A day trip to National Harbor for a KARD Concert.

Despite having lived in Maryland for my entire life (minus the small stunt where I was in New York for college), there are so many parts of the state I have never been to before. I knew National Harbor was a thing outside of Washington DC, but I had never had the opportunity to go there before because from northeast Baltimore it’s quite a bit of a hike.

Well, my friend and I have a tendency to make unhinged plans to go to concerts, so we planned out a day in the National Harbor after realizing KARD was coming to the MGM Theatre.

So we did so! We both thought the area was so cute but an indicator of gentrification—my friend had been before it got developed and didn’t recognize the little downtown area at all. After my Nepali class ended for the day we got into her car and made the trek past DC to visit the harbor, which was pretty much a straight drive.

It took an hour and a half with the traffic, which only got bad for us when we were around the DMV area. Traffic’s only ever bad around there to be honest. If we ever come back, we agreed to do a day trip to Alexandria—there’s a water ferry from the National Harbor to there. That’s how close it is.

Here’s how our day went!

Dinner + walks in National Harbor.

We went first to the downtown section because we came early. I had made reservations at Succotash, so we parked in a garage and walked across the harbor to head down to the restaurant. It was about a five minute walk, which wasn’t bad in the heat that day.

We arrived at Succotash and were told we had to wait ten minutes before our reservation would kick in due to a lack of staffing, so we sat down and happily looked around. The decor in there is so gorgeous, it feels modern and rustic in a way that was pretty contemporary.

We were seated in a fancy booth that had a clawback red fabric, which we both thought was so fancy.

My friend and I have the same taste palate, so after obsessing over the menu for a bit, we landed on ordering the chicken wings to start. We were splitting an entree of fried chicken and waffles, then planned on ordering a side of macaroni.

She also ordered a drink that our waiter recommended, but her verdict was that it wasn’t that good. Our wings arrived first, and they were very crispy and seasoned excellently.

The star of this show was the fried chicken and waffles though—they were so good. The macaroni was a little rich for me, but it was still good. All in all we thought the food was very good and hit the spot, which means our picky restaurant senses were approved by Succotash.

Afterwards we headed out for a little walk on the downtown strip, grabbed some overpriced boba from the boba joint in the National Harbor, and stared out in the water. There’s a cute section for just sitting and watching the water, and a bunch of families walking around, so it was a perfect way to conclude the afternoon.

MGM Hotel and Theatre

Once around six hit, we headed back to the car and paid the fifteen that it takes for the parking garage. Our next destination was MGM Hotel and Casino, which was a three minute drive and super easy to get to from the downtown harbor section. Parking was a little confusing for us, as we accidentally drove past the garage, but that seriously worked in our favor afterwards.

We ended up parking in the overflow section and because of that we were able to get out of the area really quickly. We saw as we drove past the garage when leaving that people who were in the garage were pretty much stuck in a massive line while we just pulled out.

We had a bit of time before the concert, so the MGM Hotel, which the theater is located inside of, is the perfect place to just sit and take in the views. We didn’t go to the casino when we were there, but we did take a look around the massive butterfly and garden decor inside and peeked around for a bit.

The bathrooms in the hotel were super nice. After directing a fellow concertgoer on where to go, we took our seats inside the theater after skipping the merch line. I wasn’t a fan of the KARD merch at all. It looked like something I could make myself.

For this concert, they closed off the balcony, so every seat in the house was super nice. We were in the leftmost section in the back on the aisle, and those were some of the best concert seats I’ve had in a hot minute.

We also made friends with the older woman next to us who was by herself, as she was telling us about all her concert exploits as a middle aged K-pop fan who wanted to see everyone regardless whether she was a fan or not.

KARD Concert + Driving Home

KARD ended up playing for about two hours, which we were surprised by. It was nice to get home before midnight, but after most K-pop concerts I’ve been to, I’ve expected to be standing there for over three hours like when we went to TXT.

I wasn’t a huge KARD fan and only knew a handful of songs beforehand, but they were pretty good live—their dancing and live vocals were really good for a group that does a lot in their choreography.

I had a ton of fun at this concert though because of the fans—these KARD fans are absolutely wild. As someone who didn’t know what to expect going into this, I was not expecting at all the dirty jokes and signs that the KARD fans were bringing into this venue.

BM spent a solid ten minutes asking people to hold up their signs and read them out loud, and it was a hilarious moment of unity for all of us because these people did not hold back. There was also a moment when he called out the fans who were way too young to be listening to them when they debuted because of how “sexy” their concept it.

He also called out a mother in the front row for bringing her six year old, then kept referencing the kid to cover his eyes throughout the show.

My personal favorite were the guys who brought a huge fan that said Daddy on it and were snapping it whenever they got the chance. One of the KARD members mentioned she liked the sound, which made the group realize what was written on it—which was supposedly for BM. They also recognized the guys from their previous tour.

I will say I left the concert a J.seph stan! I’d see them again to be honest. My friend and I agreed we loved the MGM Theatre setup and it was so affordable for the nice seats we had.

Driving home took less than hour because of the lack of traffic, and we ended up grabbing Shake Shack afterwards since we dipped three songs before the encore was supposed to end. We grabbed our food before everyone else got in line and peaced out.

All in all, a great day it was!

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