The self-guided tours include four historical building.  On the walking tour are:

• Gadsby’s Tavern Museum – a colonial tavern and meeting place.
• Carlyle House – Alexandria’s only stone Palladian-style house dating back to 1753.
• Lee-Fendall House, the home of the Lee family, and son Robert E. Lee. The urban plantation house was built in 1785 and restored to its early Victorian elegance.
• Old Presbyterian Meeting House – In 1772, a small group of Calvinist who had split from the Church of England, built their own meeting house in which to worship. Today, the church is still used for regular services.

Enjoy seasonal decorations, carolers and light refreshments along the way. Plan on about two hours, if you stop to enjoy the music. 

Historic Alexandria Candlelight Tours 
Gadsby’s Tavern
138 N Royal Street
Alexandria, VA 22314 (map it)

Start at any of the four sites and continue at your own pace.

Dates and Times – December 13, 2008, From 5:00 – 9:00 p.m. Start at any of the four locations and tour at your own pace.

Tickets – Adults – $20.00, Seniors $15.00, children 6-17 – $5.00, and are available online or by calling Gadsby’s Tavern Museum at 703-838-4242

Nearest Metro Subway Station – King Street – Yellow and Blue lines. then a 20-minute walk or take the free King Street Trolley form the Metro station.

Parking – Street and paid garage parking is available.

Images – from personal collection   ©2008, Jon Rochetti  _________________________________________________

Post from: The DC Traveler

Live music, drinks and hors d’oeuvres will add to the festive occasion.

Torpedo Factory Art Center – Holiday Open House
105 N. Union Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22314 (map it)
703-838-4565

Dates and Times – Thursday, December 4, 2008  6:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Admission – FREE, but please bring a non-perishable food item for their holiday food drive.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – King Street – Yellow and Blue lines. then a 20-minute walk or take the free King Street Trolley form the Metro station.

Parking – limited street and paid garage parking is available in the area.

Images – Flickr – interior gallery, exterior
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Post from: The DC Traveler

This year, more than 50 power and sail boats should participate in annual Parade of Lights in suburban Alexandria, Virginia. Watch the floating parade along the Potomac River at the city’s historic waterfront.

Festivities also include pictures with Santa for small children. 

Holiday Boat Parade of Lights
Alexandria’s Historic Waterfront at the foot of Cameron Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314 (map it)
703-838-5005 

Dates and Times – Saturday, December 6, 2008. Festivities start at 4:00 p.m. , the parade of boats at 6:00 p.m..

Tickets – This event is FREE.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – King Street – Yellow and Blue lines. then a 20-minute walk or take the free King Street Trolley form the Metro station.

Parking – limited street and paid garage parking is available in the area.

Images – Flickr – sailboat, 
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Post from: The DC Traveler

Selected by Playboy as one of the top five parties for New Year’s Eve in the country, and with an estimated 1,600 guests, this party  attracts singles, couples and groups of friends alike.

While most New Year’s Eve parties simply offer a band and cocktails, the 007 Around The World party offers multiple country themes rooms, where you can pretend you are your favorite Bond character on a mission. 

Are you the suave “Bond…Jams Bond”? Or the evil Goldfinger or Dr. No? Perhaps you are one of Bond’s famous femme fatales? Or does the character of the always charming Miss Moneypenny suit you better?  Whoever you select, you’ll be issued a “license to party”.

Need to brush up on your James Bond knowledge?
Take the James Bond Trivia Quiz at the end of the post.

The party boasts:

• Celebrity Lookalikes (Sean Connery & Pierce Brosnan)
• Mock Casino Gambling
• Martinis “shaken not stirred” from Ice bar
• Midnight Champagne Toast
• Themed Cocktails and Champagne
• International Buffet and Dessert Stations
• Golden Girls Living Statues
• Samba Dance Performances
• A carnival-like atmosphere with a strolling magician, stilt walkers, fortune tellers, tarot card readers, juggler, and a steel drum player

Tickets include party favors – hats, tiaras and noisemakers, or bring your own.

Besides an 18-piece big band orchestra, select from DJs spinning in 4 internationally themed rooms – featuring musical styles from around the globe, including:

• Euro and Russian hits
• Bollywood and Middle Eastern
• Hip Hop
• Salsa, Merengue, Calypso and Reggae
• Rock & Roll from 1970 through 2000

Click here for prior event photos.

New Years Eve James Bond 007 Around The World party
Hilton Alexandria Mark Center
5000 Seminary Road
Alexandria, Virginia 22311 (map it)

Date and Time – Wednesday, December 31, 2008, 8:30 p.m.

Tickets – $139 – $179 depending on when purchased and are available online.  Special discounted room rates are also offered.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Van Dorn – Blue line, then a 3-mile cab ride.

Parking – Paid event self parking is available. 

James Bond Trivia Quiz

Q1 – Can you name all six (or seven) actors played James Bond?

Q2 – When Bond drinks champagne, what’s his favorite? And at what temperature should it be served at?

Q3 – What was the first James Bond film?

Q4 – What does SPECTRE stand for?

Q5 – Which actor, prior to portraying James Bond, was a Navy sailor, a chorus singer, a milkman, and worked at a funeral home?

FOR THE ANSWERS – CLICK MORE —>

James Bond Trivia Quiz Answers

Q1 – Can you name all six (or seven) actors played James Bond?
A – Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnon, Daniel Craig.  David Niven might be added to the list if you count the 1967 parody spoof Casino Royale.

Q2 – When Bond drinks champagne, what’s his favorite? And at what temperature should it be served at?
A – Dom Perignon 1953, at 38 degrees Fahrenheit.

Q3 – What was the first James Bond film?
A – Dr. No

Q4 – What does SPECTRE stand for?
A – Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion

Q5 – Which Bond actor, prior to portraying Bond was Navy sailor, a chorus singer, was a milkman, and worked at a funeral home?
A – Sean Connery
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Post from: The DC Traveler

You’ll be sure to hear lots of Bush bashing, anti-war, anti-establishment, anti-government, and straight talking (and at times angry) social commentary on subjects ranging from music and culture to society and celebrities.

The host of the IFC one-on-one interview program The Henry Rollins Show, Henry grew up in Washington, DC where he sang for a couple punk bands, before joining Black Flag. He was considered one of the most intense and aggressive punk performers on the scene.  Besides music, he released several spoken-word albums.

Henry Rollins on Dating (warning: contains some adult language)

Henry Rollins “Recountdown Tour”
The Birchmere
3701 Mt. Vernon Ave.
Alexandria, VA 22305 (map it)

Dates and Times – Monday, Nov. 3, 2008, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets – $25.00 and are available online or by phone at 202-397-SEAT.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Pentagon City – Blue and Yellow line, then a 5-mile cab ride.

NOTE: It’s an all ages show, but expect lots of rough language, so the show is not for youngsters.
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Post from: The DC Traveler

But even if you don’t own your own vineyard or winery in the South of France, Tuscany or the Napa Valley, you can still serve friends a personally created wine from the micro-winery, Carafe Wine Makers in suburban Alexandria, VA.

The concept of a boutique micro-winery or “brew on premise” winery is big in Canada, where over 600 micro-wineries are operating. Carafe Wine Makers, a franchise company with 16 locations in the U.S. and Canada (4 in Virginia), lets customers create their own wines at their micro-winery and store on S. Alfred Street.  Open since late 2007, Carafe shows people how to make wine as well as sells wines it makes and blends.

Juice from grapes grown in California and Washington state as well as places such as Chile, Australia and Italy, make up the 28 varieties of wine you can create.

Store manager Rhett Orem explained the simple process to me. After selecting your style of wine, grape juice and skins, water, yeast and other chemicals used in the fermentation process is added to the on-site mini-fermenter. Oak shavings or flavorings may be added to replace the flavoring traditionally absorbed during the fermenting and aging process. The initial wine making process takes only a half an hour.

Around 4-6 weeks later, the fermenting process is completed, your wine is filtered and it’s time for you to return to the store to bottle, cork and label your wine.

What’s great about the process, is that you won’t have to spend hours cutting and pressing grapes, or fermenting your wine in century old wood casks or expensive charred French white oak barrels, as everything is handled on the premises.  

Of the 28 wines you can create, red wines include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz and a couple Italian favorites, Amarone and the “wine of kings” Borolo. Whites include Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc and Gewurtztraminer, among others.

If you are not sure which a style of wine you want to make, start off with a visit to Carafe’s wine bar, to sample a flight of your personal favorites. 

Top it off with a personalized label, and you’ve got your own personal wine ready to impress your friends.

Wines should be allowed to rest for a minimum of two to four months before drinking, to help mature the flavors. And while the wines you create may never rival a Château Rothschild, you will have the satisfaction of having created a special wine with your personalized label to share with friends.

Here’s a video of the process from the Hampton Roads, Virginia store.

The cost for creating 30 bottles is surprisingly inexpensive, coming in at under $10.00 per bottle (includes wine, bottles, corks). 

If you want to design your own label, just create it using your favorite software program and send it to the shop a couple weeks before bottling.

Don’t want the time and bother of making your own wine, Carafe can custom design a label and private label a wine just for you.

Carafe Wine Makers
111 S. Alfred Street
Alexandria, VA (map it)
703-739-5850

Dates and Times – Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Sunday, noon-5 p.m.

Cost – Starting at $255, plus tax for 30 bottles.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – King Street – Blue and Yellow lines, then take the FREE King Street Trolley or walk the 8 blocks.

Parking – Free and metered street parking is available. 

Images – from personal collection   © 2008 – Jon Rochetti 

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Post from: The DC Traveler

Old Town Alexandria has blocks and blocks of unique shops and not your typical chain stores you find in the mall.  There’s countless  specialty boutiques, antiques shops, clothing stores, art galleries and a wide range of places to dine, most that let you leave your car behind and visit on foot or by hopping on the free trolley. 

The King Street Trolley runs up and down King Street, Alexandria’s main street, and runs daily (10 a.m. – 10 p.m.) about every 15 minutes. It starts near the Potomac River waterfront up King Street to the King Street Metro subway station. The ten trolley stops are generally two blocks apart, so you never have to walk far.

You can also walk from one end of the trolley route to the other in about 20 minutes.

Check out Alexandria’s interactive map for attractions, dining, shopping and more.

Trolley stops:

• Riverfront – Union Street
• Lee St.
• Royal St. at Market Square
• St. Asaph St.
• Columbus St.
• Patrick St.
• Fayette St.
• Payton St.
• Harvard St.
• King Street Metro station

Dates and Times – Daily – 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Cost - FREE

Nearest Metro Subway Station – King Street – Blue and Yellow lines, then hop on the Trolley.

Parking – Metered and free street parking as well as paid garage parking is available.

Images – from personal collection – © 2008 – Jon Rochetti

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Post from: The DC Traveler

Alexandria Symphony Orchestra – Pops on the Waterfront
Oronoco Bay Park
100 Madison Street
Alexandria, VA  (map it)

Dates and Times – Sunday, July 12, 2008,  8:30 p.m.

Admission - Free

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Braddock Road, Blue and Yellow lines, then a ¾ mile walk.

Parking – Street parking is available.

Image – Flickr, Symphony. 

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The festival includes historic tall ship tours, live entertainment from bands such as on Saturday.

Take the kids to the free Children’s Harbor Tent for great crafts and activities, and then visit the Ocean in Motion interactive traveling aquarium and learn about the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

Toad the Wet Sprocket video – Walk on the Ocean

Your admission price also includes a tour of the tall ship Schooner Sultana, a replica of a 51-foot, 1796 British topsail Revenue Cutter and Dispatch Boat.

The ship is an exact copy of the original Sultana, the smallest-ever British Royal Navy schooner.

The original ship was used to police merchant traffic along the Atlantic seaboard. The crew was tasked with searching commerce ships for items smuggled to avoid taxes, notable the “Tea Tax”.  With an 8 pound swivel gun, she could intimidate most merchant ships.

Alexandria Waterfront Festival 
Oronoco Bay State Park
700 N. Fairfax Street,
Alexandria, VA 22314 (map it)

Dates and Times – Saturday, June 14, 2008 – 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. and Sunday, June 15, 11:00 – 7:00.

Admission – Adults – $15.00. Children 3-12 – one free with each paying adult, add’l. kids $5.00 each, under 3 FREE.

Admission includes tall ship tours, concerts, arts & crafts show, interactive exhibits, and children’s crafts and activities.

No pets, coolers, alcohol, bikes, skates or skateboards.

Nearest Metro Subway Station -King Street – Blue and Yellow lines, then take the FREE shuttle to/from the station – shuttles run every 20 minutes.

Parking – Limited street parking is available.

Images – Sultana on the Potomac – Photo by Michael Wootton, others from Flickr – parrot, concert

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Post from: The DC Traveler

The day after World War I ended (1918), the U.S. Navy began construction on the U.S. Naval torpedo station in suburban Alexandria, VA.  Designed to build torpedoes launched from both submarines and aircraft, the factory housed torpedo manufacturing facilities for five years after World War I.  During the next 18 years of peace, the factory was used as munitions storage depot. (Can you imagine munitions being stored like that today, so close to a major metropolitan area?)

After the start of World War II, the factory shifted to around-the-clock torpedo production.  Defense plant workers manufacturing torpedoes were so critical the war effort, that they were only given two days off per year.

After the war, the factory was used as a government storage facility for everything from Congressional records to dinosaur bones for the Smithsonian and German war films and records for the Department of War (now the Dept. of Defense).

In the mid-1970s, the space was converted into an artist’s studio and showcase, yet there are still memorabilia from its origin as a factory, including two torpedoes. 

Today, the 3-level center holds 82 artist studios used by more than 165 artists, plus 6 galleries and workshops.

The art created in the center runs the full gamut, including painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics, jewelry and stained glass, fiber and printmaking.  From classic landscapes to whimsical pieces, The Torpedo Factory Art Center, is a combined gallery, workshop, and piece of U.S. history.  It’s a great place to find a unique gift.  

On most days there are numerous patron-friendly artists actively working.  Visitors are welcome to observe, ask questions and interact with the artists as they watch creativity in progress.

All of the original art on display is for sale.  And not all of it is overly expensive.

Torpedo Factory Art Center
105 North Union Street
Alexandria, VA 22314

Admission - free

Hours – Open daily 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.. Thursdays until 9:00 p.m. through 12/21.

Nearest Metro subway station – King Street – Blue or Yellow line, then a 15-minute walk down King Street to the waterfront, or take the #2 or #5 DASH bus to within two blocks of the factory.

Parking - Two-hour metered street parking (and free spots if you’re willing to walk a bit) is available, as well as free two-hour parking on close by Union Street.

Photo credits: All photos courtesy of The Torpedo Factory Art Center.
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Post from: The DC Traveler