If you don't like the weather...

Sightseeing in 100-degree heat.  Sigh.  The intrepid travelers set off fairly early Thursday morning, hoping to avoid the worst of the heat as we traipsed from monument to memorial.  Lincoln, Jefferson, FDR, MLK, Washington, WWII, Vietnam, Korean, we saw them all, on foot, in a continuous sort-of loop.  There’s a reason most people do this on an air-conditioned tour bus.

We need to start vetting the people who offer to take our picture to find out if they understand the concept of "center."

Memorials offer a photography challenge: some, like the Lincoln memorial, are such pure landmarks at this point that grinning like a loon for photos seems natural and appropriate.  But what does one do at the more somber affairs, like the Vietnam War memorial?  Clearly, standing next to a wall commemorating fallen soldiers is not the time for “Cheese!”  Mostly, we don't take many pictures by them.

The inside is closed right now. :-(

The newest memorial, Martin Luther King Jr.

Anyway, after our marathon memorial morning, we set off for some museums.  We briefly dropped in to the American History Museum for some cultural icons (the star-spangled banner, the ruby slippers…).  Dustin saw more than I did because the chairs in the nice air conditioning looked pretty inviting at this point. :-)  We then hit the National Gallery, which had more interesting artwork than either of us had realized.  We stayed for hours before heading off for dinner with our hosts, Tom and Kate.

Of course, we have to find a Van Gogh. (This is a Skye moment.)

Of course, we have to find a zoo. (This is a Dustin moment.)

Friday brought the National Zoo, which was also nicer than we realized it would be.  For the most part, everything in D.C. was free and exceeded our expectations.  Score.  After the zoo, we drove to Baltimore, where we hit sites both literary and sports-related before the Orioles game.

Edgar Allan Poe grave/monument (Skye moment)

Babe Ruth's birthplace (Dustin moment)

We got to Camden Yards a couple of hours early – it’s the 20^th anniversary of the ballpark, and with its storied place in stadium lore, we enjoyed having lots of time to explore and check out exhibits on the park.  We found things much as advertised - it's a nice merging of modern convenience and old-fashioned charm.  Dustin awards it an A- or maybe an A.  (He isn't specifying reasons, I think we've moved to holistic grading at this point.)

Steak, cheese, and fried egg sandwich (Skye moment)

Natty Boh beer (Dustin moment)

We spent much of Friday anxiously checking weather reports due to impending storms, and sure enough, the game was delayed due to area thunderstorms.  We have some kind of luck, though, because this was the one game where we had seats under an overhang, which served us well throughout the rain.  They showed a commemorative video of the first season at Camden Yards during the delay, so it wasn’t a total loss. 

It was a touch windy.  The grounds crew was seriously struggling here - at one point, they completely lost half the tarp!

Note the fortuitous overhang.

The game finally (thankfully) got underway after about an hour and was quite enjoyable – we got to see the Nationals again (we’d seen the Orioles play the Mets earlier in the week, too… it’s like catching up with old friends at this point…).  The fans were good - they all holler the Orioles' "O" during the anthem ("OOOO say does that star-spangled..."), which earned disapproving looks from the patriotic Nationals fans.  Heh.  This was another well-pitched affair, with a final score of 2-1, although the one Washington run came on an error.  This now makes for 11 out of 12 baseball road trip home victories, so we’re still pretty good luck for everyone except the Yankees.

Next: Philadelphia for our 5th game in 6 days!