Aaron's Trip Evaluation

Since Nathan gave a great review of the parks, I won't go into as much detail. I'll just give my rankings in a few different categories.

Best Stadium ranking
#1 - Camden Yards, Baltimore. My favorite of the four parks. Had the feel of an older park. The vendors and the warehouse behind the outfield just made it that much cooler.
#2 - PNC Park, Pittsburgh. Smaller ballpark and the outfield bleachers were pretty much level with the playing field - you felt really close to the play. Very nice stadium and it backed right up to the river. You could see the bridge behind center field - very cool.
#3 - Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia. Nice stadium; reminded me of Busch. Pretty standard, modern baseball stadium.
#4 - Washington Nationals Park, D.C. Nice stadium as well. Another pretty standard baseball stadium. What was noticeable was how clean the stadium was; most likely due to low attendance.

Best Game ranking
#1 - Cards beating Phillies. Somewhat biased, but the Cards beating Philly at Philly was great for Nate and I. It was a sold out crowd with the added bonus of a joker running out on the field in the 7th inning and getting tased. Oh, and Nate and I both wore Cardinal gear and the fans were fine - no one really gave us a hard time which was classy.
#2 - Orioles beating Red Sox. Great game with the home team winning in the 10th.
#3 - Pirates beating Cubs. Smaller crowd but the Pittsburgh fans in attendance were really into the game.
#4 - Nationals beating Braves. Small attendance and not much excitement in the crowd. Still was a good game to watch with Dunn and Heyward hitting home runs.

Best stadium food ranking
This was the hardest one because I had great food at every stadium. I could easily say 4 way tie but I'll try to rank them.
#1 - Primanti Bros. sandwich in Pittsburgh. Capicola sandwich with cole slaw, fries, and tomato slices on Italian bread. Yes, the sides (cole slaw and fries) are on the sandwich and it tastes great. The most original which is why it gets #1.
#2 - Boogs BBQ in Baltimore. Pulled Pork sandwich with baked beans and cole slaw. The pulled pork was a dry rub and tasted great. Nate and I didn't even realize you could add BBQ sauce at a separate condiment table. Even without the sauce, I still give it the #2 slot.
#3 - Tony Luke's cheesesteak in Philly. I'm not a huge cheesesteak guy, but this sandwich was fantastic. You can see the pic of Tony, Nate, and myself all chowing down on one of these sandwiches.
#4 - BBQ at Washington. This park didn't have any famous vendor like the others but wow, was this good BBQ. Don't let the #4 slot fool you. A BBQ beef sandwich with potato salad. Plus grilled corn on the cob dripping with butter still in the husk. Good stuff

Best sights to see
No way to rank these since most have meaning to our nation's history so I'll just list the sights I enjoyed.
- Lincoln Memorial. Sitting on the steps looking out at the reflecting pool with the Washington Monument in the distance .... awesome.
- World War II Memorial. There were many veterans there the day we saw it - very moving.
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. Again, very moving to see all the names of those who sacrificed.
- Constitution and Declaration of Independence at the National Archives
- Arlington Cemetary
- Liberty Bell and Independence Hall in Philadelphia. We had a short tour at Independence Hall which was extremely interesting.
- Rocky steps in Philly. Doesn't quite have the meaning of the sights listed above, but was still fun to run up the steps.
- Inner Harbor in Baltimore. Very cool place to experience dowtown Baltimore.