Established over a century ago, this monumental and historical edifice in the heart of Fairfax city…read moreis a prominent setting for matrimonial, diners or business events. Presented as a wedding gift from Mr. Wilson Farr to his wife, from a visit to this place I witnessed this colonial style house features, library, a grand dining hall, handicapped facilities, gourmet kitchen, lavishing gardens and ample space for driveway and parking. Here are some of its photos.

Located in Old Town Fairfax (hence the name), this is the site of summer concerts, events, and a…read morelarge splash pad. There are tables around the splash pad but also grass and a stone wall. Bathrooms are located in the parking area next door, which has free parking. We stayed for about two hours and my toddler loved it. Don't forget to stop by Woody's for ice cream after!

It's a relaxing area, although rush hour traffic is fun to watch. Here there's a nice water…read morefountain for kids to run through. Also it's next to Kitty Pozer Garden, and the historic old town hall. A spot to kick back a bit, although I wish there was an ice skating rink or something. Space is limited, but not as well done as the old town Manassas one is. On a plus note Woodys Ice Cream is across the street. The tables are fairly comfortable. This is a delightful venue for "Rock the Block," and other events. Also the streets in old town are quite pedestrian friendly. Do be wary, but by all means enjoy the best part of Fairfax City. Get that ice cream or other foods from so many close by restaurants. The fountains add a look of intrigue.

Located just across the border from Washington, D.C., the town of Bethesda, Maryland is a fairly…read morewell-to-do suburb and one of the last places one might expect to find a fantastical novelty house. The house at 4949 Allan Road in Bethesda has become something of a landmark, known for the curved canopies that earned it the name "the Mushroom House." The bumpy edges and pointed tip give the house a shape slightly reminiscent of a Dr. Seuss doodle. As it turns out, though, the original design was not particularly child-friendly. See link of interview from couple who had it built. https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ94C2IKSK6/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

I had no idea that such a unique piece of architecture was located right in the suburbs of…read moreBethesda. I only found this out after searching for activities to do in the area and was recommended this site. Definitely a really cool crafted home that looks like a smurf or flinstone home!

From here so biased. Miss residing here but am glad to visit. Is there traffic? Yes. Is housing…read moreexpensive? Yep. Yet this is the norm in the DC area. I will happily argue, that the city of Fairfax is one of the best places to live. The amount of services and parks, there's no community close by that can compete. Go to the Blenheim House, City Museum, or countless miles of hiking and biking trails. Also unlike the surrounding county, there are trees here! There are plenty of delicious restaurants here. I love its diversity, educated population, and overall small town feel compared to surrounding areas. The police and fire departments are number one. You'll enjoy a vibrant arts or recreation experience. This weekend will be the Asian festival. That is a lot of fun, along with the one for chocolate, fall festival, and the best 4th of July parade and fireworks. Absolutely love it!

Did you know it's the largest fair in the country? Did you know there are 250 types of fried food…read moreon offer? Did you know.. oh wait. That's the wrong review. Those are "Fair Facts", not "Fairfax." The predominant memory of Fairfax is the beautiful smell of trees around the George Mason campus. The new memory is that it is the only location of Sharetea on East Coast USA. This international chain rocks my bubble tea world... who am I kidding, Bubble Tea is my whole world. You must try the Whole Lemon Black Tea the Okinawa Milk Tea. I visit Fairfax more than once a year, every year. My Uncle lives in the next town over (Man Asses), and I also happened to go to University here in Fairfax for several years of my life. I did rather well, but for a lot of the time I didn't have a working car, so instead of parading around DC like a true scallywag, I was restricted to running around Fairfax, biking around Fairfax, and bussing around Fairfax, and all of the above were not so much fun. It's a posh, rich, stuffy town with way too much traffic at the best of times. The cops are brutal and are constantly pulling students over trying to get DUI busts to make $$$ for what is already one of the richest counties in America. Despite all that, I had some good times in Fairfax and met some good people, and a part of my heart will always belong to it. It's an eerie feeling going back now, which I often do. I don't really recommend any of the food places in Fairfax, but nearby Vienna has the awesome Pasty Shop, the even better Gyros of Plaka Grill (and maybe Amphora, which is 24 hrs), and best of all the amazing homemade custard at Nielsen's - which is currently heartbreakingly closed down. There's a brand new shiny H-Mart in town with good Korean. In nearby Manassas, El Rulas makes the best tortas. Even closer, in Centerville, Burger Stop makes the very best burgers in the region - by far. And inside the Fair Oaks Mall (way too busy and popular), Monster Roll makes good deep freeze rolled ice cream. DC food in general - Falafel Inc in Georgetown. In MD burbs, Sardi's (Peruvian Chicken), Max's (best Shawarma/Falafel pita anywhere, get it spicy), Silk Road Choyhona (chicken kebab), hot pretzel and banana shake at Sadieanne's inside Dutch Village Farmer's Market in Upper Marlboro. Gyros at Yia Yia and Plaka. Late night, these 3: Kabob Palace, Amsterdam Falafel, Hard Times (Alexandria - Terlingua Red). La Casita for Salvadoran. Mazadar for Afghan. Java Loco for Okinawa Milk Bubble Tea. Dessert at SnoCream in Annandale. Also District Doughnuts in Georgetown, York Castle - crazy tropical flavors. Fairfax is mostly chains and brand names, but it's far from the worst place in the world to live or visit, and it's very safe, now that the sniper is not at large. The worst thing about Fairfax absolutely horrendous traffic. The best thing is excellent ethnic diversity and some really cool places to eat including nearby Centerville and Manassas and Falls Church. Also, as I said, Fairfax has the only Sharetea location on the entire East Coast. And that is a huge highlight for me personally. But it's just too clean and stuffy and rich for me and the traffic is some of the worst I've ever been stuck in. Hence the low rating. Especially when you factor in the daylight robbers keeping our pockets empty... I mean police keeping our streets, ahem, safe. (1) Rich town is putting it mildly. (2) Awful traffic. (3) Mild winters, muggy summers, lovely smell of trees. (4) The only Sharetea location on the East Coast. There you go: Four Facts on Fairfax.

Cyndy's Bottom Line: A wonderful tribute to the African American heritage in Falls Church…read more Start at the beginning to read all of the inscriptions on the sidewalk opposite of the monument.

Took a walking tour of historic Falls Church, Virginia. Falls Church has a very interesting and…read morediverse history. It's a nice little walking city. The walking map could have been a little more user friendly.

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.

Had a good experience last week!…read more The staff was friendly and the theatre was clean! We were the first movie of the day and it was nice and quiet! We only grabbed a drink, and that was easy! They did have some fun drink options downstairs - coffees and cocktails!

In general I like this theatre, but they make it very hard to find out when they have screening of…read morefirst class National Theatre performances. The manager told my husband we have to check once in a while at the program, all other movies are easily to access, but not this performance. Dont they want people to buy tickets and attend it?. At Avalon Theatre in DC you now way ahead of time its performance so you can plan it. Very poorly service at Angelika's in VA. The cafe could be a little cozier, too.

What a great visit! The home is lovely and our tour guide was excellent. She had so many fun…read morestories and unique things to share with us. It's a little bit of a walk from the ticket area but pleasant if you are able.

While in town, and with a checklist of FLLW houses to visit, this was a short trip to Woodlawn. I…read morewill say it's kind of convoluted as to where to drive and park and check-in, but for a rare occasion we were a little early so we had time to figure things out. Smaller house, quick tour, but the tour guide was friendly and informative. You are allowed to take photos which is appreciated.

Cyndy's Bottom Line: Is hangman's tree a legend, or a myth…read more... You decide.. The tree is gone but there is a plaque that marks the spot behind a bus stop where the massive oak tree used to stand on the corner of W. Broad Street and North Virginia Avenue in the City of Falls Church.

If you haven't been to Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center, aka the National Air & Space Museum right next…read moreto Dulles Airport, go!! It will NOT disappoint. First off...the museum offers free extra large storage lockers, large enough to fit a large rolling suitcase, so it's a super cool spot to check out before heading to the airport. And the displays! The Challenger Space Shuttle is always one of my favorites. You can't fully appreciate the size until you stand under and walk around it. Displays range from history of rockets to air balloons, early winged aircraft, military planes, commercial flight (there's a Concord on display), small aircraft and satellites. So much to take in!! The displays do change, so there's always something new to see when we've gone thru. All the docents are super friendly and engaging and they have several small interactive displays to help stoke the interest in air & space for the youngins as well!

Amazing! Incredible! These just scratch the surface of what you can experience at this museum…read more Having been to the National Air & Space Museum in the past, I remember when this extension opened near IAD. The big draw at the time, the Space Shuttle Columbia and a Skunkworks SR-71. Both highly impressive, more on that later. We arrived on a Monday just after it opened at 10am. It was like Romper Room with all the unruly kids blocking the entrance and cause a disturbance. Sadly the chaperones didn't seem to care. No entry fee to visit the center, there's even a free bus of you have an extended layover in IAD, but parking is $15. Still well worth the cost without the crowds in DC visiting the other museums. There are some great exhibitions! Lots of aircraft from a SPAD to a JSF. It was neat to see some private aviation aircraft along with lighter than air and aerobatics. The commercial side of aviation was a bit lacking. Yes, the Concorde is very impressive but neurons that and a Dash-80, annotation seemed to end about 1995. The space exhibitions were excellent. The Columbia was highly impressive to walk around and take in this has been to spaces numerous times and the first shuttle in space. Satellites, modern mission equipment, like Mars explorers AB's various heavy boosters. Was neat to see equipment from the early years of NASA, Mercury, Gemini and the legends who made history. The Vietnam and Korean displays were some of the best from MiGs to F-14s to the JSF. Really awesome to get up close and personal with these aircraft AB's pilots who flew them. The SR-71 is attire the display in the middle of the center with lots of information on its, little more than hour flight time from LAX to IAD. Just so much to see. But something you can do in a few hours, or all day off you want to read AB's experience all there is. Not as overwhelming as the Air & Space Museum but still highly impressive from young kids to aviation enthusiasts and everyone in between. Highly recommend this stop!