We got up Sunday morning and headed back down to the National Mall, to cover the half we’d missed on Saturday. We got off at the Smithsonian stop, which put us about a mile from the Lincoln Memorial. My blisters still sucked, but wearing sneakers helped. Plus it was cooler outside, so we were comfortable in warmer clothes.

I don’t think I’ve seen the WWII Memorial before, though it looked really familiar.

The water was empty because they were doing work between it and the reflecting pool.

Blue skies would’ve been nicer, but at least it wasn’t raining!

Bally continued loving America:

I always forget how gigantic the Lincoln statue is. It’s seriously impressive.

His view isn’t bad, either.

From there we walked over to the Korean War Memorial, where a Korean news show was filming a documentary about it. The announcer was awesome.

I like this memorial because it’s quiet and out of the way.

Plus it’s kind of haunting.

We passed the Vietnam Memorial, too, but didn’t stop long because we’ve both seen it before. As with the previous day, we had plans that kept us moving!

We stopped at the Einstein statue to recreate a photo Matt’s parents had taken when he was a teenager. Bally joined him this time.

I realize this makes it sound like we were only out walking around for 15 minutes, but it was really a few hours. There’s a lot of ground to cover in DC, and the west end of the Mall is poorly represented by the Metro.

The nearest station was Foggy Bottom about a mile away, so we headed that direction, into the GWU campus. We boarded a train and rode to Metro Center, then transferred to the green line with the rest of the entire Nationals fan base.

(Metro tip: if you know a train will be crowded, go to one of the end cars. They’re always slightly less packed.)

Fifteen minutes later, we all disembarked a few blocks from the stadium, down by the dockyards. It’s a pretty interesting neighborhood, and reminded me somewhat of the waterfront in Baltimore.

The stadium was really nice. It’s fairly new, and pretty similar to Target Field. I was thrilled to see that the racing presidents were hanging out in the plaza for pictures! William Howard Taft, America’s fattest mascot, was new this year, and we were pretty excited about it.

We were fairly early, so we had time to walk around and see the place. The upper level concourse was totally open, and offered great views underneath the giant screen. The best restaurants seemed to be there, too.

Matt was set on Shake Shack. We debated about it for a minute because of the huge line (as compared to anywhere else in the building), but decided it would be worth it. AND IT WAS. They even had a veggie option, which was a huge portabella mushroom stuffed with cheese. It was amazing.

After our quick lunch, we walked down a mile of ramps to the first level of the stadium. Our seats were in the last row of a section down the 3rd base line, and they were pretty great. Once it started raining halfway through the game, we were really glad to have them, because they were under the overhang.

It was Nationals-Reds, and somehow we ended up flanked by Reds-fan couples on either side. I wasn’t really cheering for anyone in particular (except for ex-Twin Denard Span), so that was fine. The game was a decisive Reds victory, and people started leaving fairly early. The rain encouraged that, too.

We headed out shortly before the end of the game, figuring the Metro wouldn’t be too crowded by then. We had to stop into the store so Matt could by a long-sleeved tshirt, because it was actually cold outside! It was a huge change from the previous day. By the time we left, though, it had at least stopped raining.

The Metro was indeed really empty, so we boarded around five, switched trains downtown, and rode up to the stop nearest Adams Morgan, a.k.a. DC’s hipster-est neighborhood. It was about a mile walk to our destination, so we were glad that the two places we’d picked for cocktails and dinner were at least right down the street from one another. Our feet hadn’t exactly recovered yet.

Our first stop was Jack Rose Dining Saloon, which had just opened at 5pm. Matt had read about their incredible whiskey selection and cocktails, and that was no joke. Three walls of the sizable restaurant were lined with bottles from all over the world, and the very expensive ones were behind bars. We grabbed seats at the bar and pondered where to even begin. With cocktails, of course!

After we finished, Matt decided it was time to sample some of the whiskeys we’d never had before. We paged through the extensive list, and decided on a few things, including a Corsair quinoa whiskey (because we’d met and loved the Corsair guys in Vegas), and a hopped whiskey from Charbay. I figured I’d hate the hops one, but it was amazing.

As usual, once we’d talked to the whiskey expert for a while, we developed some cred. It would’ve been nice to stay longer and take advantage of that, but we needed food. While Jack Rose had that, there was a BBQ place just down the block that had vegetarian options. So, basically, heaven.

Smoke and Barrel wasn’t terribly crowded at 7:30 on a Sunday night, so we got a table right away. The place used to be an old punk bar that served a lot of vegan food (much like our beloved Triple Rock), so the new owners put in a BBQ restaurant that still tried to hold true to that tradition. They did so in excellent fashion.

I ordered vegan spareribs with roasted jalapeno cheddar grits. The spareribs were fantastic, but the grits were so good I thought about making out with them (Matt would’ve been fine with it). Their beer list was really good, too, so we had a couple of those with dinner. At the end I was too full to finish my grits, which was just shy of a national tragedy. I still think about them fondly.

It was only around 9:30 at that point, but we were tired and wanted to get up early the next morning. We decided to grab beers and head back to the hotel, so we stopped at a grocery store on the mile-long walk back to the Metro. When we arrived, Matt had to go to the bathroom, so we walked around the weird shopping area there that was just shutting down for the night. We snuck into the side door of a Chipotle unnoticed, and while I was waiting for him in the hallway, an employee came barreling out of the kitchen, swearing his head off about customers. He saw me there, stopped cold, and started apologizing profusely. (There was something about how white people needed their burritos at 10pm, which was hilarious.) I told him several times it was no problem, since obviously we were there stealing the use of their bathrooms.

We hopped on the Metro and rode back to Alexandria for our traditional beers on the couch before bed. We couldn’t finish the DC Brau, so hopefully the cleaning staff took advantage of it after we checked out.

We arrived in Syracuse via Cleveland (where our plane was so tiny we got to walk on the tarmac!) around 12:30, got our car (a Kia Soul called ‘Scar’, according to the keytag), and drove to Armory Square for lunch at Empire Brewing. I had empanadas, poutine, and we split the beer sampler. Win.

We saw a bit of downtown, then drove to see the university and stop at the bookstore for souvenirs. Bally got himself a new orange friend named Otto! (Yes, I did decide to like Syracuse basketball a few years ago primarily because of the color.)

We headed east on US 20 toward Hamilton, home of Colgate University. Matt was going there for work; they have a yearly conference in the area, and he teaches a seminar about technology. We got our room at the Wendt University Inn (one of two hotels in town), met a couple of his coworkers from Boston, then drove the mile into Hamilton to find food. We ended up at a little tapas place that had weak margaritas, but awesome food.

We didn’t have cell signals the entire time we were in Hamilton. That was kind of mindblowing, considering we don’t even have that problem anymore in Matt’s hometown! It was really disconcerting to feel so disconnected.

Around 6:30, we went over to Reid Athletic Center at the university to see Colgate vs Brown!

We’d looked into tickets a few months ago and figured we could risk buying at the door, but didn’t realize how far off our expectations were. First of all, we were able to park in a lot right next to the rink, for free. Tickets cost $6 (or $12 if you wanted a reserved seat with a back). There were maybe 500 fans there. We sat in the front row. I couldn’t believe that these were teams on the same level (in the NCAA, at least) as the ones we’re used to seeing here. It was fantastic, and made me appreciate the Mariucci experience a lot. I’ll try not to complain too much when we have 8,000 fans in the building instead of a capacity crowd.

We got to see a penalty shot, too!

After the game, we went to a couple of bars in town. At that point, it was very hard to differentiate upstate from Wisconsin (in all the good ways).

We got up bright and painfully early the next day (6:30 on a Saturday? Ow.), checked out, and I dropped Matt off at Colgate. Due to the lack of signal, we had to revert to the olden days form of communication: “I’ll meet you here at 3pm. If I’m not here… well, maybe assume I’m dead, because there’s no way to get a hold of me.”

I got back on highway 20 and headed toward my 48th state, Vermont! There were 90 miles of small towns before I got to Albany, and I was nervous the entire time due to my lack of signal and very few cars around me. I decided that even though it’d be slightly farther, I was taking the interstate back.

The area east of Albany is gorgeous, and I reached Vermont around 10am. My first stop was at the tallest structure in the state, Bennington Monument:

I drove around town a little, then stopped at the general store for my obligatory Vermont souvenirs. The place was exactly as hippie-esque as I was hoping. Also, the lady behind the counter demanded that I stop in at the Crazy Russian Girls Bakery across the street before I left, so I picked up an awesome scone for myself, and a cookie to bring back to Matt. Then I was back on my way to New York!

I got into Utica before 2pm, so I had some time to kill before going back to Hamilton. I decided to find a liquor store and pick up some local beer for the evening. The first one Google sent me to was closed (what??) , so I found another one nearby. Upon walking in, though, I realized that they didn’t sell beer, just wine and liquor. I asked the guys at the counter what was up, and they said they weren’t allowed to sell beer. Most groceries had it, but the cheapest could be found at Rite Aid. I headed there instead.

Rite Aid had the cheapest, for sure: Bud Light, Coors, and Milwaukee’s Best. Not exactly what I was hoping for. I thought the booze laws in Minnesota were strange!

I drove back to Hamilton, took some pictures around town and on campus, then parked and waiting for Matt. He arrived right on time, and I went in to help him pack up. What I learned while there is that his coworkers adore him. And why wouldn’t they? They’re obviously smart people.

We packed up and headed to Oneida in search of food, but there was little to be found there. We decided to go check in and find something at our hotel instead. On the way, we stopped at a grocery store to examine the beer situation, and were delighted to find a sampler pack of Saranac there.

We were staying at Vernon Downs, a casino and harness racing track near Utica. I knew it would be entertaining, but it was even better than we’d hoped. We had a quick dinner at the buffet, then went to play video poker (they don’t have tables there). I tripled my money very quickly, which has never happened to me on those machines before. We then hopped the shuttle to the racetrack, where they were giving out free tshirts since it was the last racing of the season. Over the course of a couple hours, I won $90 on horses, too. I loved it.

We went back to the hotel, laid on our bed drinking beers and watching the racing (we overlooked the track), then returned to the casino to watch the cover band, which was being cheered on by a large group of Canadians and the Elvis impersonator who’s performing Thanksgiving weekend. Amazing.

Sunday morning, we got up at 8 and drove to Cooperstown, about 70 miles away. I’d been there as a kid, and had since forgotten how cute the town is. We had a quick breakfast at the Cooperstown diner (where the locals were all arguing about the merits of small town vs city), then went over to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

My favorite thing at the hall of fame? Joe Mauer’s sideburns!

We had to tour the museum pretty quickly because we only had a couple of hours there, but we made the most of it. The Twins displays were the best, of course. We’ll have to go back when they induct Bert Blyleven and add Target Field to the stadiums exhibit!

We did some souvenir shopping in Cooperstown, then got back on the road to Syracuse. (In case you’re considering following Google’s directions and avoiding the tollway, don’t: it’s way faster.) We arrived in town around 3pm, and headed back to Armory Square for lunch. The place we’d chosen was closed, so we ended up at Empire Brewing again. It was hard to be too sad about that.

After lunch, we drove to the airport and dropped the car off. We had flights on a couple tiny Continental Express jets again, which were fantastic. I really hope they can maintain that awesomeness after the United merger.

Since this conference happens yearly, it’s entirely likely we’ll be going back next year. I didn’t think I’d be very excited to return to upstate, but now I’m looking forward to it!

(The entire photoset is here on Flickr.)