Photo courtesy of Flickr user dave_7

This past weekend I was invited out to join some of my friends on a Ghost and Graveyard Tour of Old Town Alexandria. Run by Alexandria Colonial Tours, the one-hour walk is guided by a costumed guide (complete with candle-lit lantern) and covers six-blocks around historic Old Town around King Street. Just as advertised, “your guide will abandon you in a graveyard!” My friends joked that the walk was pretty much a tourist trap but even as locals we learned a thing or two about some of the culture and traditions of 18th century America. I was intrigued that hand fans used back in the day actually conveyed more than a cool breeze. Some of the more notable stops along our South route tour included Gadsby’s Tavern and the historic Christ Church, who’s graveyard served as the final point in our tour.

Besides our tour guide, we ran into quite a few costumed actors along the route which added to the atmosphere of the story-telling whether they were placed on purpose or by coincidence. Our group did have a laugh when we saw one of the actor’s answer his cell phone and give directions to the tavern.

If you are interested in ghosts, history, or people dressed up in 18th century garb, then Old Town Alexandria should be your next stop.

Tours run through November 28th with tickets priced at $10 for adults, $5 for children 7-17. Check out their website for complete times and details.

Props to DrBacchus on flickr

Do you remember your first science fair project?   All that research in the library, carefully printing your experimental procedure, plotting your results, and the nail-biting presentation for the judges — it’s all coming back, isn’t it?   Well, thousands of students are going through that same thing right now in preparation for the 2009 District of Columbia Mathematics, Science & Technology (DC MST) Fair on Saturday, March 14 at the McKinley Technology High School from 8:30 until noon.

One piece of this is still needed, and that’s judges.  For the senior projects that means very knowledgeable folks; trust me, these kids are sharp!  For the junior projects, more a more general background is needed.  And really, it’s not all robots!  Expertise is needed in animal sciences, behavioral and social sciences, biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, chemistry, computer science. earth and planetary science, engineering, environmental sciences, mathematical sciences, medicine and health sciences, microbiology, physics and astronomy, and plant sciences. The two top winners here will go on to compete with students from all over the world at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

To be honest, the DC fair has been pretty dismal in the past, owing primarily to a lack of staff support.  I’ve judged science fairs across the region for several years and I can tell you that the DC fair has come a long way.  It was still worth going to even when you were lucky to get a printed list of projects, let alone the catered breakfast and lunch, packet and clipboard, and staff support that’s provided today (by the very generous and competent Walter Reed Army Institute of Research).  The reason it’s worth it is simple: the kids.  These are the ones who have the drive to make a career in science and technology and a difference in the world.  Many have had little or no exposure to the S&T community, so the 5 or 10 minutes you spend with them is priceless.

The deadline to register in DC is March 2, 2009.  See you there?

And on the theme of fairness, here are links to other 2009 area fairs and the hours they are open for judging: 

Northern Virginia Regional Science and Engineering Fair at the Wakefield High School, Saturday, March 7th, 9:30 AM until 1:00 PM

Montgomery Area Science Fair at the Reckord Armory Building at the University of Maryland, Saturday, March 21, 8AM until 5:30 PM

Fairfax County Regional Science and Engineering Fair at the Robinson Secondary School, Saturday, March 28th, 7:30 AM until noon

Prince George’s Area Science Fair at the Howard B. Owens Science Center at the PG Community College, Saturday, March 28th, 7:45AM until 1:00PM.

Taken, on Iphone, between Crystal City and the Airport.  Yellow Line to Huntington, Doors Closing.

I hope you’ll forgive the Moulin Rouge inspired title, but it fits.

How do I know tomorrow is a holiday?  I mean other than getting the day off and, you know, being passingly familiar with a calendar?  Well-

Most workday mornings involve me getting on Metro at the Crystal City stop and “reverse commuting” to Old Town.  This ensures not only an empty seat, but usually enough room to lay down and play scrabble against someone else on the floor.  Not that I would. 

This morning?   The height of travel frenzy (at almost 10am by the way!) as those using the Ronald Reagan/Washington National Airport were making their way (bags and all) to stand in line to get on a plane and fly home. 

I actually had to stand on the way to work.  If I wanted to do that, I would work in the District!  :-P

All of this by way of saying-safe travels and happy holidays from me (and probably all of the DC Metblog crew).

In short, the City folks are displeased about this facility!  It is apparently located thisclose to an elementary school, and is also near the Beltway and the Blue line.

NSRR has bought some fire equipment for the City, including providing a quantity of the special foam that would be needed in the event of a fire, and conducted some training for Alexandria FD.  They’ve also agreed to certain time restrictions on the number of trucks coming and going from the facility.  I’m not sure what to think, myself.  I wonder how much of this issue stems from NIMBY-ism?  Did the railroad really just unilaterally plop an ethanol facility 600 feet from an elementary school and think no one would notice?   How real is the security concern? (IMO, not very, but then I am quite jaded about “security” these days.)  How real is the risk of fire or explosion?  We have all seen enough news reports of chemical factory or fuel dump explosions – with horrific effects – to worry about it, even though the probability may be incredibly low.

In any event — Alexandria has put together a website where you can read documents and correspondence, or look at a map of the facility and its neighborhood.  What’s your opinion — should we be concerned?

A scant six months ago, I joined the wild and crazy crew here on MBDC; I was branching out in my blogscapades and wanted to try my hand at writing about the area that I’ve come to love.

Everyone here has been extremely good to me, one of the new kids on the block. The experience has been inspiring and has driven my creativity in approaching this area to new heights. I’ve been driven to explore this town more than I ever have before, in search of new restaurants, new venues, and new entertainment. Much of these experiences I’ve yet to share; sadly, I won’t be doing so on this stage.

Instead, I’m leaving MBDC and moving to We Love DC. My continued excitment over living here remains unabated. With our imminent purchase of a home in northern VA, I look forward to planting our roots deep into the soil and growing old with the District – inside the zone and through the Beltway. And sharing all of this with the great people of the area with more passion and freedom than before.

So thank you, readers, writers, commentors and the MBDC staff for taking a chance on and accepting the missives from one of the small fish in this vast pond. May your futures remain bright and your cameras nearby.

See you on the other side.

Last Friday, me and the missus decided to dine in Old Town. We were craving Irish food; after our jaunt up in Maine a few weeks back and hitting several New England pubs we were feeling nostalgic for our Ireland walkabout back in 2005 and wanted to try getting back to that setting. Yes, yes, this is Virginia after all, but no harm in trying, right?

I’d read some reviews on O’Connell’s a while back and since it boasted itself as “a modern Irish restaurant in an ancient Irish setting” (from their website), we decided to give it a whirl.

We arrived right at 5 p.m., before the dinner crush on a typical spring weekend evening on King Street. After doing a quick check of the menu out front, we followed the pleasant and cheery hostess upstairs to the third floor. (As an aside, I love it when restaurants post their menus out front – saves me a heap of time of going in, scanning the menu and then bailing because I can’t find anything on it that waters my mouth.)

Seated in a corner along the long banister “corridor” connecting two of the older bars upstairs, the busboy was prompt in getting us water. So we dove into the menu and after some discussion, decided what to eat.

And then waited for our server.

And waited.

And waited.

We saw plenty of busboy activity at the wait station opposite us. I even heard one of the ‘busgirls’ ask if any of them knew who was helping us. She said it quietly and shrugged in our direction; considering we were the only table seated up there, it was kind of obvious we were the subject of inquiry.

Still we waited.

And then my darling wife, after 15 minutes of chit-chat and water-drinking, looked at me and asked if we should just leave since we were clearly forgotten. Of course, I smiled and said no; “I think I just found the restaurant for my next unasked review.”

I hesitated for a moment as a server came up the stairs….and passed us. Then I headed for the nearest bar. Spotting a clearly-dressed manager-type, I calmly asked if a 15 minute wait for a server was common and if this was typical to service. (I mean, it might be – I just need to know so I can adjust my annoyance meter.) He apologized and set out to make it right.

And so he did! We had a server within two minutes. (Unfortunately, I forgot to catch her name.) The manager even stopped by to check on our disposition and even comped our starters, which he didn’t need to do.

After that little hiccup at the start, dinner was fabulous.

I had a wonderful warm spinach salad – just the right plate portion – followed up with an incredibly tasty shepherd’s pie. It was comperable to the shepherd’s pies I’d thoroughly enjoyed on our Irish trip. My wife had a crisp house salad followed by a plate of chicken tenders, which were incredibly tasty, surprisingly so.

Dessert was average – then again, we’ve become dessert snobs and expect a lot, so what didn’t work for us may work for others. The apple crisp pie was a bit soggy and my raspberry creme brulee a tad runny, but we’ve definitely had worse elsewhere. The coffee, however, was excellent.

So despite the false start, O’Connell’s more than made up for it with some excellent – and moderately priced – pub fare, along with some seriously excellent service (once they knew we existed). The setting is just gorgeous as well and the atmosphere quite pleasant. Hopefully when we return, we’ll be able to sit on the second-floor patio.

Daniel O’Connell’s can be found at 112 King St. Phone is 703.739.1124, but if you arrive before 6 p.m. there shouldn’t be much of a wait.

Remember this experience?

Well, I received a phone message last week while I was off gallivanting around Maine; the caller was from CSC’s corporate offices. [I had filled out their online customer comment card, pointing to the previous article so they could see for themselves what was going on. Thanks, by the way, for everyone's comments - hopefully they caught those as well.]

I was assured the matter was being looked into and the franchisee was being notified. Supposedly I should have already received a call from the store (nope) and received a gift certificate notification through the mail (nope).

Now, I’ll state right here and now I didn’t start all this for some form of free anything. I’ve done the retail punishment for over 15 years before I got smart and left; it pains me to see poor customer service, especially in establishments I frequent. I feel it’s my duty to politely let them know when they’re failing the public trust. And yes, also when they’ve gone above and beyond as well. (And yes, I’m an excellent tipper when it’s warranted.)

So while the call back is refreshing, the lack of local follow-up is disappointing. If / when we get those certificates, we’ll head back to the same location, if only to see if anything has changed (and yes, I’ll let everyone here know!). Meantimes, we’ll probably shift to the Hoffman location, unless someone can suggest a great local spot in Alexandria / Kingstowne / Springfield to try. (For the record, not a fan of Kalidescoops or Maggie Moo’s.)

Please, readers, suggest away!

So last night me and the missus went to look at a couple of townhomes, one of which we’re considering purchasing. We’d both had a really long mental day at our dayjobs, so I suggested we make the trip out to the Cold Stone Creamery on US 1, near the I-495 interchange. There’s not really a good place for ice cream near our current home and we both like the taste of CSC’s ice cream. So it’s worth the drive for us.

Read the rest of our adventure after the jump.

When we got to the store at 8:20 p.m., there was – as expected – a small line. A couple of families and two groups of teenagers.

And, surprisingly, only two associates behind the counter. Which isn’t a big deal, really. Except that they were really, really slow.

So we settled into place, as it seemed it would be a wait. I mean, if there’s only two people working and roughly 12 people in line, it’s going to be a bit.

Except….I noticed they had an erase board behind the counter (a large one) with four names on it, showing who was working what shift and their assignments. Four names – and all were working to close.

Ooookay. So where’s the other two?

Apparently, in the back. One’s washing dishes. The other comes trotting out with a pan of brownies – and after looking down the line of us (there’s now four people behind me) – PROCEEDS TO CUT THE BROWNIES.

No stepping up to help, no attempt to speed the line (there’s another open register to the left of us), not even an acknowledgement of our (still patient) existence. She just cuts them brownies like the world depends on them.

Think she stepped up after putting them in a covered dish and on the display case?

Heck no. She disappeared into the back again for another 5-6 minutes.

By now, it’s 8:34 (I’m taking notes now) and the line has only progressed through the one family of four that was up when we entered. And by now, the line is to the door – at my count, about 25 people. (You can see the line in the picture above – I took it after we exited the store.)

My wife wanted to leave at this point. I wanted to stay, however, but not for ice cream. I looked at her with a smile and said, “I’m a blogger. I have power. This’ll be fun.” So I whipped out a notepad and jotted down CSC’s mission statement posted prominently over the register:

“Fun friendly people who exceed customer expectation every day in every store, one customer at a time by providing quality product, unmatched store cleanliness, and superior service.”

Well, their ice cream’s pretty good and the store was clean; I’ll give them that.

As I was jotting down the statement as well as who was working (that’d be Jackie, Keith, Kelly and Teneisha), the brownie-cutter noticed me writing stuff down…and then finally stepped up and started helping. So now we’re up to two, plus the register person who’s running around doing non-ice cream orders. I wonder how much longer it would’ve taken if it wasn’t blatently obvious I was taking notes? (My wife urged me to interview people in line…)

Finally, at 8:45 my wife stepped up and placed her order for a small banana and oreo dish. There was no communication between any of the staff at all, save that stupid “Gimme a break” ditty they break out into periodically. Paying was perfunctory – no smile, no “sorry for the wait,” nothing. Though a very large tip bucket was prominently displayed.

Yeah, fat chance there, kiddo.

So what’s my point with all this? Easy. If you go to the CSC on US 1, don’t expect to go through the line any faster than rush hour traffic on I-95. And bring a book – you’ll be there a while.

I highly recommend this restaurant. Fabulous food, great service and reasonable prices for an upscale place.

We broke for lunch late, and headed over to The Overwood in Alexandria. I do their website in exchange for the occasional free lunch, and I hadn’t seen them in a while. So we went over and sat at the bar for a late lunch. Rami, the chef, came out and said hey, and took our order. He also asked how we liked grits, and wanted to know if he could try something out on us. Generally, when chefs experiment, it’s best to be there. They start thinking outside the box, and then they deliver big.

Rami brought out this delight, which my camera fails to adequately capture. It’s a grits cake, in lobster sauce with veggies, crawfish and shrimp. And it was heaven on earth. The grits were perfectly textured and subtly flavored, the lobster sauce creamy, and the crawfish and shrimp moist and perfectly done.

Sometimes it’s good to know the chef. I understand this is on the menu all weekend, DC-folks.

Overwood
220 North Lee St
Alexandria VA
703.535.3340

Yummy — Originally uploaded by tbridge