when will you be in Washington? We HAVE to meet up then.
8-23: Washington, D.C.
8-24: Washington, D.C. - Shenandoah National Park - Roanoke
I really should read the meet-up threads more often and carefully. I’m around these dates if you’re interested. 
Totally! We’d love to!
There’s another thing, though, and this goes out to everybody:
My girlfriend is dying to go to a real American Football game. Which is why I spent like five hours last night checking and re-checking NFL schedules against our itinerary. The way I see it, the only chance for us to catch an NFL game is in Washington on the 22nd of August (Redskins vs. Steelers), which is a pre-season game and we were just looking to get the cheapest tickets, which were around 40$ - which in itself seems ludicrous enough, since it’s a pre-season game and the cheapest tickets are still THAT expensive? Shouldn’t they be, like, grateful that people wanna show up for a pre-season game AT ALL? I don’t really have much experience with NFL anything, I’m more of a baseball fan myself and went to a couple of Reds games during my student days in Northern Kentucky, but anyway, I would have been more than happy to spring for those tickets to fulfill her dream, but handling&shipping the tickets to Germany is actually MORE expensive than the tickets themselves and there’s a line right there that I’m not willing to cross and that’s when the cost of shipping is higher than the actual thing itself. I still don’t get why they don’t offer the print-at-home option, I bought tickets for a minor league baseball game, Salem Red Sox on AUG 24 and even they offered print-at-home. sigh
So, I guess no NFL games for us (the Titans, Saints, 49ers and Jets all don’t play when we’re in town) - unless someone from the Washington area might want to accompany us to that particular game and get the tickets for us?
Or, if anyone knows about any minor league games that happen to take place when we’re in town, please let me know, you’d make the GF really happy. College, even high school football would also be totally alright with us.
Don’t forget that the Steelers are 6 time and current Champions!!!
Here we go Steelers! Here we go! (waves Terrible towel)
Have a look at http://www.stubhub.com/washington-redskins-tickets/
you maybe able to sort out tickets for that game.
Inquiry:
We’ll be arriving at Newark at around 1PM, I figure it’ll take about 1-2 hours to pick up our luggage, pass through customs and get the rental car.
Our hotel, though, is in Wayne, NJ. Now, we’re currently planning to go see Manhattan before going to the hotel.
Now, I’ve studied bus&train schedules, but the way I see it (and tell me if I’m wrong) is that the best way to get to Manhattan is to drive from Newark Airport to Liberty Park, leave the car there and take the ferry to Pier 11 and then in the evening, take the ferry back to Liberty Park and drive to the hotel.
Tell me if this sounds about right?
Yeah, we bitch about it too. Problem is that football here is as popular as… well, football there. And our guys only play sixteen (real) games a season. Half of them out of town. So demand tends to make the prices nutty. A lot of teams sell a “Personal Seat License” which is a license that allows you to buy a season ticket!
Sadly, I believe you’re going to be too early for college ball. Redskins are your best bet, and as was mentioned, they’re playing the (hated) champs. (Even if it’s not for real and they’ll be running their third string players most of the game.)
Actually you could take the train from Newark to Manhattan then train back to the airport and pick up the car there. But you won’t have anywhere to put your luggage. Granted you will then have to drive back north from there to get to Wayne, but you could find another hotel further south, which will put you on your way the to Baltimore.
If you stay in Wayne you will pretty much be driving back past the airport when you leave out in the morning.
If you need help with the NJ transit schedules let me know - I take them all the time from here to NYC.
NJ Transit - www.njtransit.com - look at train schedules and it will give you the choice to get schedules from stop to stop
A good one for the subway/trains in NYC - http://www.hopstop.com/ - lets you put in the address and tells you what trains to take. But also includes DC, San Francisco, Chicago.
Hm, I see. Well, our (major league) football season also runs for only 18 home games per team, but they also play the National Cup and various international championship, so most top-tier teams play twice a week (which is called an “English week”), plus we have a plethora of minor leagues to keep people occupied.
(Even if it’s not for real and they’ll be running their third string players most of the game.)
That makes me even more happy that we didn’t get the tickets. No, I’m really looking forward now to that baseball game in Salem, I’m all for small-town-experiences, it just feels a little more authentic and real than those hyped-up and commercialized major league events, at least to me it does.
Thanks! I actually considered those exact two options before posting. Both would be more expensive and take longer than the ferry - all I need to know is if the parking lot at Liberty Park is big enough for us to get a spot on a Friday late afternoon. And sadly, the hotel in Wayne is a fixture, we booked the whole trip as a package (because it was really cheap that way) and yeah, no way to change that now.
For an individual game, I highly recommend minor-league ball. You’re quite right, it’s the real deal. (Following a season is problematic, b/c of the call-ups to the higher leagues, etc.) Is that Salem, Virginia? That’s a Red Sox affiliate, so not a bad team to be looking at. Do you know how to score a game? Damn, that’s a dying art, but a fun one.
Going to a baseball game is definitely a (US) American experience - one I’m hoping to get spouse to in the future. It’s good that you guys are going to one 
I’m not a huge fan of the sport, but I love the experience of being in the crowd.
Well, I know the basic rules of baseball, pitcher, batter, bases, loaded bases, stealing bases, grand slam, homerun, etc. - is that what you meant?
I wasn’t much of a fan either, until I went to a live game. That made a huge difference. Do it, and if you find it at all interesting, learn to score a game. That’s an entirely different experience. It’s almost like RPGing a game.
And yeah, Baseball and (Gridiron) Football are both weirdly USian, in very different ways.
(Basketball is Soccer turned on its head and played inside. :P)
That’s part of it, but there’s this whole art to keeping score on a scorecard (you can normally obtain one with the game’s program.)
I can’t do it justice, so I’ll just point you to the WikiP article. The thing you have to remember is that everyone develops their own ticks. What’s important to keep trak of? How is the square made to represent a diamond? How do you handle odd situations (e.g., “Struck out, safe at first.”) etc. (I remember looking at books kept by scorekeepers in a museum and thinking “That’s wrong…”)
I highly recommend anyone attending a game to try to keep score. Depending on the game, you may throw up your hands (baseball is infamous for odd situations) but you will be much more invested in the game than otherwise.
BTW, For the scary beauty of minor league ball, see this demonstration of an Intentional Walk, turned Wild Pitch, turned scoring run.
GR- just saw this thread last night. What an amazing trip you’ll have. I noticed from your map that you could add an extra stop while here in AZ that you also might enjoy. South of Monument Valley, on highway 160 is the Navajo National Monument ( www.nps.gov/nava ) . There you can hike into some well-preserved Pueblo ruins. You travel past there on your way to the Grand Canyon.
Not sure if you know where you’re staying (Flagstaff is probably best) while in that part of the state. Hotels book up near the canyon VERY far in advance.
Can’t wait to read how the trip develops and I hope you update from the road.
Thanks for the heads-up, I think I already had the Navajo National Monument in the back of my head, I must have read about it in a travel guide somewhere, we’ll definitely try to go there, also Lake Powell.
As for the hotel, as I said, the travel agent is taking care of all that for us in advance, I think we’ll be staying the first night in Arizona at either Window Rock or Tuba City and then two nights at the Red Feather Lodge which seems to be right at the entrance to Grand Canyon National Park.
Yeah, it’s going to be particularly exciting for my girlfriend who’s a geography/geology major and who’s all about rock beds and rock formations and rock strata and all that. I’m a history guy, though. I just want to see The Alamo 
Anyway you can squeeze in Sedona? It’s a geologist’s (you fill in the blank) but off your planned path a bit.
Thanks for the tip, we’re both stunned by Sedona and would love to go there, I’m just not sure if it’s not too much of a detour, we want to go to Lake Powell and Antelope Canyon too …
Thanks for re-naming this thread, oh unknown benefactor. It is an apt title!
Here are some updates on our planned route.
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In New York, I want to go to Forbidden Planet.
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In Philadelphia, we’ll probably go to Independence National Historic Park and Reading Terminal Market (I’m itching for a cheesesteak!) - Not sure what to do in Baltimore, I’m interested in The Book Thing, but what else is there of interest?
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We’re absolutely undecided on what to do in DC. The National Mall is a sure thing for us to go there, but what exactly to DO there we don’t know. I’m up for the Air and Space Museum, but the non-geeky girlfriend isn’t into tech.
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We’ll drive the entire Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park.
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Instead of going to Lynchburg, we’re going from the Great Smokies to Chattanooga (Lookout Mountain for HER, Civil War Battleground for ME), then down to Huntsville Alabama (life-size Saturn V, yay!!) and then up to Nashville. We plan on getting up VERY early that day.
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From Memphis, we’ll drive through the Mississippi Delta down to Vicksburg and then take the Interstate from Jackson to New Orleans. I would love to see Natchez as well, but that might be too much for one day. What do you guys think?
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On September 4th, we’re planning on driving from Monument Valley (Window Rock, AZ) through Petrified Forest NP to Sedona and then up to Grand Canyon Village. On the next day, we’ll see sunrise at Grand Canyon and spend the rest of the at Page (Horseshoe Bend, Lake Powell, Antelope Canyon)
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Our parents keep telling us not to get married in Vegas. We’ll heed that advice.
We’re always happy about suggestion and travel tips, so keep posting!
Well Here are some suggestions for Baltimore:
Fort McHenry - a fort attacked during the War of 1812, where The Star Spangled Banner (our National Anthem) was Written
B&O Railroad Museum
Inner Harbor - shopping, also has the Constellation (a historic boat) as well as 3-4 other boat you can explore, the Science Center and Aquarium are also there. You can also take the water taxi from there to Fort McHenry
Edgar Allen Poe House - he died in Baltimore
For DC:
Monuments - WWII is a must see, Vietnam Wall, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument - all are walking distance from the Mall (or can be seen from the Mall)
White House - at least see the outside - again walking distance
Smithsonian - there is likely a museum for everything - my favorites are Natural History, American History (I am betting your gf will enjoy - there is TV stuff like the ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz and the First Ladies dresses), and of course Air and Space, ones I haven’t been in, but want to see - Native American, Holocaust Museum
National Zoo - part of the Smithsonian
Note: all of the Smithsonian has free admittance, so you can go from museum to museum with out worrying about cost.
See if they will send you the book from here: http://www.washington.org/ if not there is a lot of stuff on there - or have it sent to one of those who will be meeting with you before you get to DC.
Also for DC - become familiar with the Metro system - I wouldn’t suggest driving in DC (I don’t and I live here)