Archives for category: Day trips

The Old Town Festival of Speed & Style

May 17, 2026 //
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After a pretty chill period of working, gardening, keeping teens alive, and trying to get grass to grow it appears as if it’s time for a number of adventures. First, today I’ll mention the Old Town Festival of Speed & Style.

Is this style really? Or speed? Likely, yes, although where is in the eye of the beholder.

I was alerted to this festival by the astute individuals at Land Rover of Alexandria. Apparently it has gone on a few years from now. It’s excuse to visit Alexandria and take in some eye candy and make friends with classic and exotic car owners while searching for coffee or brunch. LROA wanted to invite me to visit the VIP tent they had set up as sponsors of this event down in Alexandria and offer me brunch on this beautiful late spring day. I caught onto their secret though – what they really want is for me to trade up. No thanks, I am happy.

Either way I was presented with an opportunity to visit the festival early before the crowds came as I was on my own with The Boss off to Atlanta for the weekend, but the condition was I needed to invite my two teenage children to join (I did) and they would need to wake up and join me (they did not) and then we would need to leave before midday to pick The Boss up at the airport. So being fortunate to arrive alone I parked a few blocks away. The first vehicle I saw was a beautiful BMW.

Not too exciting around here but it would be nice to own nonetheless.

This Mercedes was a nice little gem. I watched the owner close the door gently and made a remark at which point he shared a story of how he watched someone close hard on a vehicle of this vintage at a show and the glass shattered inside the door!

There were a number of late(ish) model Aston Martins around. I actually see these by my office fairly frequently as it is close to a number of AI company headquarters and the Aston dealer is in that general direction.

I was more interested in this 1972 Datsun 240Z. The owner is the second owner I believe. He bought it less than a decade ago from the original owner. The paint is all original and it has supposedly never been restored. There isn’t a single divot or speck in the paint so I am not certain this is true as it is not exactly a really low mileage vehicle.

A TVR Griffin. The British cars, in my opinion, were the star of the show in Alexandria even though there were a large number of Corvettes (a split window Stingray for instance) and a number of Ferraris. And there were a number of Mercedes as well but not too many that were exceedingly rare. The oldest cars were from the early 1950s.

Here is a 1972 De Tomaso Pantera imported sometime after the late 1990s I suspect or the American bumpers were removed.

See the bumpers on another model?

Mid-engine fun and incredibly clean.

By comparison another yellow sports car – a Ferrari Daytona similar to the first Miami Vice car – remember there were two and one was destroyed in a firey wreck and then replaced with a Testarossa.

Some drivers had a theme as was the case with this Corvette.

Others were there with their owners because they enjoyed owning and driving them. The guy who owns this is probably a decade older than me if not more. He has owned it for a few years and shared with me that this is the car he drives the most even though he has several at home including a much later and more modern Porsche.

There was a fairly decent variety of cars at the show such as this Chevelle. My father owned a similar model back in the 1970s – not a convertible – which my mother insisted he trade in because the clutch interlock in a larger vehicle designed for taller men meant that it occasionally would not start for her. This was in an area of the show where there was more country music playing than otherwise.

Loved this Dodge. The gentleman standing next to it actually owns an orange Plymouth Roadrunner (complete with roadrunner stencil and fake Bugs Bunny Roadrunner standing next to it).

Doing my best to make an E Type hood look longer than it is. Sadly the bonnet wasn’t open.

A Mini Cooper S with a cricket bat holding open the bonnet. Built for American drivers.

So I did need to wonder why the Goodwood Revival decals are there.

I’ll share this beauty and then call it a day. A Ferrari 250GT Pininfarina Coupe.

Just imagining a sunny drive on a beautiful day like today.

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Categories Car shows, Day trips

Mason Neck State Park

April 19, 2026 //
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One of the great things about the area where we live is the proximity to the Potomac River and everything it brings. The Potomac of course is split here – the lower tidal Potomac begins at Little Falls situated between north Arlington and the Palisades neighborhood above Georgetown in DC whereas piedmont Potomac ends there, heading towards the sea. Mason Neck State Park along with associated national wildlife refuge and other protected areas is a great way to explore tidal Potomac. It’s also less than an hour (could be 30 minutes, could be 55 minutes) from my house.

I’ve been here several times over the course of the past two or three decades. There’s one spot that’s great for “beach walking,” although the beach runs out after a few minutes fairly quickly. This stretch actually faces the bay towards Occoquan; one assumes one is facing Maryland but one is actually facing back towards Virginia!

In a few spots there are duck blinds on the bay. I’m not certain if they allow hunting here – presumably yes, but likely more on the other side in the wildlife refuge. The above photo is about half a dozen years old.

When tide comes in it can be a bit tricky.

Also from years past. Towards the end of Mason Neck there is a large amount of wetland. Closer in it is more wooded. In the past when I have been here there have been osprey along the water in the more wooded space. This time, out towards the wetlands.

In the past I had many photos of osprey and bald eagles in the distance. This time, thanks to the wonders of Apple’s latest technology, they were closer up.

Anyway, Mason Neck is situated such that there are a handful of relatively lengthy trails – a mile out, and a mile back – towards the end of the peninsula complimented by a border set of lengthy or lengthier trails that go into the woodlands towards the more inland bay. Usually when I head to Mason Neck I spend maybe an hour or two wandering towards the end of the peninsula along the wetlands and then I head for more mileage inland. There are enough trails to cover and not get bored for 3 or 4 hours of wandering at a decent pace if you cover every single one and I think alone I have done this and covered six or eight miles. This time I was there and stayed out along the end of the peninsula – further from the highway from the main park – and covered eight miles without heading towards the more inland woods. And I was at the park from about 11am to 3:30pm, including an hour sitting and snacking on cheese, French bread, and charcuterie.

I saw a ton of turtles of various sizes including these as well as smaller examples down to about an inch or two in length.

Off in the distance there was a rather large Great Blue Heron.

I wandered out into an open meadow area from one of the observation blinds. As the wildlife refuge has accumulated land some of the farmland is being allowed to slowly fall back into a wetland state. This more open property has a greater variety of wildlife than the state park itself.

Including this black snake. I took a photo of another that was perhaps six feet long. This one was about four feet.

This massive wasp nest was hanging in a tree off across the field.

Oh, large snails.

Past photo of one of these from long ago.

This photo is also from long ago. Here is a stretch near the visitor center where there are platforms for osprey to rest such as the post in the water on the left here. The platform was still there but there were not as many osprey around – they were further behind me, perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes walk. Through the woods on the right there are trails that lead to the end of the bay here that take about thirty minutes out and thirty minutes back and this is where in the past I have seen bald eagles nesting.

This time I came down to this point late in my stay and eventually needed to go home, so instead I walked straight into the woods a hundred yards to a viewing platform where I met a couple who were sitting on a bench having a picnic. The man asked me if I saw what looked like a school of fish in the distance, maybe 1,000 feet or further out.

I haven’t managed to upload a video of what I saw, but here is a screen capture.

Taken at near-full zoom on my iPhone. It was a flock of cormorants!

I stayed to chat with the couple a bit. They were enjoying smoked salmon from Wegmans with dill on brown bread and offered me some. They do say don’t take food from people you’ve just met, but it was good and I survived.

A great way to get a lot of steps in on a Saturday.

Next time, ask me about my picnic packing trips for hiking.

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Categories Day trips, Day trips from Virginia, Hiking

In keeping with adventures…. college tours!

April 5, 2026 //
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For the remainder of March, and early April thus far, adventures have been limited. Work has been somewhat exhausting with a lot of new priorities and some leadership change. End result, I have not had the opportunity to take Saturdays to head to the mountains for hiking. However, this past week there were a couple of day trips. My older child is headed to college in another year and a half and has started doing college tours.

Our first visit was to University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg.

Fredericksburg is about 60 miles from home but at least to the old town portion it is definitely a world away – and sometimes it’s a journey getting there. I drove down with my older child and her mother (my ex-wife) after a pretty stressful morning at work. We left at 11am, and spring break traffic was in full bloom. So, I had this shell shocked look on my face. I think we made it about 35 miles at home when I decided we would be better off to stop for lunch at Waffle House and continue the journey after, a fortuitous decision as the southbound express lanes opened as we were dining! The 60 miles took two hours.

Mary Washington is a mix between old and new. Originally it started as a normal school – a school to train teachers – for women until 1972 when it was granted coeducational status shortly on the heels of University of Virginia (until then, all boys) receiving the same status in 1970. UMW was renamed as a university in 2004 when they began to offer a much wider range of degrees beyond teaching and standard liberal arts fare; it’s hard to believe that when I first moved here 30 years ago it was still known as a “good place to learn how to be a teacher.” There are still a number of buildings over 100 years old on campus; many of them have been modernized, some are still traditional as you can see above.

Many of the older classrooms still have chalkboards – something which if you’re my kid you have not seen in a classroom ever!

I’m the same hand the science building is brand new with all modern trappings and a ton of programs of study.

There is even temporary math nerd graffiti on windows and glass partitions.

UMW met all the checkmarks for our visit – and it had the nicest dormitory kitsches I have ever seen. The student population seems to reflect the same type of attitude as my offspring – a bit artistic and creative and not too much standard social flair and Greek life. They enjoyed the school because the outdoor spaces were quiet and it was not as chaotic as our 2400 student high school on a city campus.

After the tour we went off campus to enjoy a meal at a pizzeria. I haven’t spent any real time in Fredericksburg in a couple of decades and it has really modernized while maintaining the typical Virginia old town feel in town. There is a lot going on. Unfortunately I think a lot of it is to serve the upper middle class sprawl that is growing in the area. Translation – there is not much for college students to explore off campus.

Our next adventure took us south to Richmond on Friday.

This time I was provided with chauffeur service. My kids’ mother had driven down to Richmond the day before in an effort to get away overnight and do some bonding with both kids, so The Boss and I drove down Friday morning with the plan for The Boss to take my younger to an escape room while my older, my ex, and I tour Virginia Commonwealth University. Unlike Wednesday there was no traffic heading south. We left at 6:40 and by 7:30 we were in Fredericksburg. With a tour appointment for 10:00 we decided to stop for a leisurely breakfast. First Watch didn’t disappoint, but we were served and well fed by 8am and soon on our way to Richmond. The 90 mile drive took an hour and forty-five minutes – Wednesday’s 55 mile drive took two hours on the same highway!

Northbound wasn’t as lucky with a multi-car accident and a delay.

VCU started off their tour with the same type of marketing presentation and Q&A session as UMW, but here they presented a ton more material. It is literally ten times the size of UMW. VCU is of a similar age and similar type of history – originally it was the medical school for Hampden Sydney College from the 1830s eventually becoming a more professionally-oriented school in 1968 due to an act on the behalf of the Virginia General Assembly, and it has largely grown from there. Medical, Dental, Nursing, Pharmacy, and similar programs are on one campus; other programs are on the other campus (I would call it “the main campus,” the Monroe Park campus). VCU wraps Monroe Park on one side spilling out into the city and the fan district on the west.

VCU is set up differently than the college I attended. The classroom buildings are often largely classroom buildings – professor offices and so forth are often in the old brick row houses next to them. They only briefly took us through an academic building and as it is on a campus in the middle of the city it didn’t seem as welcoming to go wandering through without a purpose.

Like I said, it spills through the city a bit, but much of what you see above is actually university.

Several streets through the core are blocked off to vehicular traffic to create something called the “Ramsway” reflecting the Ram as the school’s mascot. The admissions counselor also explained that she was contractually obligated to use the term “Ramily” in describing the student body, faculty, and staff of the unversity. Kids kept groaning when I used this term over and over.

VCU prides itself on the variety of its student body and the variety of experiences available. If I had to compare UMW and VCU, I would say UMW is upper middle class diverse whereas VCU is truly diverse, as in state of Virginia diverse.

My older enjoyed spending time sitting under trees in Monroe Park waiting for The Boss and my younger to return. When I asked what they thought of VCU I was surprised to hear that they really liked it. It isn’t as “non-chaotic” as UMW but they also said they liked it because there was much more to do and it was much, much easier to get off campus to see things and do things. In my mind it also sees as if it has more things for college kids to do around the area – more cheap and free activities for instance.

None of this should really surprise me as my offspring haven’t exactly sat still for their lives. They go out and explore just as much as we do and we live in a walkable urban neighborhood with a lot to look at and a lot going on.

We eventually left The Offspring with their mother. They had the opportunity to try out the dining hall with three lunch passes. We took the opportunity to visit Jamaica House Restaurant for lunch and then stop for a cortado before heading back.

I enjoyed mine while strolling through the city.

As we were walking towards the parking garage I heard running behind us. It turned out to be The Offspring returning from lunch. My older decided she wanted some quiet time and to stop answering her mother’s questions so she joined us for the THREE HOUR drive home.

You gotta love a 12 lane interstate with six lanes stopped.

It was good to get out of town two days in one week. Would I have enjoyed taking two full days rather than shorter days? Maybe. But not with my ex-wife involved.

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Categories College tours

Harper’s Ferry early season hiking

March 9, 2026 //
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On the first weekend of March I officially kicked off my spring hiking season. It was exceptionally warm, and whereas I spent February acting as a hermit, as I normally do in January, I felt it was time to start getting outdoors again and leave the city. The problem is everybody else thought it was a great day to get out as well and Harper’s Ferry is one of the closest “outdoor places” to the DC Metro area.

Usually when I head out of town for a day to go hiking I start thinking about it on Tuesday and Wednesday. I try and figure out how much energy I will have on the weekend and how early I want to get up. Saturday is a better day to rise early and head out of town than Sunday not because the morning is easier (it’s actually easier on Sunday), but more because the return drive is easier. And that was the case.

I chose Harper’s Ferry because I did not want to make a full, long day of it. And because there are a handful of hiking opportunities where I do not have to plan ahead. The most popular hike from Harper’s Ferry is Maryland Heights – a hike I have never done as it’s steep and crowded but not long so it doesn’t seem as if it would be satisfying other than the view.

Amother popular hike is to walk across the trestle, shown above, as if you’re going to climb up the rocks to Maryland Heights and instead walk a mile or two down the C&O trail to the southeast and follow the Appalachian trail up a mountain to a similar viewpoint.

A third option is to walk up the mountain on the right – either walk straight out the Appalachian Trail to the south as far as your heart desires and then turn around and return, or to try and find Loudoun Heights and the overlook on the forested bluff on the right.

I tried to do this a few years back and failed. The map and phone show the trail to the overlook to be a mile up the mountain and then it shows a loop trail. As I was trying it before on a day where I was time-constrained (I think I had three hours to walk), I gave up before I reached a view, and as the trail kept heading downhill into dense trees I gave up.

So, for this particular adventure I did not rise early Saturday. I woke up at a reasonable hour, had a reasonable breakfast, did some reading and caught up on life a bit, and then sat down with the map to figure out where to hike. One thing I have now that I didn’t have the last time I was out there was the Avenza Maps app. It permits you to download topographical maps which then work offline making navigation easier even without the aid of a large printed map. Perusing the map I noticed a similar loop trail. So, while sitting at home drinking coffee around 11am I decided, hey, I’d better get going so I could have five hours to walk in daylight rather than three.

A little before 1pm I was parked in Harpers Ferry in the upper town walking down to the lower town. Lower town was a zoo; every suburbanite in the world came out here. Normally when i come down here I walk out over the trestle and back before continuing other adventures but this time I simply walked to the base of the bridge, stopped to watch a freight train go past, and then followed the AT up the ridge past a historic church and behind the Storer College campus. That in itself is a nice walk – rising several hundred feet from the valley floor and clinging to the side of a ridge overlooking the valley where the Shenandoah River cuts south isolating Harper’s Ferry from the wooded valley where the AT climbs the Loudoun Heights ridge.

If you ever walk this hike, from town it is perhaps a mile following the white blazes over the U.S. 340 bridge. Then as you leave the bridge there are steps down to pass under the bridge and then start switchbacking up the side of the Blue Ridge. More than a mile up the mountain you encounter one side of the former loop trail to the overlooks.

My first time past this sign I did not elect to go out the Loudoun Heights Trail. I kept going up the mountain to see if I could find the other side of the loop, following the park service’s map. Spoiler alert – it shows to be half a mile, measured and labeled, on the map, but I walked a mile and did not find it. I was acttually following behind someone else who appeared to do the same. He actually sought out the topmost point of the ridge by the looks of it and looked around and turned around to go back. I eventually turned back as well and followed the trail to Split Rock.

At the end I was nicely rewarded, nearly a mile and half down the mountain. The view shows Maryland Heights on the right and Harper’s Ferry at the end of the railroad trestle in the center. The Potomac goes off to the right forming the border between West Virginia and Maryland; the Shenandoah goes to the left headed southwest through the West Virginia panhandle to return to Virginia maybe 30 miles upstream.

At this point I had walked seven miles. Directly from the car it would have been about three miles.

The view of town from here is phenomenal. My car is parked beyond that bald spot on the top of the mountain.

This is the view from the other side at the top of the ridge in town. It was beautiful as the light was going down. Golden Hour had arrived and I caught some decent shots of the white birches in the valley contrasted with the gray on the hillsides.

Cutting back through town I walked across the former Storer College campus.

Storer was for many years an early HBCU but for the past several decades has been a training campus for the National Park Service instead.

So with life getting in the way I’ll miss some prime hiking opportunities but hopefully I can get some in this coming weekend – probably not anything significant though. Now I’m off enjoying the glamorous world of business travel.

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Categories Day trips, Day trips from Virginia, Hiking