This past weekend I ventured into the heart of Snowmageddon for the Capitals – Penguins game on Sunday morning. This trip was planned this past spring with no intenion of there being anything near 2 feet of snow on the ground. Early in the week we started to get word that the weather was going to be bad and then like clockwork my Saturday morning flight was canceled on Wednesday afternoon. I looked into a couple different options, Train from Chicago to DC which sold out and earlier flights were already booked or canceled. I ended up booking a train from Penn Station in New York to Washington on Saturday morning (6:45am). Then I got a flight to New York for Friday night. I got in around 10pm and proceeded with the following schedule:
10pm – Blondies
Midnight – McAleer’s Pub (ie the Krull bar)
1am – The Dead Poet
3am – The Dublin House
4am – The Green Kitchen
5am – Back to Jim’s Apartment to Shower
6am – Penn Station
7am – The Northeast Regional heading to Washington
11:30am – Union Station
To say the above was challenging is the understatement of the decade but this was just the beginning of a Epic Journey. Once we got into Washington Jim and I made our way to the Metro system and took the train out to Depont Circle where we came upon this seen:
The Escalator of Doom was not running and was covered in snow. To say this was a large escalator is an understatement. This has to be at least one of the largest and steepest escalators in the Western hemisphere. It’s 188 feet of pure burning pain but who’s counting. Needless to say it took every once of will power and agility to summit. Once we got to the top we were greeted with our first taste of Snowmageddon. From this point we began our march to the hotel down the middle of the snow covered streets.
As fate would have we actually had a relatively easy journey into the city. Meanwhile after a failed attempt to get their truck out Josh and Tom began their journey from Alexandria, VA to Washington on foot. On the Road:
All told I’m think they walked over 6 miles and there were only minor incidents of cannibalism. I think when Jim and I made it in to Washington the ball was clearly in their court. Would I have walked 6 miles in two feet of snow on the open road to see the Caps – Pens game? There is no way to ever know but they did.
The game was about as intense as a regular season game could be. The Pens gave up a 4-1 lead to fall in overtime when a questionable high sticking was called. At least they walked away with a point. Below are my pictures from the the rest of our expedition in the Nation’s capital:
*Side Notes:
*My Snowmageddon pictures are here.
** Caps – Pens pictures are here.
