Day 2 - FanFest and the Futures & Celebrity Softball Games

We awoke on Sunday morning with anticipation of going to FanFest.  After our experience on the subway, which was not too bad the night before, we looked into using Uber.  We had never used an Uber before and to be honest, I had some reservations.  My brother Joe and his family just got back from NYC and he told me how he had paid $60 for an Uber ride.  So, just out of curiosity, I looked into it.  I had downloaded the app on my phone and punched in the location we wanted to go to and the location of where we were and voila!  We could take an Uber ride to the Convention Center for around $7.00.  Wow, that was cheaper than the subway.  So with the punch of a few keys on my phone, there was a car waiting outside our apartment in about 5 minutes and it took us to FanFest.  I was impressed with Uber and we would use it several more times.
Now I had no idea really what to expect but, was I pleasantly surprised!  It was like a Baseball Disneyworld!  There were so many cool things to see and do for young and old.  And you never knew who you might run into.

At the entrance of Fan Fest

Boys getting some fielding work in

Trey getting some swings in

Getting autographs from Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry

There were Hall of Famers there signing autographs as well as vendors giving away promotional items and there were the experiences, which the boys really liked.  For example, they had pitching machines where fans young and old could participate in hitting, fielding, and throwing games.  There were all kinds of exhibits showcasing baseball history, Negro League history, Minor Leagues history.  There was so much to do that we knew just one day there would not be enough.  We decided we needed to squeeze in another day at FanFest.  More on that in another post.  As we left FanFest, we were walking to the subway station to get to the ballpark when we were stopped by someone working for Chevrolet and they were running a "Grab a Chevy" promotion.  They asked us if we wanted a free ride to anywhere within a 5-mile radius.  We told them we were on our way to the Ballpark and they offered us a ride in a new Traverse, which was really nice.  And they gave us each a free 20 oz. Coke since Coke was partnering with Chevrolet on that promotion.  Score!  Free ride to Nationals Park and a free Coke!
My first impression of Nationals Park was pretty favorable.  It is in great shape.  It doesn't have the nostalgia that some have, but it kind of ranks in the middle of the pack of all the MLB stadiums I have been to.
Later in the afternoon at Nationals Park, we decide to attend the MLB Futures Game.  Originally we had decided not to go to this event but our youngest son Tate wanted to go to the Celebrity Softball game, so we looked into it.  I used TickPick to find some pretty reasonably priced tickets and we went.  It turned out to be a really cool event. 

Tate at the Futures Game, our first time at Nationals Park - Stadium #14 for the boys!

In the Futures Game, many of MLB's top prospects participated in a game of young players from the US vs. young players from around the World.  It was a pretty exciting game.  We even got to see two of the Atlanta Braves top pitching prospects, Kyle Wright and Touki Toussant.  Both played very well and in the game, there was a new record of 8 homers that were hit which doubled the previous record of 4.  That is always a good indication of how entertaining the event was for the boys.
After the Futures Game, there was the Celebrity Softball Game featuring people like Jamie Foxx, Disney Star Skai Jackson, Washington Wizards star John Wall, Washington Redskins star Josh Norman, as well as MLB legends like Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, and Bernie Williams among many others.  As an added bonus, we were entertained by D.J. Diesel a.k.a. Shaq.  It was an entertaining day and the boys enjoyed it.  So we left the park and again we used Uber.  Not bad even though the driver was not very chatty.  We got back to our apartment and crashed to get ready for the next day.

Day 1 - Baseball Trip 2018 - Here We Go Again - #14 Nationals Park - The Midsummer Classic - The MLB All-Star Game!

It’s been three years since our last big baseball trip when we traveled around the Great Lakes to take in Cincinnati, Detroit, Toronto, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. And that brought the total number of stadiums for the boys to 11. Two years ago we went to Florida and saw Miami and Tampa Bay, which were sandwiched around a cruise to the Caribbean. 13 down. Last year we decided to take a year off from the big mission and we just visited our beloved  Braves and their brand new stadium - SunTrust Park (which is pretty spectacular by the way).  The year off, if you can call it that, was so we could get ready for the next big adventure, and that was to try to get to the MLB All-Star Game.

Four years ago we started on this journey to see as many Major League Baseball Stadiums as we could. In 2014, we took an unbelievable trip to Cooperstown to see the Hall of Fame induction ceremony where 3 of our beloved Atlanta Braves were enshrined - Bobby Cox, Greg Maddux, and Tom Glavine among others. And on that trip, we went to stadiums in Philadelphia, Boston, both in New York, and Baltimore. We were supposed to go to Washington but by the time we were ready to go there, we were so tired we decided to skip that one and come home. My lovely wife (and event planner/coordinator) Tammy, who is always planning for the future discovered that the All-Star game in 2018 would be played in Washington D.C.  She said we could see that stadium when we go to the All-Star game!

Now, I remember thinking at the time that, Yes! That would be so amazing. But then I started thinking that our last name is not Rockefeller or Vanderbilt. There is no way we could afford that. Thus, the year off.  And I guess this is where I had underestimated our C.F.O. (Tammy) and her ability to budget properly to make this happen.  So here we are.  It's 2018 and we have done it.  We have done the research, pinched and saved our pennies and yes, we are headed to Washington D.C. for the All-Star Festivities.
So we started early, or should I say Tammy got started early on the planning.  We booked a week long stay at a basement apartment in the Capitol Hill section of D.C. on Airbnb.  It turns out the place was very adequate even though parts of the neighborhood were pretty sketchy, but I'll elaborate on that in a later post.  We purchased our tickets for the 89th MLB All-Star Game on StubHub and the tickets to the Home Run Derby on Vivid Tickets.  Now, as I eluded to earlier, we are not the Rockefellers and these tickets were not cheap.  And so now college is no longer an option for Trey and Tate but hey, we are making memories, right?  So we packed up the Minivan and headed out on Saturday to the nation's capital.
We arrived in D.C. around 4:00 in the afternoon and I had planned for us to see some of the sights and maybe see some of the monuments at night since they take on a different look and it is much cooler.  After we find our accommodations and get settled in, we decide to head into town to see the monuments.  We walk four blocks down to the nearest METRO station and purchase our cards to ride the subway (yes, it was obvious that we were tourists trying to figure out how to operate the ticketing machines).  Now they say D.C. is a walking city, but I had no idea we would have to do SO MUCH WALKING!!

Tate at the Lincoln Memorial

Trey and Tate in front of the Capitol

I think that night we walked 4 or 5 miles trying to see as much as we could.  We walked from the Capitol down across the mall past the Smithsonian buildings to see the Washington Monument, caught a glimpse of the White House.  Then headed to the World War II Memorial on our way to the Lincoln Memorial past the Korean War Memorial.  Then went to the Jefferson Memorial and back to the Subway station.  Needless to say, we all slept pretty well that night as visions of the next day's events were dancing in our heads - and that was to go to MLB FanFest at the Washington Convention Center.