Travel Tips

Hey all you VTer's out there!

As you may have read on my homepage, I recently retired from the military and have initially settled in the Washington D.C. metro area. In fact i live in the quaint little suburb of Herndon, VA. So if any of you VTer's end up here and need a place to crash (wintertime only), I live less than 10 minutes from Dulles and have room and would welcome the company...male or female doesn't matter, but only one or two at a time please.

So far, I have found a great apartment, a great job, and what seems to be a really nice area to live my retirement years. There are tons of good resturaunts, museums, and parks to check out here and you will be hearing about these as I get more settled in here. Huge plus is that I live near a major international airport and can continue my travels with little trouble.

Well, due to the volatility of the current housing market, I have decided to renew my lease and lock in my current rate. I have been here close to a year and still believe that Herndon is a great place. It has that real small town atmosphere yet some big city sophistication. So far the only thing I really miss is a pub within walking distance. I have finally reduced my shopping online and started checking out the area's shopping areas of which there are quite a few. One of the most popular hangouts around is the Reston Town Center (located in Reston; the next town over). It has good restaurants (from Japanese to Mexican to French), shopping, and a 16 screen multiplex. The parking is free and covered. There is even an ice rink available in the winter (although it is quite small). Basically it is a semi-Rodeo Drive environment placed within a walkable 8 block area. For more about this location check out this link:

http://www.restontowncenter.com/home.html

Due to my work schedule, I am still finding out things about Herndon. For one thing, the community center is awesome and sort of doubles as an unofficial tourist center, because you can go here and find out what there is to see and do for the locals. On the premises are classes, an indoor pool, gym and full size basketball court There are also trips that arranged through to community center to places like the local farmer's markets, aquariums, shopping, etc. There is a fee for these services, but they do the driving so you don't have to get out your GPS and try to find these places in unfamiliar traffic.