The Elephant Deal explorers the gap between military life and civilian life in the United States. Taken from Man Equals Man and The Elephant Calf, it explores how the common man is transformed though the breaking and recreating of the recruit, from a civilian into the perfect fighting machine.

500 Clown and The Elephant Deal
Ina and Jack Kay Theater
University of Maryland
Route 193 (University Blvd.) and Stadium Drive (next to the football stadium)
College Park, Maryland  (map it)

Dates and Times – Thursday – Sunday, December 11-14, 2008 at 8:00 p.m., except Sat. and Sun. at 3:00 p.m.

Tickets – $35.00, Seniors – $32.00, students with ID – $7.00 and are available online or by phone at 301-405-2787.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – College Park-University of Maryland – Green line, then a 2-mile cab ride. The theater can call a cab for you to get back to the Metro.

Parking – Garage parking across for the theater is $5.00.

Image – Flickr – 500 Clown
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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

In one of the areas “coolest” promotions to attract shoppers, from November 22 until Christmas Eve, “snow” will actually fall from the ceiling, inside the upscale shopping and dining mall.

The first “snow show” will begin daily at 11:00 a.m., falling from the top level and descend through all three levels of the mall. 

Santa is also on hand for kids to tell him what they want to see under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning.

And for a great lunch or dinner, stop by Lebanese Taverna, one of my personal favorites.  IT’s located at 1840 G International Drive, on the lower level.

Tysons Galleria
2001 International Drive
McLean, Virginia  22102 (map it)

Dates and Times – Snow will fall every half hour, Mondays – Saturdays 11:00-8:00 and Sundays 11:00-7:00.

Admission - Free

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Wet Falls Church – Orange line, then a 3 mile cab ride.

Parking – Free
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Post from: The DC Traveler

Using highly compressed air, the pumpkin cannon can project a pumpkin 100 yards at a target across a field. If you prefer something a little less deadly?  Try their double-barreled apple, small gourd and corn cannon.

And if you are looking for a few other Halloween ideas, check out some of my other family-friendly recommendations for Halloween, including a 9-acre corn maze in Midland, Virginia.

Lawyer’s Winterbrook Farms
13001 Creagerstown Road
Thurmont, Maryland 21788 (map it)

About 1 hour and 20 minutes from Washington, DC, about 15 miles north of Frederick, Maryland.

Dates and Times – Open thru November 2, 2008.  Hours:

• Wednesday & Thursday, Oct. 29 and 30 – 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
• Friday – Oct. 31, dusk – 10:00 p.m.
• Saturday, Nov. 1 – noon 10:00 p.m.
• Sunday, Nov. 2 – 11:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Tickets – $5.00, children under 6 free. Pumpkin cannon – 3 shots for $10.00, Smaller corn/apple cannon – 6 shots for $5.00

Parking – Free

Images – Flickr – pumpkin heads, yellow cannon, orange cannon
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Post from: The DC Traveler

Check back tomorrow for a list of some of the fun adult activities.

There are several great places for the kids. But be careful, some may not be appropriate for the very young. Check the links for address, directions, admission prices, and days and hours, which vary by venue.

• First is the always popular and usually sold out Boo at the Zoo at the National Zoo in Washington, DC. Trick-or-treat along haunted trails, learn about bats spiders and other creepy and spooky animals and reptiles, while stocking up on sweet treats at over 40 stations.
• Field of Screams in Olney, Maryland, offers visitors a haunted forest with ghosts, goblins and other scary creatures just for kids. Or get lost in their large ten-acre corn maze, but watch out for what might be hiding inside….
• I’ve written about Markoff’s Haunted Forest, a top-rated Halloween destination in Dickerson, Maryland before, where not only are the scary employees, but a good number of the visitors get dressed in elaborate costumes for a frightful walk through the dark haunted forest.
• Another local favorite is Bennett’s Curse — House of the Vampires in Hanover, Maryland.
• And one more haunted woods walk is the popular Spooky Hollow and Haunted Trail. This scary place in Germantown, Maryland also offers entertainment, carnival games, food, give-away and contests.

Note: While some of these are definitely for small children, many are spooky and scary for older kids.

Images – Flickr, Fuzzy blue, witch

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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

And during a couple weekends over the fall, you too can experience driving not one high-priced super car, but four, all in one day. At the Capital Dream Cars – Power Driving Tour, get behind the wheel of four hot cars, that are out of reach to most drivers, for 3 hours of driving excitement.

The tour puts drivers behind the wheel of 4 exotic cars for three hours of fun driving through the twisty two-lane roads around the Blue Ridge-Piedmont regions of Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia.  Plan on getting about 40 minutes behind the wheel of each car.

Tour participants take turns driving the following dream-cars:

• Ferrari 360 Spider (convertible), a $160,000 exotic that looks fast even standing still.
• Lamborghini Gallardo – 0-60 in under 3.7 seconds, top speed 200 mph powered by a V-10, 500+ hp engine.
• Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster (convertible) – At $126,000 you would think it would have a tilt steering wheel and one touch power windows, but who cares? It’s said to be a delight to drive.
• Bentley Continental GT – the ultimate in luxury performance with its twin-turbo W-12 engine (552 hp)

Drivers must complete a pre-tour orientation and get a catered lunch at Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, Virginia.

Capital Dream Cars – Power Driving Tour
Lansdowne Resort and surrounding area
44050 Woodridge Parkway
Leesburg, VA 20176  (map it)
703-785-9357

Dates and Times – Saturday and Sundays, sessions at either 8:30 – 1:30, 12:00 -5:00 or both, on:

• September 20 & 21, 2008
• November 8, 2008

Cost – $795 for a single driver, $550 per driver in pairs, but you only get 20 minutes of driving per car, versus about 40 as a single driver. Not a bad deal, when you know the Ferrari and Lamborghini each rent for over $1,000 for a 12-hour rental on weekdays.

Requirements - Drivers must be at least 25 years old, hold a current and valid driver’s license, have a clean driving record, and be able to get rental car insurance coverage.

Parking – Free.

Images – Ferrari, Bentley, Lamborghini, Aston Martin,

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Post from: The DC Traveler

The Eden Center is DC’s Vietnamese-centric shopping mall and community gathering place.  Located in suburban Falls Church, Virginia, about 20 minutes from downtown Washington, DC, it seems to caters almost exclusively to the Vietnamese community.

Close to 30 Vietnamese restaurants and phở soup shops, along with another 17 bakeries, delis and cafes, with not a Burger Kings or Subway in site, draw many people to come Eden Center for authentic Vietnamese food.  I like the bánh mì sandwiches at Song Que. But don’t be afraid if all of the menu boards are in Vietnamese; most servers will be more than happy to help you find what you want.

Another 90 shops draw heavy crowds 7 days-a-week.  The 20+ jewelry stores are the main draw for shoppers, especially for gold and jade items.  Other speciality stores include Vietnam music and video stores, a couple food markets, a few clothing stores and more.

I also found an interesting herb shop, where I couldn’t identify a single item in any of the large glass jars.

At one restaurant, there was a whole roasted lamb in hanging in the window.

Some of the “lounges” seemed to be the exclusive haven of exclusive men and over loud Vietnamese music.

The mall’s clock tower is a replica of a famous French-era Binh Tay market in downtown Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City).

The Eden Center makes for a great cultural tour and the perfect place to discover a new place to enjoy the fabulous fusion cuisine of Vietnam.

If you visit New Your City and are looking for a great bánh mì sandwich check out Heather’s recommendation at The New York City Traveler.

Eden Center
7663 Wilson Blvd. just off Seven Corners
Falls Church, VA 22044 (map it)

Hours – Stores hours vary, but most open by 11:00 a.m. and close no earlier than 7:00 p.m.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – West Falls Church – Orange line, then a 1 mile walk.

Parking – Free parking is available.

Images – from personal collection   © 2008 – Jon Rochetti 

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Post from: The DC Traveler

Skeet shooting and its related cousins, trap and sporting clays, is a competitive sport where participants try to break clay disks (pigeons). The neon colored “birds”  are flung into the air, at high speed, from a variety of positions on the shooting range. The shooter must quickly react, site and shoot at the pigeon with a shotgun.  The targets fly at different speeds, angles and trajectories, making it a challenging skill to learn.

The pigeons are clay discs that are just over 4 inches in diameter and usually bright yellow or orange in color.  Shooting sports originally used live pigeons but clay targets were introduced in the 1860s as a more humane alternative.

When the shooter is ready to be presented a target, they call out “pull”. Within fractions of a second, the target is launched and the shooter attempts to shot it before it hits the ground.

Here’s a great skeet shooting primer.

Skeet and trap shooting are Olympic sports and competitions at several levels occur at the center several times a year.

The Bull Run Center offers 5 different shotgun shooting games, including:

• Sporting Clay – Shoot at a series of 50 clay pigeons that simulate different hunting targets, such as various birds and rabbits. The targets are launched from 14 stations placed around the open field and woods. 
• Skeet – Shooters shoot from 7 positions on a semi-circle at targets launched from two houses on either side of the range.
• Trap – “birds” are launched form one station, as shooters move through 5 different shooting positions.
• Wobble Trap – Standing on a 5 station pyramid-shaped platform, shooters must react quickly to birds launched with unknown trajectories that simulate the flights of quail, pheasant and chukars.
• 5-Stand -  With five “stands” or stations to shoot from, multiple shooters shoot in turn at targets thrown from multiple launchers.

For the inexperienced, Learn To Shoot classes ($25.00), taught by certified instructors, are offered on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:00 a.m., 11:30 and 1:00. Instruction covers shotgun types, shotgun safety, shooting etiquette, how to to shoulder, point and fire, and a description of each clay or game thrown. The class includes ammunition, targets, ear and eye protection and gun rental.

The class costs $25.00 per student and reservations are recommended.

The center also has an indoor 20-yard archery range, but you need to supply your own equipment.

Bull Run Public Shooting Center
Bull Run Regional Park
7700 Bull Run Drive
Centreville, VA 20121 (map it)
703-830-2344

Dates and Times – Tuesday – Thursday, 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Friday – 2:00 – 8:00, weekends 9:00 – 5:00, closed Monday.

Costs -

• Skeet or Trap (25 Targets) - $4.75 per round, discount ticket – 10 Rounds – $45.00, 25 Rounds – $100.
• Sporting Clays (50 Targets) – $19 per round, discount ticket – 5 Rounds – $80
• Five Stand Sporting Clays (25 Targets) – $7.25  per round, discount ticket – 10 Rounds – $65
• Shotgun Rental – Pump action or Semi Automatic – $6.00, Over and under $9.00
• Archery Range – $5.00 per lane/hr. , each add’l. shooter $1.00

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Taking Metro to the park is not really viable, but the Vienna/Fairfax,/GMU Metro station – Orange line, is the closest.

Parking – Free parking included.

Images – trap machine, archery target, all others from personal collection – © 2008 – Jon Rochetti

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Post from: The DC Traveler

All the the annual Maryland Renaissance Festival just out side of Annapolis, Maryland.  

Enjoy over 35 groups of musicians and dancers, or cheer for your favorite mounted knight during the exciting jousting match.  But don’t miss some of the faire’s classic Renaissance food – like the hot apple dumplings, steak-on-a-stake or a classic smoked turkey leg, fit for a king.

Rent a costume or come dressed as your favorite knight, friar, wench or lady in waiting for even more fun. 

Maryland Renaissance Festival  
1820 Crownsville Road
Crownsville, MD, just outside of Annapolis, MD (map it)

Dates and Times – Saturdays and Sundays, through October 19, 2008. 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Tickets – Adults – $18.00, Seniors – $15.00, kids 7-15 – $8.00, under 7 are free.  Two-day pass $28.00.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – New Carrollton – Orange line, then a 30 minute cab ride.

Parking – Free

Images – dandy, knight, jester, 

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Post from: The DC Traveler