baltimore to catch a game at Camden Yards. I had been there with my family years ago and baked in the sun. Trying to avoid that, I looked for tickets in Left Field. It was at that point that I noticed that they offered an “All You Can Eat” Section in left field. I couldn’t have been happier. $40 clams later and I was in business. The seat that I had was confusing for someone that is a Red Sox fan and has had most of their experience in Fenway Park. Not only was there room enough for both my legs, my food, my backpack and a cup-holder………..but it seemed like I was just as far away as we usually are at Sox games. This didn’t add up because in Fenway, we sit on the lower level on the first base side. My seat in Camden was on the second level up, all the way out in left field!

It was a great game to have these problems at. Daniel Cabrera, pitching for the Orioles, threw a complete game seven hitter and was close enough to see work. They were playing the Kansas City Royals and while both teams have some glaring problems and players that wouldn’t likely see everyday work on a contender, they also have some glaringly great young talent. It is exciting to see the talent that will hopefully reinvigorate two historic franchises and start to fill up an awesome ballpark like Camden Yards.

Thursday was Mt. Vernon. This is a quintessential American piece of history that I had never been to. I met some family friends, Art and Mary Linda outside the apartment in D.C. and they brought me out to Virginia. It had been too long since I’d seen them and as it is always is with good friends, the greeting was warm. Art has retired from what I think may have been the coolest job in government. He served as a draftsman for the many laws that are drawn up and passed every year. This gives him an excellent insight into politics and links well with his curiosity for American history. Talking politics and getting a mini-tour around the grounds of Mt. Vernon made this the best day of the week for me.