Our Nation’s Capital and More

We spent the next leg of our trip staying with our friend from college, Nick, in Alexandria, Virginia, which is just a Metro ride from Washington, D.C. Since Gigi knows my dad’s name is Nick we had to tell her that this was a new Nick, not Papa. We all got a kick out of hearing her call him “new Mick.”

We got to see the historical landmarks that we  saw as a kid (5th grade for me and 8th grade for David) but of which we didn’t really remember much. Seeing the war memorials is pretty impressive. The new WWII memorial was really cool (we saw it at night) and made me think of my grandpa and we also saw the Iwo Jima statue at dusk which was neat. We didn’t go to the Vietnam Wall this time (didn’t want to have to try to keep Gigi quiet at such a solemn place) but wanted to give a shout out of thanks to David’s dad and Angelina’s dad for their time served in Vietnam (side note: oddly enough, they both went out of the same internment center in L.A.).

A major rain storm prevented us from seeing the Capitol building other than a drive-by photo op and also gave us quite a rain delay at the Nationals game we went to, but otherwise we had pretty nice weather and were able to do a lot of sightseeing and even go to the National Zoo, which is free!

We left Washington, D.C. to make a quick stop in Baltimore, long enough to walk around the Inner Harbor and go to an Orioles/Mariners game. As usual, there were many local Japanese fans there to cheer on Ichiro.  One of the recognized Orioles players’ number is shown below, #5, Brooks Robinson. You may be wondering why David has the sad face– my dad has a glove that was our old neighbor’s which is autographed by Brooks, but my dad (and our neighbor before him) has always played catch with it! David likes to give my dad a hard time about it–  I think he believes the glove should be in a glass case or something.

After the Baltimore game, we made the insane drive from there up to Poughkeepsie, New York, arriving around 2:30 a.m. to crash my parents hotel room. This might sound like an extreme drive, but it was worth it for a free night’s stay (thanks, Mom and Dad!) and to get to see my cousin’s graduation the next morning! We were so proud of Breanna as she graduated with her Bachelor’s from CIA– and no, I don’t mean she’s a spy. She graduated from the Culinary Institute of America! We had a delicious luncheon and got to tour the campus a little, and it is a beautiful place, right on the Hudson River. (Pictured below is me with my cousins, Breanna & Marissa.)

From there, we drove back south to New York City! More on that later, but for now, here are some photographic links for you!

• Alexandria, VA
• Washington, D.C.
• Games: Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles
• CIA Graduation

Tagged as: baseball road trip, family, friends, travel