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Product: SOURCE LayoutDesk: SOU PubDate: 03-23-08 Zone: DC Edition: EE Page: RDTRIP

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N7 SOURCE 03-23-08 DC EE N7 CMYK

The Washington Post x Sunday, March 23, 2008 N7

RoadTrip Root, Root, Root for Three Home Teams

The luxury linens at Phina’s are as crisp and Cheer on the farm teams clean as a baseball player’s uniform — pregame. 83 of Cross Street Market. 695 BALTIMORE CITY 144 70 695 40 95 895 PRATT ST. 40 Oriole Park at Camden Yards LIGHT STREET 1 144 95 BALTIMORE COUNTY CHARLES At Oriole Park at Camden Yards STREET The aromatherapy honor , two orange seats products from Eddie Murray’s 500th hom George and Kate Ruth’s tavern is gone, Jr.’s 278th, which b e run and Cal Ripken SoBotanical by a shortstop. roke the record fo but Babe fans can still toast the Sultan 295 would definitely r career homers of Swat at MaGerks Pub & Grill. pass a drug test. 895 EXIT 7B 695 AY HOWARD COUNTY W RK PA 695 ON 95 GT IN EXIT 17A SH CHESAPEAKE BAY A -W E R 1 O 32 M TI L A Outfit little sluggers with baseball socks and other B 0 6 ANNE ARUNDEL game-inspired gear at Ladybugs and Fireflies. MILES COUNTY

97 WHERE: Southeast Washington, Prince George’s County and Baltimore.

WHY: The Nationals’ move, Babe Ruth’s home base and peanuts in a bag. Don’t have tickets to a game at Get a glimpse of one of the biggestNationals scorebo HOW FAR: About 58 miles from start to finish. Park? in baseball (101 feet long, 47 feet tall) fromards South Capitol Street SE. he Washington area steps to the plate . . . and hits a triple! (The crowd goes wild!) 32 Between Washington and Baltimore, baseball fans can visit not one but three stadiums (and see their teams’ home games), all with- 95 inT an hour’s drive. The trifecta comprises Nationals Park, Prince George’s MONTGOMERY 97 Stadium and Oriole Park at Camden Yards. COUNTY Find out who’s on first — and, home second of andthe Bowiethird — Baysox. at The Washington Nationals will get their first official crack at bat in their Prince George’s Stadium 3 new waterfront stadium March 30, when they play the Atlanta Braves in front of a sold-out crowd. The next day, the Baltimore Orioles will open their season (against the Tampa Bay Rays) at Camden Yards, which sits on 295 the site of a tavern once owned by the parents of Baltimore native Babe 495 95 495 Ruth. And starting April 3, you can catch the Bowie Baysox — and maybe a foul ball — at Prince George’s Stadium. PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY 450 Each stadium has its highlights. The Nationals’ venue is, well, new and much ballyhooed. The home of the Baysox (a minor league affiliate of the Y A Bowie W Orioles) features family-friendly events, such as games where you can bring K 3 R A P your dog (April 6) and meet the team (April 20). N 450 O 50 T EXIT 13 The Orioles’ park is close enough to the Federal Hill neighborhood (just G AD Lanham 301 N O I IS R H OL over the Hanover Street Bridge) that gamegoers can grab a meal before or S P A NNA W A after the event. Head to Cross Street Market, whose original structure was - 50 E EXIT 19A OR DISTRICT OF IM built in 1845, the same year the New York Knickerbockers established the LT A COLUMBIA B AK RD first set of baseball rules. Vendors sell produce, baked goods, chicken wings, 1 MOUNT O . Driver’s route Rips Deli knows how etc. — a feast more nutritious than peanuts and Cracker Jack. 50 to feed fans. Snacks — Jada Bradley include Cracker Jack 214 and brown paper bags full of salted peanuts. Road Trip maps are available at www.washingtonpost.com/ 66 214 roadtrip, as are addresses and hours of operation (be sure to check

SOUTH CAPITOL 295 95 MARYLAND before you go). Have an idea for a trip? E-mail [email protected]. VIRGINIA STREET 495 301 395 WEDNESDAY IN STYLE Escapes discovers new life in the historic Batter up at the Pancake House. The Plant your own field of dreams at the StartStartStart hereherehere 295 roadside diner flips plate-size flapjacks. family-operated Patuxent Nursery. district of Portsmouth, Va., near Norfolk.

MAP BY JEROME COOKSON FOR THE WASHINGTON POST; NATIONALS PARK BY JONATHAN NEWTON; PRINCE GEORGE’S STADIUM BY JADA BRADLEY FOR THE WASHINGTON POST; ORIOLE PARK BY TODD OLSZEWSKI — BALTIMORE ORIOLES

MediaMix A Quick Take on New Releases

TITLE BASIC STORY SAMPLE GRAB WHAT YOU’LL LOVE WHAT YOU WON’T GRADE

Falling “As I opened the door of his little Mercedes death It’s hard to imagine why anyone For all her fl aws, Merrill is disarmingly Into Manholes: A struggling-to-reform, attention-seeking coupe, I could feel steel ripping and shearing in would agree to publish such a frank about the kinds of life experi- The Memoir self-loather diarizes a life plagued by my mind, as though I was being extracted from load of immature, self-absorbed ences (creepy obsessions, drug binges, of a Bad/Good Girl alcoholism, eating disorders and a string this relationship with the Jaws of Life.” nonsense. Any halfway healthy D- By Wendy Merrill of pointless romances with unavailable men. theft) that most people would rather reader will be repulsed by Merrill’s BOOK — The author describes her exit from sweep under the proverbial rug. » G.P. Putnam’s Sons a relationship in typically melodramatic prose total lack of perspective. $22.95 — Reviewed by Sara Cardace

The best-selling author’s latest “You, the brainy, restless female, were the one The Ten-Year novel peers into the lives who had to keep your family moving forward like Never one to shy away from controversial Men and non-stroller-brigaders Nap of four New York mothers, a tank. You, of all people, were topics in her fi ction, Wolitzer dissects a modern take heed! This steeped-in-estrogen exploration By Meg Wolitzer friends who ditched their in charge of snacks.” mother’s struggle with the thorny decision of mommy-dom will hold your interest for only B Riverhead lucrative careers to stay of whether to work or stay so long. BOOK — Motherhood: a different $24.95 » at home with the kids full-time job altogether at home. — Alexis Burling a decade earlier.

The 52s “update” their The kitsch-loving Athens, Funplex distinctive strain of goofball Ga., superfreaks invite “Tentative tentacles are grabbin’ me / A little bit of Fred Schneider’s spoken, staccato The B-52s electro-boogie to circa 1995. you to “hurry up and bring your jukebox money” We’re making space-love in zero gravity” delivery goes a looong way. But you already B CD Astralwerks Still, it sounds great in the into the MP3 age with their fi rst new set of — “Love in the Year 3000” knew that, no? $18.98 car, better on the dance — Chris Klimek songs in 16 years. » fl oor.

“The bones of country music Waco Express: Jon Langford — Mekon in chief, Such Waco cow-punk classics as “Do What The 53-minute run time leaves lots lie there in their casket / Live & Kickin’ painter, anti-death-penalty activist, I Say” and “Missing Link” sound even of room for more cuts. A revelatory Beneath the towers at Schuba’s Tavern etc. — brings his Chicago-based faster and more muscular when cover version or two would A- CD of Nashville, in a black Waco Brothers “insurgent country” quintet to performed while the band is being have been nice. Maybe even pool of neglect” Bloodshot a storied Windy City watering hole. » doused with beer. Their a weepy ballad. $14.98 — “Death of Country Music” amplifi ers start at 11. — C.K.

This adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s Marc Forster’s direction bestseller follows two young boys (Ahmad Khan “I feel like a tourist in my own country.” The acting is top-notch, removes some of The Kite Runner Mahmidzada, right, and “You’ve always been a tourist here. You just especially Homayoun the story’s rougher Rated PG-13 Zekeria Ebrahimi) in didn’t know it.” Ershadi’s portrayal edges and makes DreamWorks C DVD pre-Taliban Afghanistan — The adult Amir (Khalid Abdalla) of a proud father everything a bit too $29.99 as their friendship and fi nds his return to Kabul diffi cult with a secret. » pat and pretty. country crumble. — Greg Zinman

Fred (Bill Pullman) thinks The 1997 title, fi nally Lost Highway his wife (Patricia Arquette) This is David Lynch at being released on DVD “We’ve met before, haven’t we?” Rated R is unfaithful. When his his weirdest, bringing the in the United States, has — The Mystery Man (Robert Blake) Universal wife is murdered, Fred scary, funny and inexplicable no extras, so it’s hard to A-

DVD screws with Fred’s head $19.98 » turns into another person by the fi stful. ever really get a handle (Balthazar Getty). Really. on this strange fi lm. — G.Z. Tenno can grow a three-bladed Gloomily lit and Dark Sector During a mission in a fi ctional Balkan country, throwing weapon called a glaive forebodingly rendered, PlayStation 3, Lots of the gore feels unnecessary, covert operative Hayden Tenno becomes out of his newly metallic arm, Dark Sector’s visceral Xbox 360 which doesn’t help the fact that the infected with an experimental viral weapon that which players can use to combat feels like fi ghting Rated Mature game’s standout features never seem to B- threatens to transform him into gut enemies up close or your way through a mesh into a seamless whole.

GAME D3Publisher a mindless killing machine. throw with limb-severing « dank technological — Evan Narcisse $59.99 accuracy. nightmare. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Terrorists have taken over In a new, high-tension Frequent online play earns you better weapons An online shoot-’em-up among friends PC, PlayStation 3, Sin City, and you lead the “Demolition” mode, one and armor — great for experienced players but is the highlight of this title, but the story line for Xbox 360 special forces team sent in to team of players plants a bomb a real handicap for newcomers diving in among A- solo players is equally deep and engrossing. Rated Mature clean up the town (and deal while another races to defuse it. well-armed old pros. GAME Ubisoft with a traitor in the ranks). » — Christopher Healy

$49.99-$59.99

AHMAD KHAN MAHMIDZADA FROM DREAMWORKS

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