
I wandered down to
Nationals Park last night to take in the atmosphere of not only the four new eateries, but also the return of Ryan Zimmerman. It was a healthy crowd (26,700+), and only about half of them seemed to be in line at Shake Shack and the other new food concessions (though by later in the game, the non-Shake Shack options had no lines).
I took
another slew of photos (since the
original batch from Monday's preview event proved to be pretty popular) mainly trying to get shots of these new "
iconic" ballpark features from various angles, along with a few other shots of interest. As you can see in the shot at right, you can look at Blue Smoke and Box Frites with the
Yards Park "iconic" pedestrian bridge and Navy Yard riverwalk directly behind, or with an
east-of-the-river vista. I also grabbed a view of the
progress on the bridge between Diamond Teague Park and Yards Park, my first shots of Das Bullpen, and both the sunset and the moonrise. And they would have all been even better if I had brought the official JDLand DSLR camera and not my less-than-fabulous point-and-shoot.
Browse the gallery, and then mock me for leaving in the top of the 7th inning.
* On Sunday morning a group of volunteers descended on the empty lot just east of the
Velocity condo building to turn it into a
demonstration rain garden. It's a project of the DC chapter of the
Surfrider Foundation, and is being funded by
REI and the
Cohen Companies (developers of the block), among others. They are having a meeting at Velocity on June 20 at 6 pm to discuss the project, and there will be another work day on the site on Saturday, June 25. The
project's blog has photos and a lot of details; it's officially named the David Stemper Memorial Rain Garden, in honor of a
Surfrider volunteer who passed away in 2010.
* The
BID says that the next
Truckeroo food truck festival at Half and M SE will be on Friday, July 15.
* Last week CSX
sent a letter out to residents who live near Virginia Avenue introducing the plans to rehab the Virginia Avenue Tunnel. (It was probably quite useful for people who don't read JDLand!)