We arrived at Thomas Stone National Historic Site with about 30 minutes before the afternoon tour…read morebegan. The visitor center volunteers greeted us warmly. We spent a few minutes talking with them before watching the park film, which gave a great overview of the site's significance. Afterwards, we walked the grassy path from the visitor center to the historic house, Haberdeventure. The path led us past the family cemetery, where old gravestones marked the resting places of generations. The Stone family lived on this estate from the 1700s to 1936. Their contributions to Maryland and the nation were remarkable. The ranger met us at the house for our tour. As we stepped inside, he explained that this was considered a mansion by colonial standards. He shared stories of the Stone family and pointed out original pieces. His wealth of knowledge enabled him to answer all of our questions. After the tour, we spent some time exploring the grounds and taking photos.

If you're into history, the Thomas Stone National Historic Site is worth visiting, but you need to…read morego into it with the proper mindset- one of mourning. The property is well preserved and managed by the National Park Service. There's a parking lot with a dirt path leading to the actual house dating back to 1771 where Thomas Stone, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, lived with his family. In fact, the property stayed within the family until 1936. However, you must know that the grounds were a plantation and enslaved people. It would be wrong to enter the space without acknowledging that tragic fact and grieve as you visit. It's a sad testimony to why systemic racism still exists and it should push us to fight for justice for all today.

We had such a fantastic historical tour of the property when we visited for one of Fall Church's…read moreice cream socials at Cherry Hill Park. The tour guide was extremely knowledgeable of the history of this landmark, and thoroughly answered questions we had.

We had so much fun here at Cherry Hill Park! We stopped in on a Saturday morning just before 9am,…read moredrawn in by the farmer's market going on in the parking lots next door. And then we just kept walking into this incredible park. As we walked through the gardens, there was an explosion of baby rabbits hopping about everywhere. My kids loved it, and I admired the beautiful gardens. I don't know if this is a wedding or events venue, but it should be because it's beautiful. The house and barns look like they belong here, as though someone might be living in them, except there's no driveway, there are public benches, and a few commemorative signs nearby. But at first I questioned whether we were in a public space or someone's yard. On the negative side, there were homeless looking guys sleeping on several of the benches. They woke up and disappeared not long after we arrived. The park is great. There are logs the kids can play on, in what appears to be a colonial reenactment area. My kiddos liked walking along the logs and jumping from one to another. There's two distinct play areas but both are great for toddlers and little tikes so I wasn't able to distinguish them very easily. The swings were a hot item when we were there, but there just aren't very many of them for a Saturday morning toddler rush hour. There is also a tiny house structure but it is slightly too large to be fun and too small to be interesting, no kids played in it except to inspect it. The sand volleyball court was also popular, as our kids joined others in excavating the volleyball service area. Luckily they didn't get very far by the time volleyball players arrived, though it wasn't for lack of effort. The park also has tennis courts and a basketball court, and there's a really nice nature trail along the edge of the park nearest the houses that back up to it. We walked through these flowers and gardens to find butterflies, bees and more rabbits. Also a nice feature, although there weren't very many picnic tables, there was one barbecue pit for people to build a coal fire. There was a very small pavilion area as well. I liked this park for the "nature in the city" feel. We were only a block away from fancy pants coffee shops, but it felt secluded and beautiful as light filtered through the enormous trees adorning the property. Other park visitors kept telling us about live music and imploring we check the schedule, but we aren't interested in that. This park is great with or without those concerts for me, and would be a really awesome spot to stop by anytime. I do not know if they have restrooms around, but with the restaurants and coffeeshops nearby, you should be okay. I think we spent about 5 hours here on our first visit and we didn't even really play in most of the park, so it's good for a long or short visit.