Geography can be a mysterious subject. Take, for example, the distance between Washington DC and Philadelphia PA. When you look at a map, it seems that the distance between the two is the same irrespective of which one is your starting place, and which one your destination. But…..through years of observation, I have concluded that this is just not so.

Going from Washington to Philadelphia is a major excursion, something you do if you have family living in Philadelphia and you haven’t seen them in a long time (you wonder why they chose to live so far away) or maybe if there is a special art exhibit (or flower show, I guess). You do it rarely.

But going from Philadelphia to Washington is like driving to the grocery story. You do it at the drop of a hat. You don’t even think about it.

Take yesterday, for example. Even though we only have tickets to 8 or 9 Nationals games, our first 2 games were the team’s first 2 games of the year, against the Phillies. The Opening Day game where the announced crowd was a sellout of 41,500, and yesterday’s attendance was announced at about 38,500. Well, truth is that (I would bet) over half of those at the stadium, especially yesterday – a Saturday, rather than a Thursday, were Phillies fans. I guess some of them live in the DC area, but many (most? I don’t know) took the short drive down from Philadelphia. Our seats are in the second deck on the third base side. That’s the visiting dugout side (it’s also the shady side). I would guess that Phillies fans on that side outnumbered Nats fans at least 2 to 1, maybe even 3 to 1.

And this is not an unusual phenomenon. For the 20 years that the Nats have now been in Washington, massive Philadelphia fans have filled the stadium. And it’s not only the stadium (this should be obvious), it’s the restaurants and bars and streets surrounding the stadium, and its the Metro going to and from the Navy Yard/Nats Stadium station.

And it isn’t only at the baseball games. We used to have Washington Capitals tickets through my office when I was working, and it was the same when the Flyers came to town. And you know it must be the case when the Super Bowl champ Eagles come, and probably when the Warriors are here as well.

But have we ever gone to Philadelphia to see the Nationals, Eagles, Flyers or Warriors play? Of course not. It is just so far away.

At any rate, the first two games have not been auspicious for those of us here in Washington. The Phillies are a better team, thanks to the three ex-Nats who are their stars at the plate: Bryce Harper, Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber. But other than that, on paper, our teams are probably not that different. We had two very strong outings from our starting pitchers (MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin), but our relief pitchers, starting in the 6th inning when the game was 2/3 over allowed 16 runs in the first two games. I can tell you one thing: if your relievers allow an average of 8 runs a game, your season is going to stink. You don’t have to know anything about baseball to know that.

Oh, well, let’s move on. I haven’t said much about food recently, because we hadn’t eaten out much since returning from our vacation. Two weeks of three meals a day at restaurants will have that result. But now we have had two very good dinners (Thursday and last night), so let’s give credit where credit is due. The first was at a restaurant called Mi Vida, located at 7th and G NW in the former Rosa Mexicano spot, right at the south Gallery Place Metro entrance. While I am told that the guacamole was too salty (I don’t eat guacamole, or anything else made with avocado), the two entrees we got were very, very good. I had the fried cod tacos, and Edie had what they called enchiladas rancheras, which consisted of open-face enchiladas smothered in vegetables and a rich sauce. There are three Mi Vidas in DC, the others on 14th Street NW and on the Wharf. You should try it.

Last night, we ate a Via Roma, which I would call a neighborhood restaurant on Connecticut Ave NW, near Calvert Street in the Woodley Park neighborhood. It is a unique restaurant in that it calls itself a pizzeria, but it doesn’t serve pizza (no, I don’t understand that, either). It serves what it terms “pinsa”, which is a Roman (not only 2025 Roman, but Time of Caesar Roman) dish which is pizza like, but does not use a dough which you throw into the air, but a dough which you press and then let ferment for three days before topping it and heating it. This makes an extraordinary crust, and the toppings on the pinsa we shared (including, if I recall, pesto, black olives, artichoke hearts, red peppers and cheese) were also perfect. If you only have that Pinsa via Romana, you will get out of the restaurant for $19 plus tax and tip. We added an anchovy and buffalo butter appetizer (you read that correctly) and two glasses of Lambrusco Secco, and made it a party.

One more thing about these two restaurants. Excellent service at both. And that is important, especially since both came right after our relief pitchers allowed 16 runs in two games. Or have I already mentioned that?