Visit to Nationals Park

The kids and I took advantage of the nice weather today, and prodded by the article in the Post visited the new Nationals Park.

We purposely took the (Danny) Green line there to see what that would be like. Unfortunately, the new Half Street exit at the Navy Yard metro stop is not finished yet.

We eventually walked down Half Street and were able to look at the stadium from across the street. The stadium itself looks ready. While we were there we got to see them test the fire alarms. They seem to work as the entire stadium had flashing lights going. We thought about starting an actual fire, but thought karma-wise that would not be a good idea.

I've posted some photos of our visit on the old blog.

Unlike the stadium but very much like the metro stop, the area around the stadium is a pretty serious construction site. Behind center field a new building, probably condos, is being built and the huge hole for it's parking garage takes up a city block. The big hole will be on your left when you walk to the stadium from the Half Street metro stop exit. On your right will be an even weirder site - a dreary, maroon-brick colored, block-long Metro bus repair shed/warehouse. I wonder if that's always going to be there, or will Metro sell the building and relocate. I imagine Metro would make a pretty decent profit from selling that building.

I assume everything will be cleaned up in time for opening day, but there still seems to be lots of work to be done in the next 3 weeks.

Hoops Notes

• Maryland blew a 20-point lead with 11 minutes left and lost to Clemson tonight 73-70, in College Park on Senior Night. Vazquez had 7 assists but 7 turnovers - all of them seemed to happen in the last 10 minutes of the game. Clemson was the opposite, and played loose on both ends of the floor before Oglesby hit a fade-away three with 3 seconds left to win it.
• Maryland is 8-7 with a game at Charlottesville. They are back on the bubble, and definitely need wins at Virginia and at least one win in the ACC tournament.
• The Wizards defeated New Orleans for the second time in a week behind Jam-Is-On's 28 points. That guy is a pro's pro. Hard to believe that the 'Zards will likely make the playoffs despite missing Arenas and Butler for most of the year, but not hard to believe that it is due to a great player and leader like Carolina's Antawn Jamison.