On the road again

Your host will be on a plane to Washington, D.C., early this morning, and expects to be on the East Coast until Wednesday afternoon. While SC has not been given permission to say exactly what is suddenly responsible for all this travel, suffice it to say that the proposal he spent so much time on over the summer turned out to be a winner. If/when an official press release is issued, readers will be directed to it at that time.

In the meantime, if readers have any suggestions for anything -- ANYTHING -- to do in Tyson's Corner, Virginia, other than counting the seconds until it's time to leave, please feel free to post them here. Ditto if you happen to know who Tyson was, and what he was doing in a corner (but please, no lame references to Kid Pop-Cap, as in this New Yorker piece).

Comments

[polyglot conspiracy]

Something you can do in Tyson's Corner, VA, is to leave Tyson's Corner and go to Washington, DC.

Or shop. There is (are?) TONS of shopping there.

[Grig Larson]

I grew up there, but a lot has changed since the 1980s. Tysons is well known for being a shopping Mecca as well as "The Tyson's Motor Mile" on Rt 7. It was so named because at corner of Chain Bridge and Rt 7, there used to be a famous general store with the same name until the post-war expansion in the 1940s, when it was knocked down for progress.

There are two main malls: Tysons Corner, and Tysons 2 Galleria. You could spend a day at those two malls alone. The Tysons Galleria has a Ritz Carlton attached to it, and I think half the Saudi Emipre stays there. Heh. But if shopping is not your cup of tea, it's not exactly "walker friendly," and I don't mean crime is high, no, but sidewalks ends and the streets tend to be up to 10 lanes wide. So you are going to have to drive. My advice? Unless you are a consumer with deep pockets, rent a car, and leave. But you don't have to go far at all.

Northern Virginia is just great for history buffs. I don't know what you like, and there is so much, I don't know where to start. Best Sushi? Sakura Steakhouse in Fairfax, VA. Best museums ever? Park at the Vienna Metro, and take the Metro to Smithsonian (about 30 min trip), and spend days wandering about just the Smithsonian Mall (different from a shopping mall) itself. DC is VERY accessible via the Metro.

But if you want to avoid the DC scene, Northern Virginia has Manassas Battlefield Park, Frying Pan park, Turkey Run, Colvin Run Mill (real working mill, very close to Tysons), and if you keep driving down Rt 7 you'll pass a lot of farmer's markets.

Welcome to the area. :)