I've actually taken two day trips down to Alexandria this summer: the first one was with my mom's cousin when she was in town, and the second one was as a birthday celebration since I wanted to go back to Old Town. I didn't expect to enjoy it so much!
I'm not sure I'm happy with how this looks, but I made this entire post the night before it went up, and I'm tired enough from walking up and down King Street that I kind of don't care it looks amateur-ish. Forgive me?
This post is really image-heavy.
The first time we went was a Saturday, so we got to go to the farmer's market they had in front of the city hall. It was the first time that I'd been to a farmer's market and I really enjoyed it! I got an ice coffee of some sort and ended up buying a tin of hot chocolate mix from them as well. The coffee was really good and my friend who tried the hot chocolate Otakon weekend said it was good too!
Mom's cousin got some sort of pastry from one of the booths at the market, too, which she let us try. It was really yummy. I think it was smores flavored?
I honestly could've just camped out in front of the city hall and people-watched all day. It was a really nice day when we went.
After the farmer's market we walked down to the other side of the Torpedo Factory and sat for a while facing the water. That lump that sticks out on the horizon in the middle of the picture is the Gaylord! I thought that was really cool.
The birds were really daring! There was a dad with two toddlers sitting a bench away from us, and they were feeding the little birds and the ducks in the water Gerber puffs. I have a couple videos of the birds. They were really cute.
I spilled coffee on my sweatshirt pretty early on ;; I'm not even sure if it came all the way out, come to think of it. (Not that it really matters anyway, since it already has paint stains on it.)
We went into the Torpedo Factory the first time but didn't explore all of it, so I went back the second time and got to look a little more in-depth! It's hella. There are so many different mediums of art to look at *o*
Something I wish I could've done a little more (both times) was explore more of the colonial history of the city. Colonial history is really interesting to me for some reason I have yet to figure out, so I really liked the historical stuff in the entrance we went through the first time and in the archaeological display on the 3rd floor. (Even though I only got to look through the window at that.)
They also had stuff on the history of the building! The name didn't come out of nowhere. It's really cool to see how they re-purposed the building.
They have a studio for post-grad students, and the first time we went, the girl that had the studio had an art display full of unwound cassette tapes! It looked hella. I really wish I'd gone in to play with it, since it was someone new the second time.
They had a scale from when the building was an actual factory. It actually scared me the first time since the scale is built into the floor, so I just saw something moving out of the corner of my eye. It's not all that accurate since it goes up so high, though.
We went to Christ Church the first time, and I want to go back at some point. It's a really cool building! It's in really good shape for being so old. We got a little mini-tour of the sanctuary part of the building, and the guy that talked to us was really helpful.
The little cemetery outside was really interesting. They had a print-out of the data of some of the gravestones, but none of it really meant much to me. I found it interesting that someone had vandalized the gravestones like this, though.
We ate at Bertucci's for lunch the first time, and we got a table facing King Street, so it was really fun to watch all the people walking by. I got a toasted almond mocha latte, and Mom's cousin got a caramel drink of some sort.
We split a pizza, but I don't remember what type. It was really crunchy and kind of hard to eat. It wasn't as strange as I'd expected it to be, though. Their bread is also really good.
There were a lot of indie shops in Old Town, which I find really interesting! I can't really think of any indie shops around where I live. We really only have box stores.
Something I don't have pictures of is the stationery store we went to, and I honestly am disappointed in myself, because that was the first thing that really made me go "I wanna go back". We stopped in Paper Source both times, which is really close to the water front, and Papyrus the second time. It was probably a good thing that I'd already done all my school shopping at that point, because I wasn't as tempted to buy everything in the store.
We ate at La Madeleine for lunch the second time. We used to have one where I live, but it either moved or disappeared since they tore down the shopping center it used to be in. I really liked it! My cousin and I split a chicken crepe and it was awesome. It's definitely not something I could polish off all on my own, though.
The second time we stopped in two bookstores: this one, Hooray for Books, is an indie bookstore! I've seen very little indie bookstores, and this one is definitely the best I've been in so far. (The only other ones I can think of are at the beach, and those are pretty lackluster.) I really appreciated that the store was dedicated to children's books! They also had a pretty good selection of YA books considering it was only a few shelves. My grandparents bought me Shadow and Bone in paperback, which I'm really looking forward to reading. The store also had a preview of Everything, Everything and a bookmark for The Winner's Curse, which I haven't seen B&N do.
The other bookstore we went to was Book Bank. I don't think it's really much different from the used bookstores we have closer to home, but I found a copy of Madeline in really good condition, so I was happy!
The only thing I came home with the first time was the hot chocolate mix, so here's my haul for the second time! I spent about $60 in birthday money, factoring in that Shadow and Bone was a gift. I got a ton of postcards and a couple notebooks and writing utensils. I think it's definitely all worth it!
Old Town Alexandria is actually really easily accessible from metro. The King Street metro station on the Blue Line is <20 blocks from the waterfront, and everything we did (minus Christ Church) was along King Street. It's really pretty. It's not too bad of a walk between the metro station and the Torpedo Factory at the end of King Street, but there's also a free trolley that runs between them up and down the street. (That we never ended up taking. But it exists.)
I think the shops are a little more expensive than normal, especially since it's a little touristy, but it's fun even just to wander around and people watch. I'd love to go back again and do more historical stuff.
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