Wife and Mommy

As much as this Wife and Mommy likes to stay anonymous, when my bloggy friend Cara of Land of Bean asked me to write about my town for Blogtrotting, I couldn’t resist.  My town has so much to offer!  But in an attempt to keep my exact location secret, I’m taking the DC area approach of remaining vague, using acronyms, and not naming names.

So welcome, all of you who have trotted over here from Blogtrotting!  My name is Michelle and I’ve lived in the Northern Virginia area my whole life for as long as I can remember.  Sure, I was born in a state up north and spent my first two years up there.  Then there were four years away for college (but I did remain in the great Commonwealth of Virginia!).  Oh, and The Husband and I lived in Japan for a year (where our first son Bito was born).  Okay fine.  Approximately 18% of my life has not been in the this area.  Still, 82% of it has been here…I can still call myself a native, right?

Although I’ve lived here forever, seeing it as a SAHM trying to keep her kids entertained has caused me to discover new and different places.  So let me take you on a tour of some of my kids’ favorite attractions in Northern Virginia (henceforth known as NoVA).  Don’t worry, though.  These aren’t places that will make You The Parent want to gouge your eyeballs out.  Well, maybe some of them will.  But at least your kids will be entertained!

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We’ll start at Clemyjontri Park, located in a town in NoVA that also is home to the Super Secret Government Agency (SSGA) that shares its initials with the Culinary Institute of America.

Not only is Clemyjontri a lovely park, it has the most awesome playground ever.  The park is known as a place where every child can play.  The playground is designed for kids with and without disabilities to play side by side…and I have to say, they’ve done a darn good job of making it just a Fun Place.  It’s huge, and has a carousel situated right in the middle of it.

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Next, we travel on the Dulles Toll Road to the western part of NoVA, to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum. It is located in the same town as another SSGA.

Sure, Washington D.C. has the original Air and Space Museum, which is cool and everything.  But before Udvar-Hazy was opened, many of the Smithsonian’s flying artifacts were too large to be  housed in the museum on the Mall.  Now that this ginormous annex is open, there is so much to see, including the Enola Gay, the space shuttle Enterprise, a Concorde…and uh, lots of other flying objects that are big.  And amazing.  What’s especially nice, though, is that the building is really just a hangar…and is great for the kids to run around and enjoy.  There’s a 360 observation tower and an IMAX theatre there as well.

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We now take a short trip over to Cub Run RECenter,a Fairfax County facility that is way cool. It is located in the same town that houses Udvar-Hazy, and the SSGA mentioned above.  Just for fun, here’s more info on that SSGA.

Yes, this leisure pool is cool enough to be mentioned as a NoVA attraction.  It has a 30-foot high slide that goes outside the building!  A 20-foot open indoor slide!  A large, warm jacuzzi-spa for parents to relax in!  A vortex!  A lazy river!  Zero entry pool that leads to a shallow water area!  A curly slide that’s perfect for youngsters!

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Now we hop on the Metro and go somewhere.  Anywhere.  The kids love riding the Metro.
Maybe to Old Town Alexandria.  Old Town is close to Fort Belvoir, which is significant because that’s where New Campus East for yet another SSGA will soon be located.

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Finally, we head a little farther south in NoVA, to Potomac Mills Mall.  It is located north of Quantico, a Marine Corps base, and home to G-Man U.

Po Mills is the only mall where I’ve ever seen tourist buses pull up and hoards of people unload.  Apparently it’s Virginia’s 10th largest tourist attraction, which kind of scares me.  That’s a whole lot of people.  On the flip side, there’s an IKEA there!

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That’s it!  Thanks for coming with me and my kids on this tour of NoVA. I hope you’ve enjoyed these great SSGAs places!  Come back any time…if you have clearance, that is.

Tags: blogtrotting