We could just about call this the “perfect day”.

Abundant sunshine, nice temperatures, our great nation’s capital which hums and vibes to the beat of a real city.

There is nothing like riding the Washington Metro. You can get from any point to any point in this city quickly and efficiently, and we did the park-n-ride lot at Greenbelt and took the train into downtown, starting our day at the Newseum, a massive museum dedicated to media and journalism.

We’ll have a separate post on that experience, because it is deserving of one, but that part of the day went too quickly, and we ended up at a nice sports tavern in the neighborhood, where we reconnected with Mark Byrnes. Mark is kind of a legend here at WNYMedia, one of our most ardent and passionate writers and an unabashed Buffalo booster. Alas, perfect career opportunities in WNY have eluded him, so he has moved to the DC region to continue his graduate studies and work down here. We immediately caught up on Buffalo doings, development issues and things going on in our lives over tavern food and beer. Not to mention exchanging snark and sarcasm about all the idiocy over recent Buffalo b.s. that is choking our community. Good times, really!

Back in 2008 when the USRT first set foot at Nationals Park, the entire Navy Yard district around the ballpark was a work in progress, and I was anxious to see if the area had been transformed into the Canalside type mixed use vision that we have for Buffalo. What we found when we stepped out of the rail station and into the light was that nothing much had changed. Still lots of construction fencing, murals of “coming soon” attractions and shovels in the ground in other areas. A seedy park along the Anacostia River has been cleaned up, with portable docks and landscaping replacing a dank place where nefarious things happened after dark. And there are pockets of construction here and there, including a nice greenspace and bridge crossing a faux canal a block or two away from the ballpark. Someday this will be the coolest neighborhood in Washington. But not just yet.

Another fella we got to reconnect with in DC was Don Steiger, a road tripper extraordinaire from St. Loo. He has been traveling around to see his Cardinals and farmhands all over the country this summer, and we met up with him earlier this month at Dwyer Stadium in Batavia. In fact, we arranged for him to throw a ceremonial first pitch there and he received a team autographed baseball, a reward for his final stop in the Cardinals minor league chain. Don was full of cheer and great stories from his trip. Unfortunately, it was not a good night for his team, as the Cardinals got shelled by the Nationals 14-5.

It was an energetic and great crowd at the ballpark, as Mark said, “the largest crowd for a non-Strasburg or non-Philly game.” Nationals Park really is a pretty nice venue to enjoy baseball. After squishing through the narrow and congested concourses at Target Field last month, it was a pleasure to be reminded how comfortable a venue can be when attention is devoted to canyon wide public spaces.

So after a nightcap at Don’s hotel it was back to our own hotel in Beltsville, and today we point the car back northward. A 2PM matinee in Harrisburg and Metro Bank Park. The Harrisburg Senators are a AA team in the Eastern League. We visited there back in 2006, but since then they literally leveled their old ballpark and rebuilt an entirely new venue from the ground up. The stadium sits on an island in the middle of the river across from downtown Harrisburg and is one of the prettiest sites for such a venue. We are looking forward to seeing what they have done to the place.

You’ll find Mark working at the team store in the Verizon Center this fall, but he promises to still bleed Sabres blue and gold!

The cleaned up riverfront, right across the street from the stadium

Buildings like this will be getting a new life here at Navy Yards near the ballpark

The Yards

Imagine tacking on NEW construction and lofts atop an existing building…. From Tielman, Fisher and Goldman…. nooooooooooooooooo!