Northern VA has no great OUTSIDE people watching places (Alexandria: vacation, entertainment)

[questioner2]

What Northern Virginia is missing is an OUTSIDE place where people can go and people watch. In most large metro areas there are great parks or outside shopping centers/restaurant/night club/entertainment venues. We have a poor park system. It may be great for playing tennis or hiking in the woods but there are no large parks or places where people can go to hang out.

Am I missing something? It is in fact kind of boring here!

[EuroExpat]

Originally Posted by questioner2

? It is in fact kind of boring here!

LOL no kidding! Sorry, don't have anything constructive to say.

[Fairfax Mom]

Fairfax County has a GREAT park system. Go look on their website. I know Burke Lake Park is a nice place to sit, have an ice cream and watch people. I have not been but have heard there are great parks along the Potomac to sit and watch people - and if you cant find any go to a nearby D.C. park to sit and watch people.
If you want to meet people try a dog park - the one I go to is like a singles bar - fun to watch people AND dogs.

[karnovaran]

Alexandria's waterfront is a nice spot for people-watching

[claremarie]

Great Falls
Gravelly Point (you can also watch planes)
W&OD bike path
Mount Vernon bike path

[normie]

Head out to some of the equestrian events near Middleburg. The Wine Festival is pretty entertaining, too. Great Falls National Park always has a few kayakers taking on the falls, and sometimes rapellers on the side of the cliffs. Reston Town Center usually has something going on--particularly amusing to watch ice skaters when they open the outdoor rink in October--on hot days people skate in bikini tops and Hawaiian shirts. Oh yes, and the free concerts on Saturday nights during the summer in Reston usually has a few colorful characters, as well as dog birthday parties, the "dog of the week" being paraded around in hopes of finding an adoption, and a skateboarding parrot.

[normie]

Lake Anne Plaza in Reston if you like artsy people, kids playing in fountain, people boating on the lake, that sort of thing. Kind of hippy-dippy/artsy.

Tarara Winery, especially when they are having one of their many festivals. Very pretty location, sort of chic (twice I've spotted a minor celebrity there).

Leesburg Outlet Center if you want to watch a wide variety of people walking by talking to each other. A frustrated writer would have a field day here listening in on conversations.

Meadowlark Gardens, especially on Sundays.

This weekend, I would check out the sledding on any nearby hill. There is bound to be some good people watching there.

[normie]

Originally Posted by normie

Lake Anne Plaza in Reston if you like artsy people, kids playing in fountain, people boating on the lake, that sort of thing. Kind of hippy-dippy/artsy.

Speaking about Lake Anne, the outdoors tables at the Jasmine Cafe are perfect for people watching. The food is really good there, too.

[saganista]

Cure for NoVa boredom: Book a week's vacation in Beaumont, TX.

Seriously, if you're bored here, then there isn't much hope. I've lived in the area since 1969, and I figure I'm up to about halfway through the list of things I want to do. Outdoor people-watching in January might not be the high point of the season, but when the weather is good, people are out in force all over the place. The harder thing would be to come up with a list of outdoor places you could go to be alone. Heck, even the County Landfill is a popular spot in the nice weather...all sorts of people dropping stuff off...

[normie]

Oh, and if you enjoy watching kids, check out Algonkian Pakr in the summer. All kinds of activities there, but the most entertaining for people watching is probably the Big Splash. It's a pool with slides, waves, and a giant bucket that fills up and then dumps it's contents over the heads of a dozen or so kids at a time. It's a crack up.