Day 1 in D.C.

This past winter has been wonderful for my roses.  They have been blooming as never before, and I had been worried about the lack of snow cover.  Here's a rose bouquet for you -

Abraham Darby rose - photo taken today



Of course, my blog today is about our first day in DC.  It was last Wednesday, and the temperature was about 100 degrees with high humidity and David had tickets to the Nationals baseball game.  We both love baseball, but it was hot!!! and I was afraid our seats would be in the sun.  I should have known better and had faith in my husband.

We did get out at the correct stop on the Metro but the wrong exit from the station.  That meant we had to walk father than necessary and I knew I would need a lot of water to get through the evening comfortably.  We had plenty of time so we didn't hurry.  David stopped at the Will Call booth to pick up our tickets and soon we were in the park.

Showing our tickets to an usher we started the walk up to our seats.  In this stadium, there are stairs, but there are also ramps which are much easier to walk up - especially in the heat.  Good design, I thought to myself.  It seemed to me we were going up a lot of ramps, though.  "Uh-oh," I thought, "we didn't get very good seats.  Looks like we're going to be quite high up - hope we can see!" 

Finally we arrived at the correct level and we walked by concessions looking for the right one for some supper.  I knew enough to bypass hot dogs, sausages, and pizza - too salty!  I'd wind up dying of thirst if I ate something like that.  So I chose chicken breast in a bun and a bottle of water for my meal.  D bought barbecued something or other and a beer.  We started to walk by section after section until we arrived at glass doors with an spiffily dressed usher standing guard.  I started to hang back and wait for D to see he'd made a mistake and turn around.  But, no, he showed our tickets to said usher and we were smiled into a "classier" section.  D found the right section and led us down to - hold on a moment - the front row????  No one in front of us????  Super view of the whole field and the scoreboard????  WOW!  D laughed and said, "Surprise!  I decided we only get to go around once and not very often to ballgames, so why not?"  They were by far the best seats I've ever had in a baseball stadium - the best by far! 

Once the game started and I began to keep score (boy, was I rusty - good thing I could see the scoreboard!) when a family with two young boys came into our row.  Oh my, I thought, there goes our private row.  But, as so often happens, the woman (Sue) noticed I was keeping score and we began to talk in between plays, of course.  Turns out that she and her family had lived in Chatham for a while but are now in Catskill.  Wait for it, it gets spookier.  Sue mentions that her husband is a furniture restorer.  Not just any furniture, but really fine antiques.  He worked on restoring the feet and legs of a New England highboy that later sold at Sotheby's for millions!  Well, now he and I started talking and he finally asked me what I did since I was so well informed.  Isn't that funny?  But do you think I could remember the title of Thatcher Freund's book?  No, of course not.

Anyway, it was a great game.  With their star pitcher right on the money for most of the night, the Nats beat the Tampa Rays 3 - 2.

And the heat didn't bother me at all.