Even though the Nationals and the Redskins were long gone, there was still an opportunity to see one of the last mid-century baseball/football stadiums. That's because D.C. United, the local soccer club, still used RFK Stadium 20 years after the Redskins left and 9 years after the Nationals left.

Throughout 2017, I had DC United's schedule bookmarked and thought about a Washington add-on to every trip. Unfortunately things didn't work out for that Phoenix-Denver one, but eventually I was simply tired of not leaving the island of Newfoundland.

I was going to work one week at home in Ontario, while using Aeroplan miles to get to Washington for the first weekend and then take a cheap flight to hop over to Detroit.

Although the National Mall ends at the US Capital, the boulevard of East Capital Street continues on the other side of the building and ends at RFK Stadium.

Taking a cab from my hotel near the main train station, my cabbie let me out early because of traffic and I still felt that Washington feeling of walking down wide streets surrounded by stately buildings, even though I was now over by the Anacostia River and giant stone buildings had been replaced with fine homes and even a skatepark.

RFK was the first of the cookie-cutter, multi-purpose stadiums built to house both baseball and football. In lots of American cities of the time, you have both sports wanting new stadiums and costs could be reduced by sharing parking lots and food/beverage delivery, as well as the savings in not asking the taxpayer to pay for two separate stadiums.

Of course nowadays taxpayers line up to chip in an extra 400, 500 or 600-million dollars to escape the atrocity of having to watch baseball or football in a shared stadium, but things were different in the 1960s, okay?

The Washington Senators played at a wooden ballpark at Florida Ave and Trinidad Avenue NE from 1901-1903, before moving to American Field II at Georgia St and 5th Ave NW.

American Field II would suffer a fire on March 17, 1911. It was decided to demolish the surviving parts of the old wooden ballpark and build a more substantial structure of concrete and steel. This new stadium was known as National Park, until it was renamed Griffith Stadium for the team's manager. It was a stadium certainly built in a different time, as the outfield wall had a right-hand turn due to five homeowners, including one with a large tree, who wouldn't sell their properties to the Washington Senators' owner.

The Washington Senators would stay at Griffith Stadium into the 1950s, but would see turmoil as their longtime owner Clark Griffith died in 1955. With low attendance numbers, mostly caused by Baltimore getting a team in 1954 and Baltimoreans no longer needing to travel to Washington to see baseball, new owner Calvin Griffith seemed fixated on moving the team to Minnesota; even as Washington was set to open a brand new, state of the art RFK Stadium.

(Later on, while speaking at a dinner in rural Minnesota, Griffith would say that he came to Minnesota because there were only 15,000 blacks there. I guess that fills in some of the gaps in his motives.)

Calvin Griffith would succeed in moving the Senators to Minnesota to become the Twins, but only because the American League granted a new franchise to Washington upon his departure. The new Washington Senators played one year at Griffith Stadium before RFK was ready for occupancy.

The Washington Redskins started out as the Boston Braves in 1932. In 1933, they moved to Fenway Park and rebranded themselves as the Redskins, but low attendance prevailed as the Chowderheads of the time didn't care for football. Moving south to Washington, the Redskins would play in Griffith Stadium from 1938 until the opening of RFK Stadium.

With both teams now leaving, Griffith Stadium declined as the field turned into a prairie, before then being used for parking for Howard University, then eventually being demolished in 1965.

The Washington Senators first 10 years at RFK were of futility and poor attendance. This led to frustration of owner Bob Short, who looked for someone to buy the team & eventually accepted an offer out of Fort Worth Texas. Short agreed to move the team in 1972 and baseball would be gone until the 2000s.

During the last Senators game at RFK, security left halfway through the game, allowing 10,000 people to simply walk into the stadium. By the 9th inning, hundreds of youths had rushed the field to steal pieces of memorabilia from the old stadium, including one youth who stole first base and forced the umpire to forfeit the game in the New York Yankees' favour.

Oh how I would love to see those maniacs in Oakland do something similar during the last Raiders game in 2020.

With the Senators leaving, RFK focused on football, and because this is when the Redskins were actually good and won three Super Bowls, the stadium became mostly known for the Skins. Regardless, the Redskins still worked for over a decade to get a new stadium with a larger capacity built, selecting several sites and having them all turned down. Eventually they would get FedEx Field built in Landover Maryland and play their last game at RFK on December 22, 1996 - a 37-10 win over the Dallas Cowboys.

That same year, following the buzz of the 1994 World Cup and 96 Summer Olympics, Major League Soccer was formed and DC United was one of the first teams, making RFK its home. While baseball would return briefly as the acquired Expos needed somewhere to play while National Park was being built, RFK has mostly stayed open and occupied because of soccer.

Soccer was the thing that was going to allow me to see RFK before it was too late.

This was also going to serve as my introduction to live soccer as I'd love to go see a Tottenham game with my English futbol-loving friends A.I. and Clarkson, but I don't care enough about soccer to go on my own, usually.

Firstly, I was surprised by how much tailgating and boozing was going on. I guess I'm just used to hockey or northern cities, or I thought the weak crowds wouldn't have enough pull for these things, but people were tailgating even in the high-end parking lot where I found myself. In addition, the long and glacial paced security lines were flanked with giant blue barrels overflowing with empty beer bottles and cans. I guess if a stadium isn't going to hire enough security, the least they can do is let you have some beer while you wait in line for 20-30 minutes. As dude after dude chugged the last bit while security tried to hurry them through the turnstile, I regretted not bringing one myself.

I pondered if fans would have the same leeway as D.C. United leaves for their new Audi Field at the end of 2017. Maybe this was only happening because of the crumbling stadium above us, the inadequate security services and the dark crevasses of this old building. It gave a feel of lawlessness and danger to the whole experience, something that is usually squashed in the new glorified malls we call stadiums nowadays.

It wasn't hard to see the crumbling concrete of the upper sections as we waited outside, but even if you missed it, there were enough people joking about it and looking up to inform you.

Finally handing my ticket stub to security, I passed through afterthought turnstiles into a dark corridor with dim lighting and all of the nearby concessions closed with their corrugated metal doors pulled down. The methodical security screening also meant there weren't very many people getting through quickly and most of them were familiar with the scene, so they hurried away into the main seating area while I stood around in the empty halls.

I was getting a very Escape From L.A. feeling from this, and I hoped Snake Plissken was nearby in case I needed saving.

This all felt like some film about a dystopian future. RFK was overkill for this soccer game and therefore felt empty, while it also hadn't seen much maintenance in decades. It reminding me of times at Detroit's Packard Plant where you see people coming and going, tucking into the decrepit building and popping out at other points, while you're also slightly on edge and overly observant.

The Oakland Coliseum had prepared me for what going to a sporting event would be like in one of these old concrete arenas, but now it felt like I was going to sporting event in the future, some future where the economy has crumbled and taxpayers can no longer build new glass palaces for the rich.

With my love of abandoned and rundown buildings, this isn't to say that I wasn't having a great time. In fact, I wished I had arrived earlier. The only thing was that I had to remind myself I was inside a professional sports stadium; so as much as this reminded me of creepy dark corridors or abandoned buildings, everything was just fine.

In the end, I ended up wandering around and gawking at the stadium so much that I didn't come to a conclusion as to whether I enjoy live soccer, but I can say that I love attending sporting events in decaying stadiums.

The game was decently attended, but I think most were real fans who didn't have much interest in going for walkabouts like in baseball. I was able to pick random places to move around and sit throughout the game, but none of them were all that close to the field.

As for watching soccer live, one thing I learned was that if the soccer ball goes out of play, apparently you don't get to keep the ball?! Boy would I have had egg on my face if I wrestled the ball away from some child to keep as a souvenir, only to have Kaká get upset with me as everyone yelled at me to throw the ball back into play.

Even though I had an early morning flight the next day, I couldn't make myself go back to the hotel just yet. I had to take advantage of being in this great city.

So I walked around and eventually found myself at a Mexican place, where I thought the waiter was giving me sass because it was upscale, but I now see Rosa Mexicano is a chain eatery and I guess I was imagining the sass.

Regardless, my chicken, chorizo & Menonita cheese empanadas and my margarita were both superb. It's funny because I would never recommend a chain restaurant, but I'd probably come back here if I was in the area.

Skipping back to my arrival in Washington, I was actually here for 2 nights and the D.C. United game was the second and final night.

One thing I lament about living in Newfoundland is the cost and inaccessibility of great American cities. I love places like Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, but the costs and time involved reduces the amount of times I can feasibly visit.

So while it might seem a bit silly to fly down to Washington just to see one of the last concrete donut stadiums, it also had been too long since I'd been in America & also too long since I was in one of America's cities that I love, like Washington.

So for weeks, if not months, I had been looking forward to getting to Washington, dropping off my giant bike bag and wandering around exploring such neighbourhoods as Chinatown.

Walking around Washington, I was prepared and already had my lunch planned out. Wanting to dive into the new ramen trend, I stumbled upon Daikaya in my research, which didn't take reservations and was opening around the time I'd be walking around - both of which worked for me.

Being only one person, I was placed at the bar and in no time I had a draft Sapporo and a Shoyu Ramen bowl, that is ramen with a very dark and rich soy sauce. And while I know Ramen gets the same criticism as Italian food in that you can cheaply consume it at home, I was more than happy paying $13 for this bowl of deliciousness. Although I like Mr. Noodles, this was definitely a step up.

There may be plenty of bland government buildings in D.C., but there are still lots of gems to be seen as well.

This is the National Savings and Trust Company Bank Building, built in 1888. It was designed by James H. Windrim, who is best known for his incredible Masonic Temple in Philadelphia.

On multiple trips to Washington I'd now found myself in the same area, so one of today's goals was to explore something new as I knew there was much more greatness to see.

Thankfully I had just seen someone on Twitter post about the Georgetown University area, and already thinking it might be worthwhile to go check out some impressive buildings upon the hilly embankments of the Potomac River, I headed over that way.

This area of Washington isn't just the university, but also the neighbourhood of Georgetown. Walking through the main strip, it was really not my scene as there were so many people clogging the sidewalks that it was hard to pass. The whole main strip was a shopping district of fancy stores like Patagonia, Sephora and Kate Spade, with people dressed like they shop in these type of places.

It was a funny thing because the buildings were still old, beautiful-maintained, little two-stories and intermittent stone homes, and I was even thinking of getting in the shopping mood, but there were just too many fancy people. I was getting that feeling where I focus on all my insecurities and feel like unwelcomed trash.

A wave of relief came as I finally escaped that street into the housing surrounding Georgetown, where everything was still on summer break and infinitely quieter. Not to mention, just as picturesque as that main shopping district.

There were lots of hills and stairs to get up to the home of the Hoyas, but Georgetown University's Healy Hall made it worth it.

Their brutalist library, located right next to Healy Hall, was also worth the price of sweat admission.

The brick corridors and ornate staircases of Healy Hall's interior weren't to be missed either.

Healy Hall is also apparently home to one of those rare, intact, cast iron libraries that you see in old pictures, and I'll sleep better at night assuming it's only open for private functions and that I didn't just simply miss it by not happening to walk by the third floor of the south tower.

For how much I criticized the Georgetown neighbourhood, I went right back there for late lunch. In addition to learning about the Georgetown hood from that random internet post, that woman I follow on Twitter also went to Martin's Tavern and it looked like the type of place that would interest me.

Most people come here because JFK proposed to Jackie Onassis in booth three and they want their picture taken in said booth. This is fine enough, but I saw a beautiful wooden bar, one of the oldest restaurants in Washington with an almost New Orleans but classy exterior, with yellow paint, green shutters and a small overhanging roof with a wall of windows. This looked like my type of place from what I saw online.

I was pleasantly surprised by Martin's as well. It wasn't all tourists, and sitting at the bar I was surrounded by old timers reading the daily news with a beer, most of them on a first name basis with the bartender. I was even given the business when I asked if the baseball game could be put on, since they all knew the Yankees were playing this afternoon and assumed I was a Yankees fan, which was sacrilege. There's few things better than some ball breaking via the east coast accent.

The one thing I knew was that the Nats weren't playing this afternoon since I was heading there tonight, because if I was going to head to Washington to see DC United, then I was going to do it on a weekend where I could also see the Nationals.

As one of my favourite ballparks, this added to the worth of the trip. I even had a good laugh after I dropped and spilled my entire beer, where then I must've looked really sad and this Asian mom offered me a consoling lollipop from the collection she had for her own child.

I guess today was the day everyone in Washington was going to give me the business! LOL.

I've been asked before if I ever just spend the money to stay in nicer places and skip the hassle of hostels or room renting or whatever. The truth is that I enjoy the odd nice place, especially on a short trip like this where I want to maximize my time and not worry too much about logistics. Plus, I was having a good time throughout the trip and it is nice to go back to a private, clean place to relax in the afternoon or at the end of the day.

There were shitty, cheaper hotels in DC, but in a city with so many options, there were deals to be had on Priceline and I loved going back to my relaxing and secure Hyatt On Capital Hill.

The hotel was worth the money, even if it felt like a ripoff when I only spent a few hours there on the last night. This is because I couldn't get a cheap flight out of Washington after waiting this long to book, so instead I took a $12, 26-minute Amtrak up to the Baltimore Airport at 535am, before taking my $63 flight to Detroit. You now know why I got a hotel so close to the train station, because it allowed me drag my bike/golf bag through the dark streets only a short distance at 415 in the Washington morning.

God I love the infrastructure and ease with which you can get around America.

Anyway, Baltimore airport was great like every other mid-sized American airport, with cheap breakfast and decent waiting areas, plus pictures of screwpile lighthouses on the walls.

Eventually I was getting on my Southwest flight with Southwest's patented seating zones, but I would win today as I grabbed the exit row seat and stretched right out. It was time for sweet, sweet dreams.

Soon enough I would land in Detroit.