I got into D.C. on Wednesday evening and Mike greeted me in the Reagan airport. No car or anything, all we had to do was go one metro stop to get to his place in Crystal City, close to the Pentagon where you can actually see it from his balcony. Once I got in, there wasn't really any time to relax...we quickly hit the local sports bar and proceeded to drink profusely while we watched several hockey playoff games and baseball games. I love this part: We were watching the Yankees-Orioles game and I called A-Rod's first at-bat live to Mike. "3-run bomb! 3-run bomb! He's gonna work the count to 2-0 and get himself into a good hitter's count. Then he's gonna go yard," I said. A-Rod turned on a 2-0 fastball and sent it to the seats in the opposite field. I started laughing hysterically at how I actually called it. I laughed so hard that I think Mike was actually embarrassed to be around me in the bar, lol. Wednesday night was the night I'd say we drank the hardest, probably 'cause he had dumb (or genius?) idea to end with a Four Loko, haha.
Nate got in on Thursday and we had to drive to Dulles airport to pick him up, which ended up being a long 2-hour trip due to traffic congestion. Nate had brought burritos from the Senor Taco in Arizona with him that we quickly scarfed down before we headed to the Nationals-Phillies game. This was a game to remember...particularly for Nate and I. Cliff Lee was pitching and it happened to be the week I was facing Nate in fantasy baseball where he owns Lee. Of course, Lee goes and pitches a shutout with like 12 K's against the lowly Nats. I must've dropped the F-bomb at least 20 times during the game. I think the guy behind me thought I was a die-hard Nationals fan, LOL! The game was quick at 2 hours and 6 minutes of play, but it was still cool to check out the stadium, something I try to do during every vacation to a different U.S. city.
After the game, we met up with Peyman and had some drinks at R.F.D., a bar known for serving a wide variety of different beers. I was glad that we were able to have a bunch of our friends come to D.C. for this trip. My old roommate Ben also came out since he is training in Norfolk, VA and was only 4 hours away. He got in on Friday, a day that we were supposed to plan for Nate but ended up leisurely executing it. Nate wanted to see a ton of stuff around the National Mall on Friday, but we ended up making beer stops in Georgetown and the Waterfront and by the time we got to the mall, I had to go back to meet up with Ben. Nate was very displeased with Friday's outcome. :( I guess we have different goals when it comes to vacationing. But fortunately for Nate, he found time in the morning to check out more stuff that he wanted to and we would eventually find our way back to the National Mall on Sunday when Mike had a football game out there.
The weather was pretty good this weekend except for Saturday when it rained. It influenced us to stay in most of the day playing Castle Crashers on the XBox 360. We still went out on both Friday and Saturday night, which was basically the same as going out in Arizona: same kind of bars, different city. I will say however that I like the girls better here in Scottsdale and Tucson. :) I guess D.C. sacrifices some beauty for brains. ;)
There was one thing about the trip that really got to me although, and that was the allergies. From all the flowers and cherry blossoms blooming, my allergies were out of control. Ugh...
The other great part of the trip was the food, which in my opinion was highlighted by Ted's Montana Grill. It was the first time I ever had a bisonburger and I really enjoyed how juicy and tender it was. Other notable places were Hard Times Cafe, Italian Store, and Ray's Hellburger. I felt Ben's Chili Bowl was slightly over-hyped.
Overall it was a great vacation and I'm glad to finally have visited Mike since he's been out there for ~5 years already. Certainly should've visited him by now, but oops, my bad! I also guess I hadn't really started making it happen until last year anyway. ;)
